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Spiritual reflection with Ronnie Convery, Director of Communications for the Catholic Archdiocese of Glasgow

Script:
Hello and good morning to you.
As I was scrolling pictures on my phone the other day it struck me that around this time last year I was in Italy. You may not know – in fact you’re very likely not to know unless you were born and bred in Lombardy – that December the 7th (this coming Sunday) is the Feast of St Ambrose who is the patron saint of Milan. On the big day, the city celebrates its patron, yes, with special religious services but also with great secular style.

The opening night of La Scala Opera House’s season is always marked on the feast of St Ambrose and the city is awash with glamour as the big fashion houses dress the stars of stage and screen.
The city is buzzing … and even if the expression of the celebration is secular, people know the ultimate reason is religious.
The next day, December the 8th, is another big Italian religious holyday - the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This time attention shifts to Rome when, traditionally, crowds gather near the Spanish steps in Rome to watch the Pope hand a floral wreath to a fireman who goes up in a turntable ladder to place the flowers over the arm of the Madonna, who’s on a statue a few hundred feet up. Great theatre you might say … and indeed it is.

But there is a lesson in it. And that is that faith and joy and everyday life can all fit together rather well! Both these celebrations show how religion in Italy is often lived with joy and naturalness, rather than as a heavy burden to be endured.

Today maybe our prayer might be that we might learn to live our faith or culture with joy and naturalness, sharing its sights and sounds with all, rather than seeing it as a secret compact between ourselves and a faraway and somewhat grumpy old God. Amen.