The last two weeks...read my previous 2 posts first

Sunday Oct. 13th we got to sleep in a bit and then headed over to St. John Lateran for mass. It was very exciting because this is the Pope’s church. Many people think of St. Peter’s as the Pope’s church but actually as the bishop of Rome this is his church. The Pope lived here until the 1400s when he moved to St. Peter’s. It is quite amazing and contains the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul! This is also where all the synods take place…and there is actually one going on right now!

More amazing and one of the great proud times in our time here was that all thirteen of our seminarians got to serve there! It was really funny because there are so many of them that every one just got a small “job” as a server…but we were so proud! It was awesome to see them up there.

Afterwards Fr. Carola took us to visit the Little Sisters of the Lamb, a beautiful religious community that my friend Susan Verly just joined in France! There are about 8 sisters in this particular convent, and they live absolute poverty, even begging for their food, but in that they bring Christ’s love and Word to the people they encounter.

Every Sunday night we have community dinner. I was able to sit with Mrs. Cavenaugh (Dr. Cavenaugh is teaching a class on Martyrdom and his wife and three boys live with us as well) and two of their little boys who are HILARIOUS. I am excited to talk to her more because I found out she has a degree in Social Work and does therapy in one of the hospitals in the Cities.

Monday the 13^th marked our first real day of school! We started out on site at St. John Lateran for our Art and Architecture class. We ended up not being able to go in though because there was the thanksgiving Mass for the first (East) Indian saint that had been canonized the previous day! There were hundreds of Indians who had made the pilgrimage for this joyous occasion. It is so important because there is immense persecution of Christians going on in India right now, I believe from the Hindus, and the government just sits back and watches. The witness of this saint is sure to be a model for all Christians, especially Catholics, of the joy of loving Christ and following Him even amidst all the persecution.

Also in the afternoon we had Italian, followed by the first women’s night with Nina our chaplain. I’m very excited to have this time of formation and fellowship, and Nina has so much to offer us.

Tuesday we had our first class with Dr. Cavenaugh—Martyrdom. About halfway through class someone accidentally opened the door and looked around confused and Dr. Cavenaugh, trying to help him out, asked “Are you looking for martyrdom?” The guy was very confused and left and after that Dr. Cavenaugh realized that maybe that wasn’t the greatest way to phrase the question. J

After that most of us (minus the seminarians and some others who are taking a Philosophy course) headed to Patristics. This class is taught by a Dominican priest, Fr. Ditton. I met some Irish seminarians, as well as many of the seminarians from the NAC. We were the largest group of laity in the class. It’ll be a very exciting class going over the history and works of the early church fathers! J

After that we all went with Fr. Carola to the Missionaries of Charity. They have a house where they take care of men off the streets. This is also the place where Mother Theresa would stay when she came to Rome. We were most blessed to be able to see the room where she stayed. This is also where they are putting together the information needed for her Beautification. Please keep them in your prayers and ask for Blessed Mother Theresa’s intercession!

The sisters are absolutely beautiful in the joy they have of their vocation and the love they pour out to care for the men here. Myself and at least one other girl and some of the seminarians are going to serve here this semester. I’m very excited for what this time will bring!

Wednesday our early morning class is Spiritual Theology with Fr. Paul Murray, another Dominican priest who was a confessor for Blessed Mother Theresa when she would come to Rome. It is so beautiful…it’s basically like sitting in spiritual direction, except with 50 other people.

At night on Wednesdays we always have our community dinners. We start off community night with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for an hour, a very high Mass (with a lot of incense), a short discussion—this time we were able to hear more from the Little Sisters of the Lamb, followed by community dinner and ending with night prayer.

Thursday classes consist of Martyrdom again, Italian, and Christian Anthropology. Christian Anthropology is taught by another Dominican priest (can you tell I go to a Dominican Pontifical University?) Fr. Luke Buckles. It is also just like spiritual direction. His focus is just education us for life. It’s the study of humans from the Christian perspective. We’ll be reading some Theology of the Body, The Dignity and Vocation of Women, The Splendor of Truth, and some other pretty rockin’ stuff.

At night we went to mass on top of the Spanish Steps. Fr. Carola was saying mass for the Jerusalem religious community there—a French religious community. It was beautiful…their singing echoed wonderfully in the church. It was also strange and amazing to hear Fr. Carola speak in French!

