At 5am, my alarm hauls me into another day in the Eternal City. An icon on my bedroom wall of Christ Pantocrator comes into focus. It’s a beautiful piece of Christian art that I’ve managed “to vulch” from a former seminarian (“to vulch” is to lay claim to an item from the vulture box of an exiting confrere). The powerful image reminds me what I am doing in Rome. I am a seminarian at the Pontifical Scots College.
A three-day expedition has been organised from St Matthew’s Cathedral in Salerno to the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Amalfi. The fast train from Roma Termini will depart in the evening. Beforehand, I have a full day at the Pontifical University where I must attend classes on the Holy Trinity, Patrology, History of Theology, followed by a Schola Cantorum rehearsal (choir for sacred music), and finishing off after lunch with a mid-term Koine Greek exam.
