In August of 2009 I had the good fortune to travel to the Abruzzo region of central Italy to celebrate my second cousin’s First Communion. My family has deep roots in this area. My father was born there, and my mother’s family originates from a neighboring mountaintop community. The ceremony was conducted at the remarkable former abbey church of San Giovanni in Venere (Saint John in Venus, founded upon an ancient Roman temple to Venus, as was often the case for Benedictine fo