Later we just hung out on the Spanish Steps for Marisa’s birthday. Lemoncello is horrible and I had my first Big Mac ever…in Rome (don’t judge—lol). It was yummy and amazing!

Friday we were supposed to go to the beach but it was raining. But it was amazing because we don’t have any classes scheduled for Fridays so we spent the rainy day doing homework, napping, and some of us girls watched My Fair Lady. At night some of us went to the San Lorenzo youth center. It’s a youth center commissioned by JPII in the 80’s for students and pilgrims to come to pray…and the World Youth Day cross is there right now! We started with an international rosary followed by Holy Mass which was said by a bishop from Ecuador who has been here for the synod. We met people from all over the world. The youth center is run by the Emmanuel community…a Charismatic community of lay people and some priests rooted in France.

Saturday we left early for Perugia and Eurochocolate Festival! It was great to get out of the city…but the festival was still quite crowded. We managed to find a place to eat overlooking the valley, town, and near hills around us. Had some yummy hot liquid chocolate and Milka bars and chocolate liquor. To the left is the view from the place we ate lunch.

Sunday me, Lizzie, and Sarah went to Mass at Christo Re, where again the priest was very excited to see young people and we met a seminarian from Cologne who was trying to translate what Fr. Was trying to say to us. He is studying here and somehow I wound up speaking German again. Why do I always find myself speaking German here? My Italian will never improve but my German might! Then later I went to a small prayer meeting with my friend Katherine from St. Paul’s Outreach back at school and we had community dinner again.

Monday we had class and went back to St. John Lateran to finish our tour. At night we went out to the Nag’s Head, a Scottish pub, for Justin’s birthday. The girls are getting into the habit of making up sweet renditions of songs for birthdays, so we sang him a rendition of “hold onto that feeling” it was quite impressive I must say…and I’m sure the whole pub was annoyed by the loud weird Americans.

By the way…they were playing Bruce Springsteen all night! I was soooo excited. J (And kind of shocked/confused! Ha)

Tuesday we had class and then I went to the youth center for adoration and mass. Ran into Katherine there which was a pleasant surprise.

Wednesday class. Holy hour, mass, discussion, and dinner…

Thursday we had class, and some of us went out to lunch with our Italian teacher. I just listened but it was good to try to soak up some more of the language. Then three of the girls and I headed to our Christian Anthro class and came back absolutely wiped out.

At 9pm though they were having mass and then adoration with a bit of praise and worship so a small group of us went to that. That was beautiful and made me miss First Fridays and Cor Jesu at St. Thomas really bad. I miss praise and worship songs that I know. Although we all laughed to ourselves at the opening song for mass because it was non other than “On Eagle’s Wings” and we just thought Fr. Joncas would be itching back at St. Thomas that his song was being played in Italian over here! It was soooooooooooo funny!

The priest who said mass was from Toronto so he was so generous to us that the first part of his homily he spoke in English to us. It was beautiful because he spoke of the synod going on. The synod is a meeting of bishops from all over the world. (I believe they do this once a year). This one they were focusing on the Word of God. He was saying it has been so amazing to be with the bishops from all over the world because you always hear about news about persecutions and things in other countries, but to actually have a priest from India where a lot of his flock are being killed is so real and present to you that you know the importance of strengthening the Church with God’s Word and why we are here.

Please, I beg of you, pray for these holy priests from this synod. It concludes on Sunday and will definitely have a huge impact on the Church. Also pray for those being persecuted…especially for the Christians in India.

I have been very moved and impressed by all the people that I’ve met and all the experiences I’ve had so far. I cannot believe I’m blessed to have so many more months here.

Please keep us all in your prayers.

In Christ and Mary,

God love you,

Sam

Blessed Mother Theresa-pray for us!

Firenze and Fr. Alessandro

Friday October 10^th (Happy Bday Missy!) we left early for Florence. We had the joy of touring some major churches, monasteries and museums with our Art and Architecture professor, Dr. Elizabeth Lev. (Google her if you have the chance. She’s a rockstar). She is absolutely brilliant and absolutely hilarious. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the city with a brilliant guide to explain the history through an artistic lens. We were fortunate to visit a lot of places and receive a lot of knowledge and wisdom of the faith from our professor.

