Rome life.

Hello again! I'm wayyy behind in my updates (maybe like 2 months), so here's a little attempt at a catch up. Again, just pulling out random events and ideas.

A few weeks ago during compassion service, we had a few amazing encounters. First, we met an old woman named Maria who was begging for money outside of one of the main basilicas. She told us that she had a lot of pain in her shoulder, and the next instant my service partner Adela was down on the ground massaging her shoulder. Without knowing her, without hesitating at all. This really struck me.

We next met a woman named Maria Ana. She had come from Spain and had only been in Rome for a few weeks. After speaking with her for a few minutes, she confided to us that her husband had beat her for 30 years, and that it had been getting worse and worse. Her children, who are all grown up, told her that she needed to leave and flee for her own safety. So she came to Rome, hoping to find work, but as of yet had found nothing, and had to resort to begging for money. She was so touched that we had stopped to talk with her, and she was eager to pray with us.

Another encounter was with a man from England named Chrissy. I had met him maybe 2 or 3 times before throughout the year, but the last time I had seen him was in January. Since our last meeting, all of his belongings had been stolen. This is really common among the homeless. Almost every person we've met has had their possessions and money stolen at least once. He was planning on heading back to England, but now he had no money. Even his Bible, which someone had given him, was stolen. I had remembered him as being a really joyful person, but now he was completely despairing. He felt as if he could trust no one, and that there was no point to even try to own anything, for it would only be stolen. He told us that, several times, people had offered him a drink, whether they be "friends" or strangers looking to do a good deed, but that the drink had be drugged so that he passed out and woke up with his things stolen. We talked with him for a long time, and offered him some food and coffee. I didn't realize it until later, but he actually accepted the coffee we gave him. After the stories he had told us of drugged drinks, and the countless times he expressed that he could no longer trust anyone, he trusted us. Again, complete strangers, who a few times had showed him love and kindness. I think in that moment we might have been the only people in the world he felt he could trust. He trusted an almost complete stranger, just because he had been shown a drop of love. Blessed Mother Teresa can put it better than I can: "Let us not forget, that sick person, that alcoholic, that thief, are my brothers and sisters. It is possible that they find themselves abandoned in the street because no one gave them love and understanding. You and I could be in their place if we had not received love and understanding from other human beings."

Also a few weeks ago during street evangelization in St. Peter's Square, I met a girl from Taiwan. She was visiting Rome on vacation with her friends. I got talking with her, and in the end asked if she had any special intentions that I could pray for, for herself or anyone she knew. She said she didn't, but she just stood there looking confused and almost flaberghasted. I said goodbye and began to walk away, and she just kind of stood there watching me, with a huge smile on her face. I'll never forget that look. Something so simple, and she was so shocked and happy!

In this theme, we were walking in the train station one day and an Asian lady was having a really hard time lugging her big suitcase up the many flights of stairs. So I simply grabbed it and carried it up the stairs for her. I swear her jaw almost hit the floor. Afterward, she kept looking back and thanking me, over and over. I don't tell any of these stories to try to boast of my great accomplishments, for they're definitely not great in any way - in fact they're pretty much the smallest, easiest things I could do, often times almost seemingly insignificant. Many people do things that are 100 times bigger and greater. But I just share them to show that God can really work through the smallest things if they're done in love.

Last month we got to travel to Napoli (Naples) to help lead a parish mission for a weekend. We left early on Saturday morning and made the two hour drive past some beautiful snowcapped mountains, arriving in Napoli for breakfast. Immediately when we arrived at the church, we went to a nearby school (in a lot of place in Italy they go to school on Saturday mornings...awful) and got to put on a little event for 200 kids for an hour or so. It was so much fun. We sang and danced, gave a few talks, had the kids put on a skit, and then had a time of prayer. After this, we went back to the church to meet our host families. I was staying with a couple and their 25 year old son. We went back to their house and had one of the biggest, most amazing meals I've ever had in my life. Seven courses, with appetizers, pasta, meat, vegetables, desert, alcohol, and then coffee. Whoa. I dragged myself out of their house and we all met up in the main square. About 200 people from the town came out to join us, we there was more music and a few talks. After this, we brought the World Youth Day cross out and began a procession of the Way of the Cross through the city. By now, there were probably at least 400 people in the procession, and as we went, people came out from their homes and their cars to join us. We traveled through the city and back to the church as the sun set.

         When we arrived back at the church, they had a huge dinner ready for us. A bunch of people from the parish had cooked traditional Napolitan food, and they basically forced us to try each plate. After that lunch, I didn't even want to look at food. I think it was only by the grace of God that I didn't explode after dinner.

          In the evening, we had what's called a "mercy night," which includes song, prayer, testimonies, videos, skits, etc. I played the piano, and, as it often turns out, I made many gruesome mistakes. At one point, the lady leading the music cut all the singing and other instruments, so I was stuck doing a solo. I got nervous and just failed miserably. So embarrassing. I was thinking, ok this lady now knows I'm awful and will never ask me to do a solo again. Thank God. But a few minutes later, she did the same thing, cutting the other instruments. This time a did better, with only minor mistakes. But it didn't even matter how well I did, I was just in shock that she trusted me and was willing to give me a second chance. If I were her, I would have made all the instruments play louder to drown out the awful piano player. After that, I started doing better and better.

         The next morning, we had an hour with young kids. We played games and taught them songs and dances. We did a skit of the Good Shepherd, modern style. I was the lost sheep, and I got to run away from the flock and go clubbing. Dancing around as a rebel sheep to party music was definitely a highlight of the weekend. Later, we met with the teens of the parish. They were super cool, and we talked to them about what we do in Rome. Next was mass with the Bishop. His homily was soooo long. Like 45 minutes. It was interesting, don't get me wrong, but realllly long. There were so many people there that I was forced to stand along the side of the church near the front, and as I scanned the congregation, I was amazed to see that every face was rapt with attention. It was like the people were thirsty for these words, soaking up everything their bishop had to say to them.

         Following this, our work at the parish was finished, and they organized a lunch to thank us. If I had thought lunch the day before was big.....step aside. After the first few courses, I was sure the food was done, and I was quite happy about that, for I felt semi-close to death. When they brought out more heaping plates of food, we all just broke out into laughter. It was truly absurd. I'm really not sure how Italians are not all 700 pounds. More and more eating. Three deserts. We tried to leave, but they freaked out because we hadn't had coffee yet. God forbid. Throughout this whole 3 hour affair, all the Italian families were singing at the top of their lungs, yelling, doing the wave - it was like the most stereotypical Italian family in any movie you've seen. Times 50. When we eventually tried to leave, they actually set up a barrier in the road and started doing strike chants.

