DONNA Orsuto must have tossed many coins into Rome’s Trevi Fountain for what was originally planned as a 12-month stay has now been over-extended by 32 years.
Unlike other visitors throughout history though, Donna’s time of occupation is adding to the city’s amenity rather than plundering it.
Dr Orsuto will be in Brisbane from July 7-10 as a keynote speaker at the Pray2010 gathering, followed by a series of workshops at Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre, Ormiston, on July 13 and 14.
She wears two hats in the eternal city, the first being a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University where she instructs mostly clergy and members of religious orders in theology and spirituality.
The second is the manifestation of a long cherished dream – as the director of the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas, a role in which she helps with the formation of lay people from around the world whilst they study in Rome.
Coming from an academic background herself, the beautifully spoken Dr Orsuto is very fond of the Foyer Unitas for it provided her own introduction to Rome as a university student more than three decades ago.
“Whilst at Wake Forest University (North Carolina) I had a great privilege to come to Europe for one month to study ecumencial theology,” she said.
“I was the only Catholic in a group headed by our Baptist professor.
“That was also a time for discerning my vocation, so I was spending a lot of time each day in prayer and reflection, never once thinking the future would include Rome as a possibility.
“In Italy we stayed at Foyer Unitas and right before I left Rome, one of the Dutch sisters running it asked my professor when someone from his university was going to come and volunteer for a year?
“My professor didn’t know anything about my discernment process but he said to us both quite spontaneously ‘Donna, this is something you should do’,” she said.
A seed had been planted, and upon completion of her degree Donna quickly took up the offer to work there as a volunteer for 12 months.
It also unearthed a vocation within a vocation, for in the setting up of the Lay Centre her stay has extended for 32 years.
“There are so many things to like about Rome, but first of all I love the history and spirituality associated with the city,” she said.
“I remember once Pope John Paul II met some university students and he simply said to them ‘learn Rome’, in other words you can learn in the classroom but you also need to learn the city by visiting the sites and walking the streets.
“So yes, I love getting in touch with the beauty of the art and spirituality of the city just by visiting the sites and learning about the saints associated with Rome.
“The other big selling point is that Rome is so very international, for example I live with people from 12 different countries.
“Sometimes in my classes at the Gregorian there would be 60 different nationalities represented, so this diversity, the great universality of the Church, is a wonderful learning experience.
“It helps me to broaden my horizons, to see the Church is bigger than my local experience in my own country.”
The topics Donna presents at Pray2010 are all very dear to her, particularly one on praying with the women mystics.
“On April 29, we celebrated the feast of St Catherine of Siena and I think both she and Teresa of Avila have so much to offer us in terms of spirituality, in terms of integrating prayer and action and in learning especially about prayer and opening our hearts up to God’s love.
“Those two, both proclaimed doctors of the Church in 1970, are very important to me and I look forward to exploring some themes in their spirituality with the people in Brisbane.
“Another source of inspiration is Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
“I live in the neighbourhood where she used to stay whilst in Rome and I’ve recently started reading some of her writings.
“As a contemporary woman who had a very deep prayer life and also served the poor, she has a lot to say to women today too, so we will look at her, along with Dorothy Day, Madeline Delbrel and Edith Stein.”
I ask Donna whether the Lay Centre ever seems like a cork on the ocean, being surrounded as it is by the clerical weight of Rome and the Vatican.
She doesn’t hesitate to say she has always felt more support than tension.
“One of the blessings of the last 24 years since starting the Lay Centre has been the tremendous support we have received from people in the local Church, in the Vatican and in religious orders.
“We are a very small organisation, indeed I think of us as a half grain of sand in the diocese of Rome, but that’s fine because you need these small initiatives organised by lay people in the Church.
“When you look at the teaching of Vatican II it is that lay people are called to be a light and leaven in the midst of the world, to embrace our responsibility and really find God in the midst of our everyday work and life.
“In order to do that it’s important for all of us to develop what I would call practices that help us to be more open to God’s presence in our everyday life.
“As Catholics one thing we can do is simply live out our everyday life in the midst of the liturgical year, in other words letting the liturgical year shape our everyday spirituality.
“For example by really entering into the meaning of Advent and Lent or the 50 days of Easter, letting that touch our everyday lives and what we do.
“Secondly, I think lay people are energised by reflecting on the word of God.
“I remember a beautiful text by Gregory the Great, writing to the physician of the emperor around 590 AD.
“He wrote that ‘scripture is God’s letter to you each day and if you were out of town and received a letter from the emperor, you would open it right away and read it. God has written you a letter about your life, are you going to open it?’
“This idea conveys the power of God’s word for our everyday life, that spirituality rooted in lectio divina and daily reflection on the word of God is so important for the lay people.”
This thought brings her back to Mother Teresa again, where on a beautiful Roman spring morning Donna’s preparatory work for Pray2010 unearthed a simple but elegant quote.
“Mother Teresa was talking to a journalist and she said something very beautiful that really struck me.
“The journalist asked Mother Teresa ‘what place do you give to Jesus in your life?’ and she said ‘I give him all the place’.”
To register online for Pray2010 please visit www.pray2010.org.au To learn about her Santa Teresa workshops please visit programs at www.santateresa.org.au