Most memorable though was our time at the Duomo. We were rushing to mass at the Baptistery. We nearly overwhelmed the priest and congregation at the Gospel as we tried discretely slipping into the back pews. This is quite difficult to do with twenty-eight college-aged students and only five rows deep of pews in the church. We tripled the congregation and caught the server quite off guard as he scattered off to find more hosts to be consecrated. At the homily the priest asked us to move up and fill in, which we did—we packed the pews full. The priest himself was somewhat of a spectacle. He was quite overwhelmed and excited to have over two dozen young adults added to the congregation, and even though we couldn’t understand much of his rapid joyous Italian, we picked up “giovani” exclaimed excitedly many times, which we realized was the Italian word for “youth!”

He was short, gentle and old, but his huge vibrant eyes and enormous wide smile made up for any frailty he had—the energy from him immediately penetrated the hearts of us all, even though we could only understand a few words of his rapid Italian. We knew from his eyes and smile that he was very excited to have this enormous addition to his congregation.

After mass he came out to greet us, and a woman from the congregation who spoke English and who was a great friend of Fr. Alessandro translated his joyful message to us.

His love for the Lord permeated our hearts with his passionate words. His eyes watered with tears of joy to see so many young students and seminarians wanting to know the Lord more. His message was simple yet profound: love Jesus; love others.

Each of us carried his words with us, but more importantly the deep yearning to live the love he had for our Lord more deeply in our lives.

As we left the baptistery, he asked us if we would care for a personal tour of the cathedral. Our professor graciously let go of every plan she had for the day. He took us in where no one else was being let in. Behind the main sanctuary of the church were three side altars. At one we were most privileged to pray before were the relics of John Christendom.

Then he took us where only the priest of the cathedral is allowed to go—the sacristy. Now this is not any ordinary sacristy. The wood detail in all of the cupboards is very intricate and beautiful. It is a wood inlaid—every shading on all the pictures is a different piece of wood. Dr. Lev was very impressed and made sure we knew to soak this up because no one gets led back here. Also this is where a very important priest (whose name I forget) hid when he was being sought out to be killed.

The rest of the day paled in comparison to that experience…but Dr. Lev scrambled to rearrange our schedule. We got tours of another church and a museum, and the rest of the group left and eight of the girls stayed overnight.

We finished off the night by finding our hotel and a place to eat.

Saturday we got up early to go see the David. We went to the wrong museum and ran across town to the Academia…to find out it was going to be 14 Euro and that we were not quite willing to pay that much to see a large naked man…so we opted out and went to the Duomo again to try to make it to daily mass. We were late…only by 10 minutes but they were already at the consecration! (Italians are pretty quick!) so we went to pray before the tabernacle and who was there but Fr. Alessandro. J He saw us as he was walking out and was so full of joy to see us again! He said yesterday when he was with us and the seminarians he was in PARADISE. He spoke again of the love of Christ and to listen to Him with all our hearts. It was again such a blessed encounter with such a loving man.

The rest of the day we worked at our own pace around Florence…which was lovely. We basically just checked out all the markets, had a long relaxing lunch, went to the markets some more, ate some gelato, sat down outside the Duomo, people watched, and headed back on the train to Rome.

No, I haven't died, but I did go to an ordination

Sorry that I have neglected to write for a while. Classes started last week, and I’m still sick from the plague. Aka a cold that turned into a hacking cough and grossness. 10 days later I finally decided to be smart and pick up some medicine.

Being over here has been a wonderful witness of the beauty of religious life. It seems wherever you go you run into a priest, deacon, seminarian, or religious sister. Three of the classes I am taking are taught by Dominican priests. Now that classes are in full swing there are religious habits flocking the courtyard and hallways of the Angelicum. I’m starting to feel the need to dress up more and feel out of place when I’m not in a skirt or in black. Actually it is really just quite funny but also very beautiful. The presence of all these religious figures is a true blessing, and as I get to know some of them more personally, I am excited for what the coming months will bring.

