Vin Santo

December 31, 2019December 31, 2019 / Bill Schulz / Leave a comment

that New Year’s Eve
we stood on the hill
above the vineyard

watching fireworks
rise above the lake
from Pieve to Anghiari

later in the stillness
of the barn the cat chasing
our shadows on the wall

a moment so full
if today we could talk
we’d agree we had no better

earlier at the bar in Caprese
Michelangelo we couldn’t decide
what to drink to the new year

vin santo an old man said
holding up his glass
certo vin santo

Photo: Casa Singerna, Caprese Michelangelo, IT – January 2005 – J. Dewaters

Roma

December 23, 2019December 23, 2019 / Bill Schulz / Leave a comment

photo: Rome, January 2005

Assisi

December 18, 2019 / Bill Schulz / Leave a comment

Photo: Assisi, Italy – January 2005

Christmas in Assisi

December 17, 2019 / Bill Schulz / Leave a comment

No photo description available.
Auguri!

Photo: Assisi, Italy – December 2005

Prego – Ingrid Wendt

November 28, 2019 / Bill Schulz / Leave a comment

Ask for something, Per
favore, please, the answer is
Prego. Please.

Thank you, Grazie, thank you,
you say. Instead of you’re welcome?
Prego. The answer is please.

Prego, listen, here in Italy, every
time you think you’re polite, this lift
of the verbal eyebrow, this rise

and fall of the voice like a hand
on its way to your shoulder, insistent
lifeline picking you up,

letting you go
again. No problem! Prego
pulls up the covers and tucks you in.

Cape of Saint Martin. Communion
wafer on each Italian tongue. Prego.
Please, Prego, I pray to you,

Prego, don’t
worry. Let me
do something for you.

(Photo: Assisi, 2002)

The Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

October 4, 2019 / Bill Schulz / Leave a comment

From “The Life of St. Francis:”

At the hour of the passing of the holy man, the larks – birds that love the light, and dread the shades of twilight – flocked in great numbers unto the roof of the house, albeit the shades of night were then falling, and wheeling around it for a long while with songs even gladder than their wont, offered their witness, alike gracious and manifest, unto the glory of the Saint, who had been wont to call them unto the divine praises.

Pace e bene to us all.

Franciscan Feast of The Stigmata

September 17, 2019September 17, 2019 / Bill Schulz / Leave a comment

Today Franciscans around the world celebrate the Feast of the Stigmata, remembering the wounds of Christ imprinted on the body of St. Francis. The event is symbolic of Francis’s life. He suffered greatly and was profoundly misunderstood but his unwavering commitment to a God of unconditional love marked his life. Saints are not made in stain-glass windows. They are forged in the fires of rejection, displacement, perseverance and darkness because God is being born within. To live in Christ is to bear the weight of the world in evolution.