5:05 a.m., curled up in one corner of the bed, covered by several blankets, I calmly sleep. Then, “Christ our King!” echoes through the room and I respond “Your kingdom come!” through my semi-dazed state. One Legionary told me that his first day as a visitor he responded, “Mary our Queen!” Fortunately, a brother told me beforehand. The Oblates use “Benedicamus Domino!” (Let us bless the Lord) and other religious congregations use similar formulas so we set the whole day in God’s hands.
Returning to the story, that ball formerly crumpled on the bed is now standing up and shuffling towards the bathroom. A quick shower, shave, and tooth-brushing are done, and back to my room make my bed and get dressed. Today I made in just enough time for a nice visit to Mary before being in morning prayers at 5:40.
People always laugh when I say on Saturday and Sunday we sleep in to 5:15, but it’s true. We have to get up 10 minutes early during the week so we can still arrive to class at 8:30am. But, wait a second, 5:05 to 8:30 that’s three and a half hours. Here, we can see what differentiates a Legionary from most other people: that’s necessary – not because we are lazy – because we have so much to do. I want to give you all a glimpse of what an average morning for a Legionary looks like. The times will be for here in Rome but it was the same when I was in the States except a little later.
The challenge is only beginning once I get to the chapel at 5:40, but it changes from speed to attention. We have Morning Prayer together in silence, and then we sing the Veni Creator Spiritus (Come Creating Spirit) to invoke the power of the Holy Spirit to help us because the next hour and half are the highpoint of the day but also the most difficult: one hour of private meditation in your room followed by mass. I would encourage everyone to do a little Christian meditation but start with 10 minutes as it is really easy to get distracted when you are doing a whole hour.
After Mass, we have breakfast in silence and help take care of the house for half an hour. The Italians have this thing called colazione which according to any dictionary translates as “breakfast” but a more accurate translation would be “one coffee and one cookie”; fortunately, we have not totally adapted to this Italian tradition. Why silence? Well, we have all just received Jesus in the Eucharist and we are probably better off talking to him than to everyone else at that moment.
Now let’s review the division of time for the three and a half hours: 0:00-0:35 shower, shave, make bed and change; 0:35-0:45 Morning Prayers; 0:45-1:45 Meditation; 1:45-2:20 Mass; 2:20-2:45 Breakfast; 2:45-3:15 clean house; and 3:15-3:25 get to class. Fortunately, we all get to bed rather early so we can do this every day; we aren’t supermen. Now, off to class.