So I guess I’ll backtrack to two Thursdays ago—Thursday October 9^th. In the evening we went to the ordination of the deacons from the North American College Seminary. There were 25 men (I believe) being ordained to the transitional deaconate at St. Peter’s Basilica. Just think--in one year we will have 25 new priests! Praise the Lord! The ordination was absolutely beautiful. If you ever have the chance to go to a deaconate or priestly ordination…I strongly encourage you to do it. The tradition and the beauty and the JOY of this celebration is overwhelming and extremely grace-filled.

The whole time the men were being prayed over by the bishop and seeing their faces as they processed in and out I could not help but feel the joy on each of their faces of knowing one’s vocation. God is calling us to a life of joy. No matter what vocation you choose, God is asking you to share in his love…and of course there is suffering in that but there is also immense happiness. This is so true for the religious life. If anyone has any doubt about the happiness of the vocation of the priesthood just go to an ordination. I could not help but seeing the joy reflected in the faces of these men as the same joy I saw in my cousin Dan and brother-in-law Arch this summer on their wedding days as they bound their lives with their wives.

These 25 men may not have a physical wife that they are giving themselves to, but they had that same joy reflected in their faces and the whole celebration was about this…the joy of giving themselves entirely to Holy Mother Church. It was also very exciting being there with the thirteen seminarians in our group…this must be especially exciting for them, considering this very well could be them in a few years! All in all it was a wonderful grace-filled evening, ended with some wonderful pasta and wine of course! Praise the Lord for Pastarito!

more

http://blog.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/rome/archives/2008/10/first_things.html#more

link to the blog i'm doing for Catholic Studies...basically the same thing but it's for school officially.

also, let me know if you can view my photos now without making an account. Sorry about that.

Pax Ex!
God love ya :)

Pictures

Here are the beginnings of my photos:

http://samsalbums1.shutterfly.com/

Scavi, Pilgrimages, and Colds

Friday we got up early for Italian class and then met at the Vatican for a Scavi tour. We were able to pray before St. Peter’s grave—imagine, our first pope! We also got the chance to pray before John Paul II’s grave. It was beautiful to be able to be so near to the resting place of such a holy and loved man who really influenced me like a father.Being in St. Peter’s was another breathtaking experience. There is so much to see…so many holy relics and images. So much grace and so much Truth! The Lord is present so vividly in all the imagery in the space. The highlight was that we were able to attend their evening daily mass there.

Saturday seven of us got up very early to join the Christendom College group and Fr. Justin for the Seven Church Pilgrimage. This is the same pilgrimage St. Philip Niri took thousands of pilgrims on every year. We started at St. Mary Major, then St. Lawrence outside the Walls, Santa Croce, St. John Lateran, St. Sebastian, St .Paul outside the Walls, and finally with St. Peter’s. It totaled about 20+ miles of walking…which would have been very difficult, except it was so beautiful because every church we went to had so many saint’s bodies and relics that the grace from this experience really helped carry you on. We ended at about 7 pm and were able to join the Christendom group for pizza for dinner. It was wonderful being able to get to know anther group of Catholic Americans studying here!

Sunday we got up early and went to St. Paul outside the Walls for mass with the Pope! Wow I cannot believe we got to see the Pope twice in one week! It was again such a blessing to be with the Holy Father and so many other holy people!Well as you can see it has been quite an exausting week.
I did run into some seminarians I know from the North American College! It's quite a small world really. :) Matt Wiering...who was my old chaplain's cousin and also my brother in law's best friend sat next to me at mass and is also helping out with our chaplaincy here at Bernardi. Also Jake Strand, who is a Milwaukee native. The other seminarian who is helping out with our chaplaincy is from the Madison area. Wisconsin is being represented well here!

On the way out I finally got to meet Nina, who is our amazing woman chaplain. She is originally from near Cologne, Germany. She is a consecrated single lay woman...and charismatic! :) She knew my friends from Spring very well so I was really excited to meet her. We ended up being at the back of our group on the way to lunch and then she wanted to stop to say hi to some German bishops. Well the rest of the group went on and I was behind with her...meeting 3 German bishops! Ah! Ha it was awesome but I get really nervous/excited around people like bishops, etc. so it was really unreal for me...and then she wanted to introduce me and tell them I spoke German! So that was embarassing because the auxillery bishop from Trier was asking me where I was from and I was so nervous/excited I responded "Bernardi!" Ahaha! He was confused and Nina just laughed at me and I was like...."Oh no...I mean...Wisconsin"