        It was a really amazing weekend. At our mission in London, we planned for weeks and weeks, and I think our biggest event had about 80 people come. In Naples, we threw everything together last minute, and had hundreds and hundreds of people come! The people at this parish church were some of the friendliest, most loving (albeit a bit crazy) people I've ever met. They welcomed us in as if we were their own children, and I felt like I was with family the whole weekend. Afterward, we heard many stories of people who came back to the Church because of the mission there, and already several other parishes in the area are trying to get us to come do missions at their churches. Praise the Lord!

One weekend is fondly remembered by us students as "party weekend." Literally, all we did was have parties. Friday was the 28th anniversary of John Paul II establishing the Centro San Lorenzo for the youth of the world, so we had a big party there. Saturday was the feast of St. Joseph, so we had a huge lunch, and in the evening we had a murder mystery, where everyone dressed up in costumes and had to take on a certain character. People were "murdered" throughout the night, and in the end we had to guess who the murderers were. It was hilarious to see everyone in ridiculous clothing, speaking in crazy accents, and randomly getting killed. We concluded the night with a dance party outside on the balcony. Sunday we celebrated Lucy's birthday with an English tea party, and then in the evening we had Egyptian night, where everyone got dressed up like Egyptians, and Shaheer cooked us food and told us about his country. Let me tell you, it can be exhausting to party that much! I promise, partying is not all we do. We actually do a ton of work, regardless of how it may sound ;)

I've never lived in a city before, I live in a decently rural area back home, so sometimes it's hard being in the city all the time. One day in particular, I was feeling really trapped, so I just set out to walk around. I ended up somewhere I've never been before, and I saw a little park, so I went in. A path was leading in to some trees, and I took it. It went down a huge hill, and before I knew it, I was in the middle of some random forest with a little stream running through it. I couldn't see a single building, or hear a single car. I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere! The path broke off in to a multitude of directions and formed a little labyrinth through the woods. I got so excited, and just ran through the trees, trying as hard as I could to get lost for as long as possible. I came out in to a massive field and just walked around for hours. It was so strange; I have no idea how I found the place, and it was just perfect. I could have been in the heart of America for all I knew. God is good.

One last quick reflection. I was reading the book "Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a' Kepmis, and one line really struck me: "If we were to perfect one fault each year, we would soon be perfect." It really got me thinking about it, and I think it's true. If we really try to focus on our little faults, whether it be impatience, or judging others, etc, and work hard to rid ourselves of it, we could soon be pretty sweet people. God, help us!

K, that's about it, til next time. God bless! Please pray for me.

Eric

Springtime in Rome

Easter is quickly approaching, and springtime has arrived in Rome. But let's delve back in to the depths of winter, where it was a frigid 50 degrees. I know, rough, right?

After Valentine's day, we traveled to Paray Le'Monial, France, the same place we went right after Christmas. There are 4 Emmanuel School's of Mission: ours in Rome, one in Altottling, Germany, one in Manila, Phillipines, and one in Paray in France, as well as a seminary in Belgium. We all came together for a retreat, and then helped lead a gathering of about 1,500 youth. On the way to Paray, we stopped in Ars, a small French village where St. John Vianney was stationed as a parish priest. He was known to be very dense, to put it nicely, and barely passed his exams for the priesthood. For this reason, the bishop sent him to this tiny village, where he couldn't do too much harm. Quickly, he became famous for his holiness, and people from all over Europe would come to hear him speak. He would hear confessions for up to 18 hours a day! We were able to pray at his tomb in the basilica. His body is incorrupt. He died in 1859, and his body was exhumed in 1904 and it was found to be perfectly preserved, with no decay. His body has remained intact until this day, a physical sign of his holiness and the power of God.

We arrived in Paray and met all the different schools. They're all so different from us! It was hard to communicate with all the language barriers, but we managed to build friendships nonetheless. During our retreat, I really wanted to discover in a deeper way what God's love really is. Ya, ya, ya, we hear that God loves us all the time, but what does that really mean? Through various talks and a lot of prayer, I realized something that was very important for me. I was waiting for God to give me some huge revelation of His Love, where it would just hit me and I would be so overcome by it that it would just have to overflow back to Him and to my neighbor. This isn't what He had in mind. He showed me that, in order to understand His love, I first have to live it. This seemed completely contradictory to me. How can I live it if I have no idea what it is?! But I think it's true - the more we love others, the more we serve them and give ourselves to them, the happier and more fulfilled we are. This shows us that we are made to love, and that love is a gift of self to others. When we're happy and fulfilled, it's so much easier to love. So, if I first just try to live love, then I will understand it more and more, and it will be easier and easier to continue to do it and grow deeper in it. The most concrete way I can do this is by really reflecting on the life of Jesus, seeing how He loved, and trying to imitate Him to the best of my ability. So I guess God was right all along, even if it seemed contradictory to me.

The retreat ended, and 1,500 young people from across Europe arrived. Whoa. It was really amazing to see so many people coming from all over, all for the same reason. And it's really inspiring to see so many young people who are seeking for truth, who want to know God and come close to Him. Our school was in charge of various tasks, including the music, logistics, security, food, some of the entertainment, etc. I had never been a part of putting on something this big before, and it was really cool.

Our last night there, after all the other people had left, we had a big feast with all the schools, and, as we love to do, had a night of music and dancing. We went to bed around midnight, and had to get up again at 2:30am to leave. Definitely the earliest breakfast I've ever had. And they had this incredible stuff that's like peanut butter, but tastes like liquid Teddie Grahams. Beyond amazing :) After a 2 hour car ride to the airport, and another 2 hours waiting in lines, etc. we got on our plane. I couldn't stay awake to save my life, which was fine because it saved me from the terror I would have experienced if fully conscious. The plane kept hitting so many air pockets, and then when we went to land, the pilot decided at the last minute that he wanted to go for a little joy ride and pulled back up. I kept waking up as we were bumping along, and I figured, ya, we'll probably die, but I don't really care, I just want to go back to sleep. But, as you can see, we didn't die. After landing, we had another hour bus ride back home. I was so slap happy, that I was laughing hysterically at every single thing. I saw a sign for a hotel called "Acqua Santa," which means "holy water" in Italian, but I kept picturing Santa Claus in a bathing suit swimming and running around, and I lost it. I'm pretty positive the people on the bus thought I was crazy or drunk. Oh well!

