Just Waiting...

After a quick scan over the past entries of the past weeks or so, it is apparent to me that most of them center around the topic of finishing my course here in Rome and to look towards the coming day when I will finally leave this place for Singapore.

Being in a place like Rome where the word inefficient and stupidity is its definitive emblem, heading back to a place like Singapore, where everything works, evokes a great sense of relief and the realization that much have been take for granted back there. You don't really know what you are really missing till you leave your own country, even if for a while. However, that doesn't mean that I did not gain anything worthwhile from my tour of duty in Rome.

One, is my further deepening and appreciation of my faith and of the Church that stands today. I don't mean the buildings and grand views of the Vatican and the churches here. I mean the truth, beauty and goodness that permeates our Catholic faith in its power to transform and transcend all that we know of, in preparing us to encounter the Divine. This is, of course, coming from my studies here in Spirituality and its related courses at the Angelicum, where I have been studying for a good part of my two-year stay here.

Second, I have gained much insight into the lives of the people from other countries through the presence of the various priests here in this Collegio, priests that come from Africa, Asia, Oceania, South America and Eastern Europe. A little of their culture and mindset can be gleaned from this interaction especially during games, Collegio formal functions, get-togethers and even at Masses which we celebrate daily. Indeed, it is a potpourri of faces and skin color that heightens the sight to the variety and types of nationalities that are living under one roof of this Collegio.

Lastly, I have learned to be a little more patience with the world with all its nonsense, and after staying here in Rome for awhile, I think ... nay... believe, I can survive anywhere else!

So, while the days get closer to the departure date, I am not shedding any crocodile tears over Rome, for I will gladly bid it a happy, relief and vociferous Arriverdeci!

(pic - street portrait painter, taken in Florence)