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