There was in international pro-life conference held in the Vatican by the Pontifical Counsel for Life. We were invited, but really knew nothing about it. So we arrived at the designated address, and were told by the guard that we were supposed to have called to get our names on a list, and that we needed special badges. So typically Italian. Overly bureaucratic in everything. The guard randomly left. So we all said a prayer, and decided to knock on the door to the conference, just in case. As we knocked, a priest was on his way out at the same time. He informed us that, in fact, the conference we being held within the Vatican walls, so everyone was there, but if we didn't have badges it would be impossible to get in. Slightly dejected, but determined not to give up, we made our way to the Vatican, with no idea how we were going to get inside. The Swiss Guard were blocking the entrance, so again we said a prayer and then walked up to them, trying our best to act like we knew what we were doing. "Hi, we're here for the pro-life conference." "Do you have the required badges?" "Well, no, but, ya, uh, you see, we, um, were invited yesterday, and didn't know we needed them, so...." The massive guard, in his ridiculous outfit that resembles some psychedelic pajamas, looked down at us. "No, no, no," he said. We all thought our chances were shot. But then..."You see that door right there? That's the entrance. You can go in." What?! The Swiss Guard just let a bunch of t-shirt clad youngsters in to one of the special entrances to the Vatican. I began to see a trend here - say a prayer, get exactly what you want. So, we made our way in to the huge building that houses the auditorium in the Vatican.  Immediately, several guards met us to ask why we were there. We told them, and of course, the first question: "Do you have the badges?" Again with the darn badges?! We broke to them the sad news that we unfortunately did not. But we asked, semi-desperately if there were any way that they could let us in. They had to step away to "deliberate." So we all huddled up to say another prayer. A few moments later they returned, and began to question us incessantly. Our chances weren't looking good. But, just when we began to lose hope, who walked through the door but the very woman who had invited us! She was giving one of the talks at the conference, and she was running very late. We sprinted over to her and explained our situation. "Oh, they're with me. Come on guys!" The guards stood there looking puzzled as we walked past them, semi-gloatingly, in to the conference. The talks were amazing, and we had so much fun. There were leaders in the pro-life movement from all over the world! America was definitely the best represented country, as we have indisputably the strongest pro-life movement. I was so proud.

After the first session of talks there was a time of "light refreshments," which turned out to be amazing Italian coffee, cookies, tons of different cakes, etc. Us poor, starving missionaries jumped on the free food, devouring everything in sight. It was then that I realized that everyone there was either a priest, a nun, or dressed in a super nice suit or dress. We were in jeans and tennis shoes. The fact that we even got in to this event is just so ridiculous. I ran in to Father Frank Pavone, founder of Priests for Life and one of the most influential men in the entire pro-life movement in America. I also ran in to a nun that I met last year in Manhattan! Gosh, the world is so small. Moral of this whole, really long (sorry) story: Pray. It works.

Each Wednesday morning we have what's called compassion service. We're broken in to 3 groups. Some go to help at a the Missionaries of Charity house (Mother Teresa's order of nuns), some go to a nursing home, and my group goes to Termini, the main train station in Rome, to meet the homeless on the streets. I'm not gonna lie, at the beginning, I was super mad that I wasn't assigned to help at the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa is one of my favorite people ever, and her nuns inspire me so much with their heroic charity. The first few times we went out to help the homeless, I thought it was a bit awkward. But I sucked it up and just began going to people, offering them coffee and some food. I was afraid of being rejected. But immediately, I realized that each person we met was so grateful. I think that they're used to so many people passing them by every day that they're just thankful that someone recognizes them as a human being, and is willing to take some time to talk with them. I also felt totally inept to help in any way. I mean, all we have is some coffee and cookies; that's not exactly going to save someone's life or get them off the street. But slowly I came to realize that this is not what it's about at all. Although it is very important to give them this nourishment, it's almost, in a way, an excuse to get to talk with them and just spend some time in their company. We're human, we're communal beings, and we need that interaction. Each time we stop and talk with someone, they seem really content just to hang out, regardless of what we talk about. Yes, it's true, often times they tell us of their problems, and it's really hard to hear their stories and know that there's really nothing we can do. But we can show them love, show them that they are valued, that someone cares about them, that they have dignity. Our goal is never to evanglize or anything, but it's amazing, because the poor and homeless are so open and so faithful. They're usually the ones evangelizing us! They're almost always super grateful when we offer to pray for them and with them. And they're so happy. They have nothing, they sleep in the cold, and many go days without eating, but honestly, the average homeless person we meet is happier than the average person I know in America. They smile, they laugh, they sing with you and pray with you. And they're so grateful, even if you have nothing to give them. One man, Gabriel, is missing a leg, and you'll never see him without a smile on his face. Another man, Angelo, is probably in his 70's, and he sings for us each week. Yet another, Claudio, can talk your ear off for a good hour without letting you get a word in.

       I recently read a study that said that the suicide rate in countries considered "rich" is 5,000% higher than those considered "poor." What does this say? Something that we all know. Money doesn't bring happiness. No material thing does. The poor are happy. Jesus knew what He was talking about when He said the poor will inherit the earth. 

       On some occasions, I've even had the homeless give me things! Around Christmastime, there was a man who we would see each week, who bought a bag of candy to give to us. He could have bought himself a sandwich or a drink, but he thought of some random strangers that he sees only once a week. In the words of Blessed Mother Teresa, "The less we have, the more we give. Seems absurd, but that's the logic of love."

Each Friday, we go out to St. Peter's Square to pray, sing, and talk to people about the faith. It's so much fun, and we get to meet the most interesting people from all over the world. We tell them why we're in Rome, and what we do at the school. This inevitably brings up the topic of faith, and we get a chance to talk about our Catholic faith and present the beauty of it to others. People are almost always really open (maybe being in front of the biggest basilica in the world helps a bit...), and we've had some amazing conversations with Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Atheists - you name it. People are often really shocked when they see that we're not trying to argue with them or shove Catholicism down their throats - we're just there to give our own personal testimony about how God has worked in our lives. We always ask people if they have anything they'd like us to pray for. I'm constantly amazed at the responses. Some people literally burst in to tears on the spot, even people who don't practice any religion. Maybe no one has ever asked them that question in their life. It's incredible to hear a complete stranger confiding to you their personal struggles or those of family and friends, and assuring them that you'll keep them in prayer each day.

Our school was invited to go to a missionary conference at a huge missionary seminary in Rome. There were mission groups there from all over the world. This event took my view of the world and totally blew it apart. Ya, a bit dramatic, but it's kinda true. There were people of all kinds - priests, nuns, brothers, and lay people - from every continent, with one thing in common: they were all the happiest people I've ever met in my life. Every person was so open to meet everyone else. They would just come up to you, one after another, and introduce themselves, ask tons of questions, share life stories, etc. Especially those from Africa and Asia. I couldn't believe it. I can probably count on one hand the number of days I have been as joyful as them in my life.

