So there I was, your nice-Jewish-girl blogger, sitting in the Immaculata Hall among all these Franciscan friars and a smattering of nuns.
I came to St. Saviour's Monastery curious to see the inauguration of the new premises of the archives of the Custody of the Holy Land.
The morning of lectures began at 8:30. You can see the topics here in the online invitation; but don't let the English fool you (as it did me)--the lectures were all in Italian.
We browsed the exhibition "Books of the Holy Land. A journey among the ancient books of the General Library of the Holy Land Custody in Jerusalem."
I like what the Custos, Father Custos Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said about all the work that had been invested in this project:
"It is necessary to focus our identity, to have a clear perception of reality, to be capable of having a vision, to give ourselves perspective," because "in books, in documents, in the archives, — that is, in our history — is our future."
See a short Franciscan Media Center video about the library and its inauguration.
Or a slideshow of the place and some of the beautiful old books at the official website http://bibliothecaterraesanctae.org/.
And about "culture at the forefront."
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(A post for ABC Wednesday: I is for Italian and inauguration.)
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Love the "history of our future" as it's a propos to the election of the new pope. I'm not Catholic, but am intrigued by the entire process. Hope you have a great week,
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abcw team
always good to experience a little out of one's comfort zone!
ReplyDeleteROG, ABC Wednesday team
Well, first of all, my American sense of humor is quite taken with the Custos' name. Second, I would love to get so close to those old books and turn the pages. They certainly seem to garner plenty of attention from the attendees.
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ReplyDeleteAs always, you have something extremely INTERESTING! What will today bring?
In history is our future...
ReplyDeleteThat's true. The other day somebody complained about the fact that the children in the Netherlands don't learn the history of our country. There are even young people who never heard of the colonial past of the Netherlands. ( I am not proud of it, but it left its traces every where in literature, art , buildings, music... So history is important to shape a country, to learn the lessons of the past.
Aren't they all looking forward to the new boss? I mean the earthly one...
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun opportunity for foreign "travel" within your own country- you got the unfamiliar language bit, a culture that was somewhat foreign to you, and the chance to learn from historical "landmarks" of learning in the community. It sounds like it was an amazing eye and ear-opening experience!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Thinking because it was written about in English that it would be in English and having it be in Italian would have thrown me for a loop too. Yay for being such a good sport!
Very interesting post and I like the pictures. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall:-)
ReplyDeleteThe Franciscan friars will be delighted to have one of them chosen as pope.
ReplyDeleteWil, Pope Francesco is a Jesuit and he took a Franciscan name. Good for him!
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