The Nuns of Italy

I remember a hot summer day in Rome. My family and I were traveling to the Christian catacombs on the outskirts of the city, boarding underground transportation and public buses to make our way through the baking, dusty streets. Nearing the end of our journey, we crossed a stone Piazza, framed by buildings painted in rich, warm tones. Birds flew from the uneven cobblestones around the spire of the Piazza’s tall church. This was the epitome of picturesque Italy.

We caught the last bus that would take us to the catacombs, all of us climbing on board and fanning out to claim any available seats. As I rode from my chair in the back corner, I suddenly noticed two nuns settled in the middle of the bus. Their dresses were long and a lovely pale blue, all traces of their hair gathered under a clean and traditional headscarf. One was gazing thoughtfully out the window at the baking streets of Rome. She was beautiful and young, her face serene and open. I became mesmerized with what could be the content of her thoughts.



What does a nun ponder? When she looks out at the world of families, universities, theatres, music, and fashion what does she see, what does she feel? Stripped of all the trappings of the every-day lives of common human beings, what thoughts must weave their way through her consecrated heart and mind?

How simple and majestic she looked as we wound through the streets of Rome, a city alive with passion, love, art, and fashion. What conclusions and depths can the human heart reach when all it endeavors to discover is God? What exquisite and quiet thoughts come to such a simple life, a selfless and holy life?

In just a few short stops the two nuns exited the bus together, two quiet angels as their white headscarves began to make their way across another piazza.



What a blessed gift it could be, I thought, to take a slice of one’s life and live in such a way. An existence shared by God and the human heart. As I watched the retreating figures of these women, I knew that I could never remove myself from the joys and purposes of life as they had. However, I also held sheer admiration and love for the magnificent schooling of their hearts and souls, for the clear refinement that their dedicated life had proffered them.

I felt a desire to experience something similar in my own life.