There were several talks and discussions throughout the day, and at the end we finished with a type of talent show, where each group would perform a song. Coolest thing ever. The Asians played these cool flute things, the Latin Americans sang and did their little hip shaking dances, the Africans played on drums and some of the strangest looking instruments I've ever seen. One looked like a xylophone with coconuts hanging from it. During this time, I realized that I've grown up in such a "white" world. I think this was possibly the first time in my life that I had been in a room where I was, by far, the minority. Even coming to Europe, which has broadened my view of the world and it's cultures quite a bit, I still live in a western, white culture. Being there with those people made me realize that there is so much of the world that I know absolutely nothing about, that I have never experienced or been exposed to. It just really opened my eyes a lot, in a lot of ways, and gave me a great desire to try to understand people better. And again, most of these people came from very poor countries that need a lot of help, and yet they are the most joyous. Just another affirmation of the special joy of the poor.

One more short story. So the food here is amazing. Like, really good. And a month ago I think I was becoming seriously addicted to it. Anyone who knows me knows that I love food and eat a ton of it (even if my mom thinks I don't eat enough), and I was eating excessive amounts every day. So one night, one of the students named Kristina from Lithuania made this special Lithuanian drink, and it had mint leaves in it. I was drinking it, and all of a sudden I couldn't really breathe or swallow. After like 15 minutes I was starting to get really worried, and I thought I must have been allergic to something. After another 15 minutes, I started to get light-headed and dizzy. Then randomly a mint leaf shot up out of my throat - it had been lodged there. Well, this irritation caused my throat to swell so much that I could barely swallow for a week and a half. It took me so long to eat anything, and i had to meticulously chew each bite in order to avoid choking. I dreaded every meal, and didn't even want to eat. By the end of this 10 days, my addiction to food had ended; in fact, I didn't even want to see the sight of food. Right when I reached this point, my throat was cured in about 2 seconds, and I've been able to get back to more healthy eating habits. God has a sense of humor for sure.

That's about it for now! I'll try to keep you posted again soon, but, from all past experience, we know how that tends to go. In the mean time, may God bless you abundantly!

Peace,

Eric

A Bunch of Randomness

Life is too crazy and sporadic to write anything that will be remotely cohesive, so I'm just going to shoot some random thoughts out onto the page and hope they form some semblance of a complete thought. Just some things I learned and experienced over the past month of so...

Well, life is good. Busy, fun, challenging, adventurous, scary, joyfilled, stressful, and all around blessed. Living here in Rome is absolutely amazing, but it doesn't come without its ups and downs, just like anywhere else in the world.

I've had some tough times the past few weeks, mostly dealing with various interior struggles. Some times things are good and life just seems peachy keen, and other times things are just hard, even though outside circumstances don't really change. It's been a bit of the latter recently. But you know what, that's totally ok, because even though it seems like a drag when you go through times like this, it's really these times that help you to grow and shape you as a person. I read a book recently that said something to the effect of, "What we choose when we feel like we're on top of the world is based mostly on emotions, which are temporarily in the drivers' seat. But what we choose when we feel like the world is on top of us is based upon our sheer will power, and this is what remains in the drivers' seat when the emotions fade." And I think there's a lot of truth to that. When we're just naturally joyful and happy and in a really good mood, it's not hard to be good, because our good emotions help to free our will to be able to choose the good more easily. But when things are bad and everything is cloudy and dark, our emotions, which we often have no control over, try to make is run away from the good, to be angry or judgmental or bitter. But the good news is that we still have our will power, and we can still choose to be good and joyful and loving through it all. This is true freedom, to be run not by our passing feelings, but to be able to choose the person we will be, regardless of how we feel. A new mother may be woken up in the middle of the night by her screaming baby, who then proceeds to throw up and pee all over her. Obviously her she's gonna feel pretty rotten, and probably pretty annoyed, but she's going to overcome these feelings and choose to love and care for her baby anyway. I've realized that I need to do this in my own life, choose to love God and love others, when things aren't perfect. It's in these times when our love means the most. In the words of Pope John Paul II in a play that he wrote when he was 20, "When the feelings of love are gone, what remains is what is important."

When I get free time, which is extremely rare here, I always want to fill it with a million different things: going to see something new in Rome, catching up on emails/facebook, taking some time to read, going for a run, updating my blog (which somehow usually gets pushed to the bottom of the list) etc etc. I'm so crazy about planning my free time that I fill each spare second with something, just to make us of it. But I never feel good about it after. There's always more I'll need to get done, it's never-ending. A few weeks ago, we had a very rare free morning. I found myself with 2 glorious hours, and immediately began wracking my brain for a dozen different things I could do to make us of this time. But this time, I decided I was going to plan nothing. I'm sick of doing so much random, insignificant stuff and forgetting to just BE. So I went into our living area and just sat. I was the only one there. I was determined not to plan anything. After a few minutes, one or two people came in. We had some breakfast together and talked for a long time. They left, and a few others came in. More hanging out and talking. I sat there the whole 2 hours, talking to friends and taking in the beautiful sunlight streaming in. At the end of this time, I felt so happy, so refreshed, so good. I couldn't help but reflect on this experience and see something true about my life - I get so distracted by such little things, that I often miss the big picture. I need to LIVE my life, not just FILL my life. I need to forget all the small stuff - that can wait - and focus more on relationships. Now I'm not saying that we should all go and neglect all our responsibilities or anything, just that we put them in perspective. One 10 minute conversation with a friend about any random topic can often times be more beneficial than hours of free time wasted on trivialities.

We got the chance to go on what's called the "Scavi tour" a few weeks ago. This tour takes you underneath the Vatican, down to the ancient graveyard that it was built upon. The place where St. Peter's Basilica now sits used to be directly beside a Roman circus. This is the circus where St. Peter was killed sometime around year 65AD, and the early Christians buried his body in the graveyard adjacent to the circus. A small shrine was built over his grave. Later, Emperor Constantine built the first St. Peter's Basilica directly over this spot in the early 300's, and over 1,000 years later, the current Basilica replaced it. We went down to see this ancient cemetery and the tomb of St. Peter. The tomb is literally just a hole in a wall that contains a box with some bone fragments in it. It struck me so much how this beautiful, grand basilica is built over a simple little box, so small and humble, and how our Church is built upon simple, humble men who went out to preach what was given to them by Jesus. God always uses the weak and lowly to become strong and mighty.

One night on the way back from mass at the Centro San Lorenzo (the youth center that Pope John Paul II founded in Rome), we saw a bunch of police in the streets and a little barrier set up along the side, so we decided to go see what it was all about. We asked one of the guards, and they said the Pope would be arriving any minute. So we waited excitedly. From a distance we could see a car coming, and knew that the Pope was inside. The car drove right passed, and we were able to see our Papa sitting there in the backseat. He was smiling and waving at us, as we totally lost our cool, screaming and jumping around. It was such a huge and random blessing! Even if we had the opportunity to be in the very front row at a mass with him we wouldn't be that close. I doubt I'll ever be that close to him again.

