by Mary Sirico
To say the least Easter was a different experience here!!!! On Palm Sunday, we found out that there would be not service at our church. There is usually about 20 and more than 1/2 were leaving Rome to go to their family home so a dinner together was planned for Wednesday evening before everyone left. I have to say my heart sank when I realized I wouldn’t be with my church family for Easter, but made the decision to go to dinner, embrace that activity and move on to take the opportunity to be with an Italian family in Tuscany for Easter.
Nearly everyone from church came to dinner. The meal was lamb and bitter greens, bread and wine; all with beautiful spiritual significance. Corrado (our pastor) did a beautiful service sharing the significance of each item. Members then read psalms throughout the meal. And we conclude with a special cake “colombo” which is in the shape of a dove in remembrance of the Holy Spirit and the gift of peace. During one of the psalms, I realized that at our table there were believers from Iran, New Zealand, China, Albania, Italy, France, and oh yes, us from America. Tears started to well up with joy as I sensed the strong presence of God among his united believers and I was so thankful to see his hand reaching far and wide. The slightly crowded, slightly old, slightly dirty room just didn’t seem so important as the beauty of the body of Christ shined brightly. As I dried my eyes, I saw the same thing happening in the eyes of the Iranian woman, and the woman from New Zealand.
So filled with God’s presence we went off to Garfagnana, Tuscany with a family of non believers knowing that it would be a different time. We arrived on Friday and had a beautiful time admiring the beauty and presence of God’s handy work in snow covered peaks. The new green of spring in the fields was magnificent. The natural beauty of this area testifies to a God who surely loves beauty. This back drop and the family dinner table became our place of worship as all of the churches in this town of 6600 people were closed with no type of Christian worship on Easter. Sadly no one but Joe and I and this family seemed to notice that worship of Jesus was missing on Easter Sunday; a holiday meant to remember his death and resurrection. I can’t put into words how much this grieved my heart. I was, however, very glad that we were there to share Jesus in some small way as we “broke bread” and had discussions about Jesus, God and religion with a beautiful Italian family around their table this Easter.
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