27September
In spite of my nest intentions, I seem to have got behind hand again. So sorry. Here is a mini version of our adventures. In fact our adventures have not been as exciting as those of another group here, school children, well, 15 or 16, from two Catholic Colleges in USA. These run a senior programme in Franciscan studies and bring them here at the end of the year for a week in Assisi. The week before coming away, one of the girls kicked the football and her Achilles Tendon snapped, extremely painful. Then during the week, another child fell and broke her ankle and two of the staff spent most of the night at Perugia Hospital. Neither child wanted to go home and miss anything, and both hobbled round on crutches which must have been challenging for the team leading it. Fortunately they were six, the. Umber relevant to student numbers that USA schools require. One was the head of the school, an ex military man from Afghanistan who had them all exactly where he wanted them, no nonsense although he was so friendly with them and a nice bloke. But when he said '6.00pm' they were there!!

On Tuesday we had our first visit to San Damiano, for Francis this time, so they were warned not to ask about Clare! San Damiano's new guardian has forbidden any talking in the building so it all has to be done outside before you go in, when it doesn't really make much sense! However we had a lovely Mass with Murray who preached about stones and had earlier given them his wonderful talk a put Troubadours and the Canticle of Creation. After dinner, came some riposo and they had a bit of space until Andre's lecture on the document on solitude, the preferred name for the rule for hermitages. We were scheduled to show the second part of Assisi in World War Two, of which they had seen the first part earlier, but we could not find the dvd. Urgent phone call to Josef in Germany and his son said he would send it by email or YouTube but nothing came through, so they had a free evening. Not a bad thing as they get a lot of input and need some digestion time.

Wednesday  was the day for Cortona and Lake Trasimeno. This follows fro, the talk on solitude which is a preparation for the day when we give them a doggy bag of two panini and two bottles of water and after getting there, send them off in silence for three hours. Getting there means a drive of about an hour i to Tuscany in the rush hour. Then we went to the sanctuary of St Margaret of Cortona for which I had been detailed to do the historical input, starting from knowing nothing! I read a couple of pamphlets and put the talk and people seemed happy. The sister who ran the place were so nice and friendly and know the Poor Clares in Cortona. i would love to have visited them, but there is simply no time as after Mass we bundled back into the coach to go and catch the ferry to the island.

Once on the boat, we watched a nice couple with their black labrador dog, they had to put a muzzle on him to come on the boat and he did not like it. They were near us on the boat, the man was a cabin crew worker and spoke good English though they were Belgian. They clearly loved their dog and said he always went on holidays with them. When we came to leave, some hours later, the man came up in a rush to speak to the captain, then we saw him walk away and join his wife,  but no sign of the dog though his wife was there. He put his arm round her and they hurried off. Clearly they had lost him, perhaps he had rushed off after a pheasant, of which there are lots on the island, though one pilgrim insisted they were peacocks. Alas.  However we will never know if they found their much loved dog, i hope they did. One comfort is that it is an island and another is that they clearly loved him so wont abandon him,  i keep praying to know they have met up but cant see how even God can work that one!

It was lovely on the island though when Francis was there for Lent it may have been a lot tougher. The tradition is that he went on Shrove Tuesday with two loaves and returned on Maundy Thursday with one and a half. I had eaten mine by 2pm!! Apart from the anxiety about the dog, it was a lovely afternoon and clearly had been for all the pilgrims. They all slept on the coach coming back, saturated with sun and solitude! Maybe they were really relaxed too. That evening we changed the schedule and did not have Clare's leaving home ritual but had the transitus from Hollington this year instead. We reckoned they had probably done enough walking! So that brings us up to today and Santa Chiara, but I will leave that for another posting.
Love to one and all ft