We had a retreat awhile back entitled "Gift of Self." I really learned a lot on this weekend about what it means to love. The world tells us that we need to put ourselves first, to look out for #1, to fulfill all our sudden impulses, to be nice to others but not if it gets in the way of our own plans. But the paradox of our lives is that we can't be happy unless we forget ourselves and give ourselves to others. The more we focus on ourselves and fulfilling our desires, the more unhappy we become, the more we get stuck inside our own head and sucked away from reality. But in the proportion that we give of ourselves, we feel fulfilled, at peace. Who do you think lived a happier life, Mother Teresa, a woman who gave every ounce of her being in service of God and others, or someone who seeks to satisfy every craving they have, ending up addicted to drugs, sex, money, food. Who is more free, the one who does whatever they want, or the one who serves without counting the cost? This is because we were created to be a gift of self to others. It seems like such a contradiction, but it's the same thing Jesus said 2,000 years ago - "Whoever loses their life will find it, and whoever finds their life will lose it." Pope John Paul II said that, "Man can only find himself through a sincere gift of himself." We only know who we are and what we were created for when we try to forget ourselves and our own wants and desires and focus on others. We need to make another "Copernican Revolution" in our society. Copernicus was the first to realize that, hey, the earth is actually not in the center of the universe. Contrary to what we all thought, everything does not revolve around us. Let's try to realize this same truth in our own lives by giving of our time and talents to serve others, and in doing so finding our own happiness. Even if it's in small ways - helping out a friend with a problem, saying hello to a homeless person on the street, sending a letter to someone you haven't talked to in awhile. People love that stuff, and they'll be shocked when they see you doing it, for free. Give yourself. It can be scary and exhausting, but totally worth it.

The beach is only a 35 minute train ride from Rome, something I can't even fathom living in Western Pennsylvania - it takes at least 7 hours to catch a glimpse of the Atlantic. So one weekend in early February we packed some lunches and hopped on the train. It was insane to be on the warm sandy beach, while back home I knew that the ground was covered in heaps of snow. The water was absolutely freezing, so we didn't go in, but it was nice just to have some time to relax and hang out. We climbed along some rocks on the coast and caught some crabs. On the way home, we ran into someone we knew from the States, who had just moved to Italy 2 weeks before that. Crazy. That night was the Superbowl, and as the Steeler's were in it I felt obliged to stay up until 3:30 watching the game. Most of the people at our school had never even heard of the Superbowl, and I don't think any of them had ever seen a game of American football. So it was a fun experience trying to explain it to them and seeing their reactions.

One day we had a free morning, so we filled up some thermos's with coffee, bought some cookies, grabbed a good book, and went to a nearby park. We found a nice little bridge over a pond and set up shop, basking in the sun, reading and snacking, while the ducks floated lazily around us. Heavenly.

We may be from 13 different countries around the world, but we all have one thing in common. We love to dance. We had a night where people from each country would teach everyone one of their traditional dances. So we got to learn a few Scottish dances, some Latin American, and some French "rock and roll" dancing (like swing). The school was filled with music and laughter as we tried our best to maneuver these new steps. I just love culture! It's so fascinating to see how universal things like dancing are, but how different they can be!

I've been obsessed with church hunting lately. If we ever have a free day on a weekend, I set out across the city and see as many churches as I can (there are over 350 within the city limits!). They're all so beautiful, and you can bet that in each one, some famous saint or other person has stepped foot. And there are saints buried in pretty much every church. It's funny - in America, if there is a saint buried in a church, you'll see it advertised all over the place. You just can't miss it. But in Italy, they don't really think like that. Maybe it's because they have so many saints here, but often times there won't be a sign at all, nothing indicating that some huge, amazing, history-altering person is right before you. But regardless, it's great to be able to learn about them and then go to pray at the tombs of these people who really understood what life is about, finding the key to happiness and giving of themselves fully.

Living here at the Emmanuel School is definitely a cultural experience. 20 people + 13 countries = craziness. The people from each country organize a "country evening" every few weeks, where they give info about their country, show pictures, cook traditional food, etc etc. In the past month, the 3 French and our 1 Lithuanian presented their respective countries. It's amazing to see how vast and different our world really is. It's amazing to see the complicated history - this dynasty replacing this empire; this war changing these borders, etc. It really goes to show how changing the world is. I've learned so many things that really shocked me, like the fact that Lithuania has only been free of Russian occupation for 20 years! It's amazing to think that things like this were going on in Europe such a short time ago. The world is so complex and interesting! It's so easy to get trapped in our American culture and forget that there are billions of people who live in a completely different way and with a completely different mentally from us.

Valentine's day was our 1/2 point of the whole year. Time really flies...In order to show the girls of the school how much we appreciate them, we organized a surprise dinner where we got all dressed up and presented them with roses and wine. After a great dinner, we had a time of dancing, which is always a crazy and fantastic time. It was really beautiful to see how close we've grown over these past 5 months, how much we've become a family. We're really blessed to have each other. 1/2 way done! Let's see what's left in store!

French Holiday

So France - It's funny because I feel like, of all the countries I've been to in Europe, the French make an effort to make sure they stay "un-Americanized." But I think France felt more like the US than anywhere I've been yet.

I stayed with my friend Matthieu Courlet du Vregille (after weeks of practice, I still can't say his last name), and our friend Nia also came along. Matthieu's family lives in a tiny town in the French countryside, 2 hours south of Paris, called L'ile Bouchard. Life there is so simple and beautiful. His family is incredible. He is the oldest of 6 kids, ranging from 23 to 10. Along with his parents, they are all amazing people, so generous and loving. It was the first time I had been in a house, with a family and home cooked food, in 4 months, and I didn't realize how much I needed that.

We kept super busy throughout our 10 day break. Every day was basically centered around family meals. All the kids came home from school during lunch, and Matt's mom cooked a huge meal. Dinner usually began around 7 or 8, and could last up to 3 hours! It was such a huge event every day, which was really cool. Duck liver, rabbit, and fish eggs were all on the menu, along with more wines than I can count. It sounds nasty, but it was some of the best food I've ever had.

L'ile Bouchard is located in the "castle" region of France, so we got a chance to go around and see a bunch of the medieval castles. I. Love. Castles. I think they're the coolest things in the world. So I was in paradise. There are little towns scattered everywhere, and almost every single one has a castle perched above it!

We visited the castle where St. Joan of Arc went to announce to the King of France that God had sent her to save France. Super cool. It was situated above a little town nestled into a river, that looked like it was taken straight out of a movie.

Matthieu is really good friends with a family who actually lives in a castle, so we got to go visit them. The old grandmother greeted us as we came through the massive arched-gates, and she brought us in to her own massive living room (they have several) for tea. We got a tour of the place, which was just insane. The guest house was several times larger than my own house, containing a winery and a ballroom. Hard to believe people live like this. They were the nicest family, and it was great getting to know them.

