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!