Day 3 Lay Marists in Rome

Day 3 in Rome.  The last two days have been challenging, thought-provoking, and fun.  As Luis mentioned in his post, Wednesday’s topic was the role of the laity in the church today and how that applies to us as Lay Marists.  I was struck by Claudio’s example of the feeding of the five thousand with 5 loaves and 2 small fish.  So often, we concern ourselves with fears regarding our sometimes limited resources and the struggles we undergo to develop them.  Claudio reminded us that the disciples would have put a lot of time into catching the fish and baking the loaves, yet all of their work seemed not to have been enough to feed the people.  He pointed out that Jesus didn’t focus on the resources; instead he looked at the needs of the people and, though his grace, the needs were abundantly met.  A good reminder for all of us in the current realities of our schools.

After a long day, we headed out after dinner to the neighborhood gelateria.  At first it was just Luis and me, but by the end there were at least 30 of us at the shop, enjoying the lovely evening and good company.  Although there are many languages spoken in the group, we all seem to manage somehow.  It’s interesting that Spanish seems to be the unifying language – so I’m getting in a lot of good practice!

Outside of the large sessions, we have smaller group discussion as well as dialogues with another participant for a different region.  My partner is Ruth Hihiru of the Solomon Islands.  We have found that, although our lives and work situations are quite different, we have much in common, including our love of flowers, shopping, and a good laugh.  Here is a picture of us on our evening stroll through a nearby park.

This morning we enjoyed a wonderful presentation by the Superior General of the Marist Brothers, Brother Emili. With him, we traced the history of lay people in collaboration with the Brothers and dreamed a bit about the future.  So much to think about and so much to be excited about!