We also visited the town where St. Martin of Tours lived, preached, and died in the year 397. We climbed a huge hill overlooking the town, which lies at the point where the two biggest rivers in France meet.

We were also able to visit Matt's college in Nantes, in the west of France. It's one of the bigger cities in France, and it was cool to see the contrast between this and the countryside.

But the coolest part for me lay not in one of these sweet castles or the bigger cities, but in L'ile Bouchard itself. In the tiny parish church there, Mary, the Mother of God, appeared in 1947 to 4 young girls. This was approved by the Vatican in 2001. 

The primary visionary, Jacquline, is still alive, and Matthieu is good friends with her, so we got to have tea with her! She told us all about her experience, 63 years ago.  During one of the visions (there were 10 in total, over a one week period), she was cured of a rare eye disease. During the last vision, the 2,000 people assembled in the church all witnessed a miraculous light which illuminated the place where the Virgin was allegedly appearing. There's alot more to the story, and if you're interesting in finding out more, check it out! 

http://www.ilebouchard.com/archives/fiot/brochure-fiot.htm#fiot-eng

(click on the part by the American flag for English)

I was so interested, so I hammered Jacquline with questions. How often do you get to question a visionary?! She was happy to answer everything, and it gave me chills when she explained the color of Mary's eyes and the love contained within them. I met her a few other times throughout the week, and all had plenty more questions at hand. 

The parish church has a little shrine where Mary appeared, and we were able to pray there each day. The beauty of it all was its simplicity. It's not a crazy place with thousands of people flocking around, but a quiet and pretty unknown site which is so peaceful.

I was really sad to leave France. On the last night, we had a huge dinner, with some music and dancing afterwards, and Matt's family even got us presents. As excited as I was to get back to Rome, I could have stayed here awhile...

We traveled by overnight train back home. It was the first time the 20 of us at the school have been separated at all since we've arrived here. We literally spend 24 hours with each other, so it was so weird to be apart. So I think we were all ready to get back. The reunion was really exciting, and we all swapped pictures and stories of our adventures.

Two short days after we returned, my parents came to visit! Such a blessing. After a 21 hour drive through a crazy blizzard, from Pittsburgh to Atlanta (long story), they caught their flight and made it to Rome. So good to see them again! It was amazing to be able to show them my life here -- where we live, what we do at the school, and especially all my friends here at the school. 

Over the 5 days that they were here, we were able to get around to see a ton of the city. Actually, I probably saw as much in this short time as I've seen since arriving here! I saw the Coliseum for the first time, with them. Pathetic, I know. I had seen it the previous times I came to Rome, but not in the past 4 months since coming. There's just so much to see, it's impossible to get it all in! 

We even got to go to the Pittsburgh Steeler's bar (yes, there's even one in Rome...) to watch part of one of the playoff games. It was like a little piece of America outside the states.

I'm so thankful that they came to visit, even if it was too short.

A lot has happened in the few weeks since they left, so I'll update on that another time, when I'm not about to fall asleep on my keyboard.

Until then, God bless!

Eric

Christmas Time in Roma

Back to Rome tomorrow! It's been an incredible, half relaxing half crazzyyy break. And better than I could have hoped for.

Let's rewind a few weeks. The week before Christmas we traveled to a convent for our first silent retreat. When I say "traveled" I really mean walked about 15 minutes from our school. But it felt like we traveled 100 miles. In this short amount of time, we reached a secluded hill with a sheep pasture. The only hint of civilization was the massive dome of St. Peter's basilica which loomed in the horizon. Crazy how, in a city as big as Rome, you can find peace and quiet so easily!

I had always desired to go on a silent retreat. I can tend to talk a lot, especially when I pray, and I thought it would be good to quiet down and listen for once. It definitely was amazing experience.

One thing that really struck me, which I was not expecting, was eating in silence. It seems a bit strange, sitting a table with a bunch of other people and not being able to talk. But I absolutely loved it! It realized that, in being silent, I was able to notice tons of things I would never have even considered if I was chatting with friends. I was able to appreciate the taste of the food like I never had before. And I couldn't stop thinking about people who have no food, and the gift that it is that we are able to eat every day. It was really a neat experience, very simple, but one that I can't really explain.

Half way through the retreat, for various reasons, I was really feeling down. I was praying in the chapel, asking the Lord to give me joy and help me to really enter in to the retreat with my whole self. A minute or so later I left the chapel with another girl, and as we walked outside she suddenly stopped and held out her hand. I watched as a single snowflake fell and landed in her palm. Within seconds, many more followed. This is Rome - according to locals, it has snowed once in the past 20 years...We were so filled with joy that we started running around and dancing in the now heavy downfall of snow. During our silent lunch, everyone just stared out at the swirling snowflakes with huge smiles, in awe of the beauty that God had gifted us with. God had answered my prayer - I was so full of joy I couldn't even contain it. Again, something so simple. It may seem odd, but I think it's because of the silence; it really helps you to experience the beauty of simplicity, and joy in the small things.

Near the end of the retreat, we all prayed for each person individually, for specific intentions. After we pray for someone, often times people will open their Bible randomly and read whatever verses their eyes land on. After everyone prayed for me, 5 people randomly opened their Bibles, and they ALL had the exact same verse. I'm no mathematician, but I do know that the chances of that happening are way more than one in a million. More like one in a billion. Aka: God exists. And He speaks to us when we're open to hearing Him.

Ever since this retreat, I think I've gained a deeper peace and a love of simplicity, as well as a greater desire for prayer and reading Scripture. We'll have a few more silent retreats throughout the year, as well as one day of silence at the school each month. So pumped.

Preparing for Christmas came next. I knew that it was going to be really weird being away from home on Christmas, but we've grown so close at the school that it felt like I was with family. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas celebration.

Reflecting back after the fact, I realized that I think this is the first year that I actually celebrated the true feast of Christmas. For Christmas, the Church has 5 separate masses, starting on Saturday afternoon and going through to Sunday morning, including midnight mass, and a 6am dawn mass. We were able to go to all 5 of these. The most memorable for me was the midnight mass at St. Peter's. It's called "midnight mass" but it actually started at 10pm, since the Pope is a bit old to stay up until 2am. After a huge dinner, we went in to St. Peter's Square and sang Christmas carols in front of the newly-unveiled Nativity. The mass began shortly after. We had no tickets to get inside, so we planned on watching the mass on the huge screens set up in the Square. However, we prayed that a miracle would somehow take place and we'd be able to get in. Two students from our school got picked to do the readings for the mass, so we were super excited to see them.

