How can I express the joy that I feel here? I arrived yesterday afternoon in the ancestral home of my great-grandmother in Sepicciano, Piedimonted'Alife. The photo of the portone or great door shows the Onoratelli family coat of arms. Since this photo was taken, the palazzo has been lovingly and carefully restored by my cousin Carlo de Lellis and his wife Nora.
Looking out of my bedroom window I can see the mountains that surround this quiet little village where the campanile of the church, built by my ancestor the Marchese Clemente Onoratelli in 1740 in fulfillment of a vow to Saint Michael the Archangel, rings out the quarter hour.
I spent most of this morning in church, in fact, happy to remain before the tabernacle in this region where so many saints and mystics conversed with Our Lord and said "Yes" to His love. Apart from the countless ancient martyrs and bishops, there are the more recent sons and daughters of this region: Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Saint Alfonso de Liguori, and the soon-to-be Blessed Maria Serafina Micheli who beatification I will be attending tomorrow evening.
Here the Catholic faith is in the air one breathes. It is so much a part of everyday life that life would be inconceivable without it. Wherever one looks the supernatural has left its traces.
This evening I will be offering Holy Mass in the Chiesa San Michele, mindful of all my ancestors who sleep in the crypt below awaiting the resurrection.
Dear Father Mark,
How wonderful you are back (though away)!
Enjoy your vacation (?), and please keep posting whenever you have a moment. And please pray for us here (unable to visit the family in Europe), and little jealous but much, much more happy for you.