Semper Incipit. Always begin. Every beginning, in its rise, draws with it a sense of refreshing renewal, just as the sun climbs the sky each morning, gradually awakening what was once night. This re-energizing motion of starting anew is why we must always begin so that every moment bears this dynamism.
So how does this relate to my first two weeks in Rome? Let me tell you. I find these words appropriate for my first two weeks here because this is how I have felt almost every day I have been here. Each new day, each new church, each new encounter I have had with beauty begins something again within me; the stirrings of a thrilling adventure. There really is a force at work here in this city, but you have to tune your mind and senses to its features in order for it to fully affect you.
St. Peter’s, for example, is an effectively beautiful basilica. With the arms of its colonnade outstretched to embrace, it’s very shape eagerly reaches to greet and welcome its guests. As soon as you set foot within, the semper incipit, “beginning,” feeling sparks and you know that you are home and that you are ready to begin whatever it is that you must do, even though you may not even know what that is. Here’s a little description of St. Peter’s to put this idea of forceful beauty into context.
On the very first Friday of our time here, we left our lovely, warm beds at our little Villa Serenella on the hillside in order to arrive at St. Peter’s for morning mass. Now St. Peter’s is probably the most visited site in Rome, so this early rise is the price you must pay for the surreal peace of St. Peter’s in the morning. It is absolutely worth it. While Rome slept on, we began our day with the embrace of the colonnade, silence on the oft-trodden cobblestones, and an overwhelming feeling of awe. The most common exclamation I heard that morning from my classmates was “I could stay here a very long time. I don’t want to leave. I could live here. Wow.” And every one of these sayings is an attestation to the force of beauty. I’ll explain more in a moment.
After this encounter with St. Peter’s square, we went inside the basilica. More specifically, we went beneath it, deeper into its heart, near the bones of the Peter, the first rock himself. We had morning mass in the crypt. To do this, you go towards the front of the church near its center and there, to your left and right are two sets of spiral staircases that lead you below the church into an underground maze of side chapels and corridors. The serenity of the morning combined with the haze of a day that has not quite yet awoken still remains, but as soon as you walk into St. Peter’s, all you can hear is the mass. Left and right, you see and hear the mass at all different parts: the consecration, the Our Father, the Liturgy of the Word. A multitude of masses which altogether create a masterpiece of Christ, in different languages and tongues; various nationalities drawn together to praise their Creator. Even from the perspective of a non-Catholic the scene is impressive. In the crypt, this remains true as well, there is a low, surging murmur of the mass in different languages; a hymn-like hum of praise and petition. The universality of the Church streams through the walls, the sculptures, the incorrupt bodies of the popes and the mosaic frescoes like an over-pouring fountain.
This the effect of the force of beauty. These very words I write are proof. The incredulous exclamations of my classmates also show us something more. When we encounter a wealth of such authentic beauty, there is great fruitfulness. We want to praise it, we want to remain near it, we want to SHARE it and make it understood and known! It does something to you. It stirs up a desire to change. A desire to emulate what you have just seen. You can’t just turn your back on it without taking its effect with you.
This is the force of beauty.
And it can be found everywhere if you train your eye. Every living person has the gift to be able to see the beautiful, to various degrees, right now in their own lives. You can pass it by or you can semper incipit and receive the renewal that it brings. The choice is yours.