About 20 minutes into the mass, we watched our friend Adela get up in front of thousands of people to read the Word of God. However, at the same time, we noticed tons of people sprinting across the Square. We looked back and saw that they were letting people inside without tickets. So we ran over and got trapped in a huge mob that eventually squeezed through security and made it in. The guards took us around the Basilica and through a back door. We came out very near the altar, and there found our seats. Our prayers were answered! Even if we would have had tickets, there's no way we would have been as close to the Pope as we ended up being. Crazy. The mass ended around midnight - Christmas is here! Thank You God, for coming among us!

We met up with some others that we knew and hung out in the Square for an hour or so. We headed back to the school, where Christmas cookies and hot chocolate awaited us, and we partied it up until 3 in the morning. After 3 hours of sleep, we had 6am mass. Christmas day was pretty free, and we hung out and slept a bit. In the evening, we set up our home for a huge dinner, and some of the students cooked the most amazing food. We did a secret santa, had a crazy insane talent show, and polished it all off with a dance party which lasted til 2. We were all filled with so much joy, we didn't want to go to bed. It was such a beautiful way to celebrate the birth of Christ.

The next day, we had to pack up and move out of our rooms (since we live in a hotel, they use the rooms for guests when we leave), and we left Rome early on the morning of the 27th. I woke up that morning, and the first thought in my mind was, "there's going to be a beautiful sunrise this morning." No idea why. To be honest, I hadn't seen a good sunrise or sunset since coming to Rome. But when I went upstairs for breakfast, the sky was on fire with crazy pinks, reds, and oranges, with a deep blue background. It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I had ever seen. A little gift for our departure from the eternal city...

It took us many hours, 2 trains and a bus, to get to Paray Le'Monial, France, but we eventually made it around midnight. We came for another retreat, this time with the community that runs our school, called the Emmanuel Community. Paray Le'Monial is the place where Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to reveal His Sacred Heart. Images of Jesus with His Heart exposed can now be found in almost every Catholic church in the world. It was really cool to pray in the chapel where these apparitions occured. Throughout the week, we were able to meet people from all over the world who had come for the retreat. I was exhausted for most of it though, and regretfully ended up sleeping through almost every talk.

We brought in the New Year with a time of prayer, followed by a huge party into the  wee hours of the night.

Our break began on New Years day. At the end of the retreat, the 20 of us had to separate for the first time in 3 months. We literally spend every single moment of our lives together, and it was strange to know that we would be apart. We said our goodbyes, and I headed off with Matthieu, one of my friends from France, as well as Nia, the other girl from the States. 

We've spent our 10 day break with Matthieu's family in the small town of L'ile Bouchard. Since this, again, is getting excessively long, I'll write about our French adventures another time.

Until then, take care and God bless!

Eric

Mission to London!

Another insanely long gap between my last post. Sorry about that! Contrary to most years in which I get a break around Christmas, life got even more crazy than ever. But I'm now on break in France with one of my friends from the school. Life is good, and I finally have time for a bit of an update.

So much as happened in the past month! We went on mission in London for 10 days, we had an intense 3 day silent retreat, we celebrated Christmas, traveled to France for another retreat, and then separated from each other for the first time in 3 months for our first break.

The mission in London was amazing. We had been preparing for about 2 months beforehand, so it was great to finally be able to put all our planning in to action. All 20 of us from the school, along with about 15 others from the Emmanuel Community across Europe, and even as far as California, came to join us for the mission.

We stayed with host families in the area. I stayed with a lovely Irish couple, who were convinced that I was totally under-fed and insisted that I eat at least two times my body weight at every meal. They may have thought I was preparing for a rugby match rather than a mission trip. Not sure.

The people of England tend to be very introverted, and do not particularly like to share their feelings. Religion tends to be a private matter that is not shared with others. So we were a bit worried about how people would react to the message we came to proclaim. In fact, we were all slightly shocked at how receptive people were! Each day, we would brave the cold and snow (it was the first time they had this much snow in 17 years!) to go out to the main area of town to invite people to our different events at the parish. As always, a few people just brushed past or even got angry, but the vast majority of people listened to what we had to say and seemed interested. Many people thanked us for what we were doing, and expressed great enthusiasm at our witness. Some great conversations ensued, and we were able to pray for alot of people.

The thing I was dreading most - going door to door - actually turned out to be rather fun! I had a certain conception in my mind of how it would be, and I'm not gonna lie, I was terrified. But people were super nice and accepting, and even if they weren't interested they at least listened to what we had to say and nicely declined. Well, most of the time...

One group from our team was invited in to a man's house. He had just found out that day that he was diagnosed with cancer, and he was given medicine to take, but he couldn't read it so he didn't know how much to take. He was basically in despair, and they were able to help him with his medicine, and pray with him and let him know of the love of God. He was brought to tears. 

Another group who was going door to door was invited into the apartment of a couple who had a 9 year old daughter. The mother hadn't been to church in a long time, but had been considering going back. Her and her daughter wanted to come to the event we were having that night, but they had no car and no way of getting there. We were able to arrange someone to go pick them up, and they both came. Both mother and daughter loved the evening, and the mother was especially deeply effected. She went to confession for the first time in 30 years.

Each day we broke up in to groups and went in to 4 different schools to speak to kids ranging from 5-17. I went into an all girls middle school one day to put on a retreat for 4 different classes. We would start off with some sort of game to get them laughing and having fun, and then give a few witness talks about how God had worked in our life, do a skit, and end with a time of prayer. The girls accepted it all amazingly, and by the end they were all feverishly writing prayer intentions to give to us. 

I was also able to go into an all boys school a few of the days. This school consisted primarily of trouble youth, many of whom are in gangs. I went in a little nervous, but quickly realized that these boys were thirsting for the truth. It again surprised me how well they received us, how attentive they were. They had tons of awesome questions for us, and we had time to just talk and hang out with them after. 

During one of these sessions with they boys, the teacher came up to us at the end. She had been impressed with one of the skits we put on. She was the drama teacher at the school, and she said she had been praying for over a year that God would show her how she could bring His message to these boys. She prayed that He would send her a group of people who would do just that. And according to her, we were the answer to her prayers. That exact day, in fact, turned out to be her birthday.

It was difficult to get people to come to the events we held each night at the church, because even the people that did want to come were so busy that it was hard to squeeze something else in. It was a bit frustrating at the beginning of the week when only a few people would show up. But as the week went on, and we were able to talk to more and more people, the numbers began to increase. Not that the numbers really matter. If we were able to touch even one soul while in England, all the time and work would have been worth it. But obviously we wanted to reach as many people as possible! By the end of the week about 40 people came to a "mercy night" that we held on Friday, and on Saturday there were probably around 60 young people that came to an event called "Night Fever," a night of music, testimonies, adoration, etc.

