On our first day going to the IES (school) building, we both were not expecting much. We were concerned about how good our classes might be, what kind of classmates we might have, and in general, were feeling a bit jaded going into our fifth year of college.
On our hour walk to school, we have a ten minute walk through a park, then around a half-hour going down a busy street, then we walk along the Vatican walls to St. Peter's Square, walk down the street from St. Peter's to the Castel Sant'Angelo, walk across a bridge built under the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and arrive at school.
This first morning, Beth -as she's done so many times since- reminded me that we should take time to pray. We prayed the Angelus walking through the park, and afterwards asked for an awareness of something more throughout the day. We had been thinking fairly negatively about school, and the start of the program, and we felt like that wasn't the way to start out a semester in Rome. So we prayed for God's blessing, to open our eyes to His presence throughout the day.
As happens so frequently, we forgot about that desire for more, and throughout the day were disheartened by the people in the program. At the end of the first orientation day there was one last talk on how we were supposed to apply for our permits to stay in Italy, and Beth and I were dispirited. We hadn't realized our own failure at that point, we just weren't feeling good about things in general. There was an empty chair next to Beth in the lecture hall, and ten minutes into the talk a blonde haired girl came in and sat down next to Beth. During a break in the talk, we had a chance to chat with her, and after introductions and talking about majors and all of that, we slowly came to realize that this girl, Tess, was really interesting. She told Beth that her name was actually Anastassia, and Beth asked if it wa
s after the Saint. Yes it was, and, as came out in the rest of the conversation, Tess is a practicing Catholic and was hoping that she could make it to daily Mass right after the meeting.Tess is from South Bend, Indiana, and goes to Indiana University. Her boyfriend, Bob, goes to Wabash College, and is also here in Rome for the fall semester, studying Greek and Latin. Tess is living with her sister, who is here in Rome studying Canon Law, and Bob is at an intensive Duke University program, living at the school. We've gotten together with them many times already, and are growing to be good friends. There is no question that our prayers on that first day were answered. Even though we had forgotten what we asked for during our walk in the park that morning, God has blessed us so much with the joy and companionship of two good friends, Bob and Tess.
And Tess told us a few days ago that when she left school on that first day and told Bob about meeting us, he exclaimed, "It's the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit!"
I think Bob's right.
