June 19, 2012

Some Rules of Italian Capuchin Life

If you are young in religion or old in religion, you must wear the traditional Capuchin beard. If you are in the middle, you don't have to.

You may either wear the habit almost all the time or almost never, but not in between.

If you wear the habit, you should also probably carry a rosary on it, though it's not absolutely required. If you do, it must be a five-decade Dominican rosary; the Franciscan Crown pertains to other branches of the Order, thank you very much.

There is no such thing as laundering something without also ironing it. That goes for everything.

When it's not so hot outside, it's important to keep all the windows closed so that the house can stay warm. When it gets really hot out, the windows have to be opened to make sure it can be hot inside as well.

If you don't like what you are given to eat at lunch, you will probably have a chance to repent of your pickiness when you get it again for supper.

The food groups are the following, in descending order of predominance: fruit, wine, pasta, bread, cooked meat, vegetables, crackers and biscuits, Nutella, ice cream, cheese, cured meat, liquors in unmarked bottles with sinister and creepy looking roots in them.

Coffee is mostly an ingredient, but you can have it by itself if you want.

7 comments:

Tom said...

Still laughing! Having been to Italy twice on trips I can recognise these idiosyncrasies! I could add that breakfasts must be small so that you are truly hungry when the late dinner arrives and mosquito netting is optional.

Myself and two other friars will be in Assisi for two weeks in early August so if you're still there we could take you out for a proper meal!

Sarah said...

OH my goodness...I remember on the flight back from Rome several years ago, the airplane cabin became overheated due to delayed takeoff. It must've been 80 degrees in there! The Italian lady next to me kept signalling the stewardess to "turn air off", and she proceeded to wrap herself in her long scarf, put on her overcoat and cover everything except her mouth to breath with. Italian's definitely have a 'thing' with fresh air...

Brother Charles said...

@Br. Tom: I look forward to it!

Your Friend Aaron said...

'Crepes Alla Nutella' from a cart down by the Portiuncola. Very exciting, as it combines two of the things you've mentioned here:

a) Nutella and 2) Ironing.

You should try one of these.

Brother Charles said...

Ha!

-Lou (Louis) said...

@ Aaron

hahahahahahaha :D

Fra Lorenzo said...

Ahhahaahaha..... The one about the beard is more than true. Now, I don't really know if it means that middle age Friars don't like wearing bear or that the youngest and the oldest ones don't like their own faces.

Fra Lorenzo