By the end of the week we were completely spent. It had been an exhausting, but totally fulfilling week. It was beautiful to hear the testimonies of people who had been sending emails to the parish priest all week. One lady had only seen us singing on the street and had been so touched that she emailed the parish priest and told him that she wanted to become Catholic! Crazy. God truly does use us in the smallest ways every day. We probably never realize it 99% of the time, but things like this help us to trust that the smallest witness or act of kindness can touch someone at their core.

On the last day, we had a bit of free time, and were able to travel in to the heart of London to do some sightseeing.  Such a beautiful city. It was a real blessing to be there, and so nice to be back in an English speaking country for a little while!

We traveled back to Rome, back home to the warmth, the crazy drivers, and the daily pasta-fix. We came back united as a group in a new way, for we had all experienced something totally new together, and something which had stretched and challenged us. London was a beautiful experience. We'll have the opportunity to go on 2 more missions like this later in the year.

Ok that was way longer than I intended it to be. I'll try to write more about my other experiences over the past month soon, before things get crazy again.

God bless you all! I hope that you had a blessed Christmas and New Year! Know that I'm keeping you all in prayer.

Peace,

Eric

2 months of Grace

Well, it's been a ridiculously long time since I've updated this. Sorry about that. Things have been super ridiculously crazily insanely busy. To say the least. But that's a good thing. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed, but then I realize that there's not a single thing I would take out of our schedule each day, so I have nothing to complain about. It's a good problem to have.

In the past several weeks, many many amazing things have happened. I'll never be able to remember them all, so I'm just going to try to give a really brief overview of some of the highlights.

We started doing "compassion service" each Wednesday morning. The 20 of us are broken in to 4 groups. My group serves the homeless around Termini Station, the main train/metro station in Rome. So we go there with supplies of coffee, tea, and bread, and just offer these to any of the people we see living on the streets. It's not much to offer, but really what we are there for is just to spend time with them and show them that someone cares for them, that they are valued. At first it was a bit intimidating, going up to someone who may or may not be homeless, and who may or may not speak any English, and trying to show them kindness and compassion. But I've really grown to love this service over the past several weeks. My service partner Natalia and I came across a man from India one morning. He spoke no English (except "very good") and he spoke even less Italian than we did. Through various means he was able to communicate to us his need for medicine, for he was sick and also very badly bruised all over his body. When we told him we could not supply him with anything, he broke down in tears and cried. He could hardly walk, and had not eaten anything for more than 2 days. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that we could do for him. Except sit with him. We couldn't even really talk. So we sat there, just being with him, for most of the morning until we had to leave. How humbling it was to offer him nothing more than our presence. I can't even express how much he appreciated it. I think he was shocked that anyone would care enough to do anything more than glance his way. This encounter taught me so much about the beauty of the human person. We desire one thing above all else - to be known, to be loved. All else is secondary. Even if we need food or medicine, these things can never fulfill us in the way as one who truly shows that they love us.

We've now met dozens of homeless men and women that live in this area, and we are able to show the love of Christ to them each week. There is one man in particular, Andrea, whose eyes light up every Wednesday morning when he sees us approaching. Maybe we're the only thing he has to look forward to in the week. It's all so simple, but it just goes to show that God doesn't need us to save the world. He only needs us to show love in small ways, and He'll take care of the rest.

Each Friday we go out in to the streets of Rome to do what we call "street evangelization." We take out the World Youth Day cross (the cross given to the young people of the world by Pope John Paul II, which has traveled all around the world, carried by millions of young people), and break in to 2 groups. One group sings, while the other simply goes around and starts talking to the people passing by. We want to get to know who they are, why they're in Rome, etc. We get to tell them about our school, and why we decided to give up a year of our lives to come and grow closer to God and learn about our faith. The people we meet are always extremely interesting, and usually really open to what we have to say. We have mass directly afterwards, so we always invite people to come with us. 

One evening we did this at the Spanish Steps, one of the main squares in Rome. We had a prayer service going on in the church there, and we went out into the square on a Friday night, and invited people in. Many people were really touched by the offer, and tons came in. I'll never forget one incident - One of the girls in our school started talking to a group of teenage boys who were drinking whiskey out of the bottle. They were from Germany, as was she, and they asked her to drink with them. So she did. This led to a conversation, and she invited them in. They didn't really want to come, but she convinced them. They weren't sure if they should go into a church with a bottle of whiskey in hand, but she convinced them it was no problem. I was able to witness a group of young boys who, from the outside, looked like complete punks, walking down the isle towards the altar. They all knelt down before Jesus, and within a few minutes some of them were crying. It was so powerful. 

Here at the school, we're each put in to a "household." There are 2 mens and 2 womens households, each with about 5 people in them. We meet once a week to discuss different things, and share what we saw as significant experiences throughout the week. A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to take the weekend and travel with our household. My household decided to go to Gaeta, a little town on the coast, south of Rome. We went there without having any accommodations, for we couldn't find anywhere that would take 5 people. So we trusted that God would provide us with a somewhere to stay. 

We arrived in Gaeta, and immediately began going to different churches asking if we could stay the night. Most of them were closed, and the ones that were open said it was not possible. We had lunch, and continued on with no success. We stopped at a convent, and they directed us to a monastery, way at the top of a mountain, so we began the assent. On the way up, we discovered an old Roman outpost, and had tons of fun playing on the ruins. After a long hike, along some of the most insanely beautiful cliffs, plunging in to the Mediterranean below, we arrived at the monastery. They said no. Great. We realized that mass was beginning in a few minutes, so we decided to stay, and we all prayed, for by now we were convinced we would spend the night homeless. At the end of mass, an old couple in front of us turned around and asked where we were from and why were were in Gaeta. Within about 30 seconds they were asking us if we wanted to come stay with them in the private villa on the beach.......God is good! They took us there, cooked us up one of the best and biggest meals I've ever had, and we stayed up late sharing stories about our lives. 

In the morning, they took us all over the city, brought us to the beach, let us eat grapes from their vineyard and make orange juice from their orange trees, prepared another huge lunch, etc. We sat out on their terrace overlooking the sea, just basking in the glorious beauty and in the providential care of our God. He's so faithful, and always provides when we trust in Him!!

This past week, the Pope installed 22 new cardinals, and opened the Apostolic Palaces in the Vatican (which are never open to the public) for people to enter and greet the new cardinals. It was so beautiful, and we were able to meet Cardinal Burke from Wisconsin, as well as Cardinal Regali from Philadelphia. 

So much happens each day that I could go on forever. Classes are intense, but really really amazing. We're able to learn about God in the classroom, experience Him in prayer, and live out His call through service. It's really a whole life focused on Him, and it's changing me in ways I didn't even think I needed to be changed in. It's hard to describe my experiences here, but God has been so good and has taught me alot. If I've changed this much in 2 months, I can't even imagine what's in store for the rest of the year! Please keep me in your prayers, and know that I'm praying for you. God bless!