13 December is the feast of Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy), which always reminds me of my good friend Colleen, in part because of her devotion to her confirmation patron and in part because one of my favorite pictures we took during our ND graduation festivities is Colleen with a garland tiara reminiscent of those worn with candles on St. Lucy’s feast. Pity it’s in a box at home somewhere, or I’d post it up here for you to see!

In Rome, we also celebrated Donna’s birthday (which one, we don’t know, but we celebrated anyway). Professora Donna Orsuto founded the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas more than 20 years ago to begin to meet the obvious need for a house of formation for all the non-ordained, non-religious studying at the Pontifical universities in Rome. Sunday lunch, a few friends and visitors, and a couple surprise gifts to honor our founder all came together beautifully.

A small group of us, lead by our resident Renaissance man David, wanted to serenade the birthday girl, but realized that several would not be present due to previous commitments. After two or three horus of plotting, practicing, and dragooning volunteers from their bedrooms the night before the party, we put together a little video that we played for Donna just before lunch.

To get out of singing (or pretending to sing) I volunteered to film the song using my built-in webcam and laptop for recording and special effects – so forgive the sound quality: