Loyola University New Orleans Summer 2011 Italy Study Abroad

Because sometimes, you're not sure about your life or your choices, so you up and take a month-long trip to Italy. Your Roman history is rusty. Your Catholic history is rusty. Your Italian is nearly non-existant. This trip is half-academic, half-pilgrimage, and nothing's certain. But sometimes, you jump off a cliff and hope you land on something soft. Or at least see something pretty on the way down.
Showing posts with label biblical literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biblical literature. Show all posts

Friday, July 29, 2011

The June 21 Blog

I only went to one place, and it made me feel kind of not adequate, but I really wanted to see Maria Trastevere before i left Rome, so I trekked there today. It took me a while to find, and my directions that I typed into my iPhone were kind of hilarious.

Left fork
Third left, left fork
Bird
Cross river, straight

^ :D

The church was beautiful. There was a statue of St. Anthony of Padua, and everyone had left intentions there. They'd also left them in the chapel up front. I'm not sure if I can describe why I like the church so much. It just felt like a good place to be, and I really like Trastevere.



This class really taught me a lot of stuff about the Bible that I didn't know. Granted, I don't really read the Bible, and I never really thought about it as literature before because the though never crossed my mind. But of course it is. The patron-client relationship and the slave-master relationships are really relevant. And the manager as the go-between. Relationships that seem cruel, like beating the slave and such--that was just business. And the patron trusted the manager to manage his affairs and with the slaves. There was a very rigid hierarchy of trust that you didn't mess with. I didn't realize how...rigid that was until now, I guess. And freed slaves immediately became their master's clients. It was cool.

Tomorrow--papal audience!