San Giovanni Eremiti, Palermo, Italy

The photos online drew me in because there were these reddish domes that were pretty.  The architecture, which seemed to me concrete with these domes, was so appealing, so simple, so not mosaic or Baroque or Renaissance.  So Mary and I added it to the our list, taken in by the pictures on the web's Top Fifteen Things to See in Sicily.

When I went to Athens a few years ago on a Thayer trip, I went into a church near our hotel one afternoon just to sit down for a moment, curious.  People were milling about some.  Sitting some.  I sat.  It was peaceful.  I remember thinking, People forever have believed in something and have created places to honor this something.  There is ground set aside for spiritual practice, and there always has been.  The Parthenon was packed when we got there, and I stood amazed there, too.  Greek gods, Roman gods, G-d, God -- humans have always revered some being beyond the reality of life.

There's the grandeur of St. Peter's and the duomos all over Italy with columns and paintings and altars and candles.  But San Giovanni was mostly garden and a couple empty old buildings.  It was one of the calmest places we'd been.  Peaceful.  Open.  Beautiful.  A perfect combination of nature and meditation or prayer space.  I just googled San Giovanni dei Eremiti and saw cloisters, and thought, Oh, right, there were all those small decorative columns around the gardens.  How did I forget that?  But really, I guess what I remember is the feeling of being there and of being surrounded by green outside and empty space inside. 

Yesterday I listened to a podcast interview with a woman (Barbara Brown Taylor -- I didn't know of her, but I found the interview on the Fresh Air podcast) who teaches the world's religions.  She talked about God envy and practice over belief (this may have been my favorite part) and learning one's own religion more by learning other religions.  It's probably too much to share with our kids, but as we force them to come to Sunday mass and say prayers and send them to Catholic school here, I might like to put this on in the background as they play their games and do their puzzles and build their forts or as we drive around.  I want to sign up for this woman's class or another like it.

When I was a kid, I asked my mom one day after school (Catholic), "What if we're doing the wrong religion?"  I was concerned because at school I kept hearing that to get to heaven you had to be Catholic and follow the Commandments and do Catholic right, e.g. go to mass every Sunday, go to Confession sometimes, memorize the Our Father and the Hail Mary.  Or at least that's how I heard it at the time.  My mom said, "As long as you do your best with whatever religion you are, then you'll be fine."

San Giovanni Eremiti felt like it would work for anyone in any religion or for anyone with no religion.  Or more simply, for anyone.