As I walked into the breakfast room this morning, the other American in the community gave me the standard festive greeting in Italian, 'Buona festa!'
Grasping about in the dimness of my consciousness, the first thing I thought of was not Thanksgiving, but the feast of St. James of the Marches.
Indeed, I'm a little scandalized that we are not observing St. James today, who for reasons I couldn't possibly fathom comes to us as an optional memorial. But I guess one must admit a diversity of opinion regarding who may consider himself a proper heir of the Observant reform.
St. James, pray for us! And a blessed Thanksgiving to everyone at home.
4 comments:
Dear Brother Charles,
Four years ago on the occasion of Thanksgiving you had posted excerpts from a recording of Charles Laughton's one-man show, and wondered where the full recording might be found. In case you might not have located it since then, it is at the Internet Archive: The Storyteller. They have also others of Mr. Laughton's readings from the Bible: Readings from the Bible. And his Christmas reading: Mr. Pickwick's Christmas. While you're there, you might enjoy a listen to his sometime co-star Agnes Moorehead's recording of the psalms: The Psalms of David.
Happy Thanksgiving one day late. :o)
Thanks for the comment and the links!
Buona festa indeed! This comment is a little late in coming, but I happened to be in Rome during the last week of November and at one point (the whole week was so full of such goodness as to become a haze) I though of you and prayed for you in one of the basilicas (quite possibly Santi Apostoli?) because from your twitter/blog of course I knew you were somewhere in the area and indeed more an expat than I was for such a brief time!
I was grateful to celebrate a true day of Thanksgiving at the NAC with many good priest and seminarian friends and honestly at one point in the early evening realized 'ah yes, we're still in Italy' because it was such an odd slice of the US.
God bless you and I hope the season of Advent is richly blessed!
Thanks for your prayers!
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