What was so amazing was meeting all the people aroudn us. A whole lot of German people...either who were just studying here or visiting...were flocking around to say hi to the bishops and meet each other. Then on the metro I met a lot of people from a youth group run by the Emmanuel community. There are youth studying and visiting from all over...the youth group is a place for these pilgrims to come together from all over. I met people from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and all over. Nina is going to incorporate some of her ministry with us with this group. Friday night they have adoration and rosary and usually a Cardinal comes to lead it! What a blessing! I'm so excited. :)

We had lunch at a place where Fr. Carola's friend owns it...and I ended up ordering some pasta with octapus of course. I have the oddest luck with food...Yes there were tentacles and all!

Then we had chaplain orientation...so we got to officially meet Nina and Fr. Carola. Fr. Carola is a rock solid Jesuit who knows absolutly everyone...even the Pope! He was talking about our community life etc...and it was just so beautiful. He has so much wisdom! Every Wednesday we have community nights. At 5:30 there is a holy hour accompanied by confessions. Then at 6:30 we have mass. Following mass we meet together to discuss various topics and visit with various guests. Many bishops and cardinals have come before. Fr. said that he things George Weigel will be coming and even Scott Hahn! Not to mention ARCHBISHOP BURKE!!! :) Following we have dinner together and night prayer. We have our first official one this Wednesday. :) Fr. said he used to ask Pope Benedict when he was Cardinal Ratzinger...but unfortunatly he's a bit busy now to be able to do that.

Wow. I'm so excited! :) And just what a great time to come together as a community...this wonderful community that I feel we already have been forming!

Yesterday we had an intro to Dominican kind of class with Fr. Charles at the Ang. Then Marisa and I went grocery shopping...and got way lost. We eventually found it though :) And a place to get our own Mary's sandwhiches! (Ah I miss Mary at the Binz at St. Thomas....) Mary's Snack Bar...had some yummy egg bacon sandwhich. YAY meat!

Then we had Italian class. Marta...our teacher...was trying to talk to someone in the back and was like "quiet quiet I can't hear Sam is laughing too loud" and I wasn't even laughing! I'm already getting a reputation here...oh boy!

Then I went to evening mass at Sancta Maria del Popolo near our place. And also managed to make a yummy pasta dish all in the microwave :) Frozen veggie mixes do wonders!
I went to bed early because I was hacking up a lung. Everyone has a bit of the plague here and it is NOT good times. :(
Today we went to a museum Thanos arranged for us which really ended up being the history of the Roman sewer system...Er....neat cultural experience Thanos?

At 3 we have Italian class again and afterwards some of us are going to happy hour at the Hard Rock Cafe and then I'll probably go to mass and back here to hang out.
I am gearing up for one more week like this until we start classes on the 13th.
God love you!
Sam

Papa!!!

http://www.fotografiafelici.com/index.php?page=scripts/inserimento&num_file=226&cerimonia=8275%2003%20Udienza%20Generale%20Uscita%20Jeep%20Piazza%20-%20Exit%20Jeep%20Tour%20Square&data=2008-10-02%2021:28:37&cod=193&language=ING#foto

Yes we saw the Holy Father yesterday! I cannot believe it actually happened. It was quite breathtaking. We got to the Vatican at about 8 am and were almost the first group in. It was quite a mad dash/run/ (even sprint sometimes) to the chairs when they opened the gates. We managed to make it to the front left and Tim and Joe (some of our seminarians) let me up front next to them. They said the Holy Father usually will drive past in the Pope-mobile right in front of us after I got up there. And they were right! He came out on our side and was literally just 2 feet away! We had a group of girls from Opus Dei behind us from Monterrey Mexico! I thought of Fernanda immediatly. :) I tried speaking to a couple to our right in German but the guy I think was kind of embarassed for me and just started speaking English to me. Haha that was embarassing. It was amazing to hear the Pope address all the different countries there. There were so many!

The Pope extends his apostalic blessing on all of our family and friends back home...especially those who are sick and suffering. Know that I am praying for you and so is the Holy Father! Have hope! :)

I really cannot describe how amazing the experience was. It is pretty hard to grasp the fact that I just saw him and he was so close to us! A bishop (I think...or priest...or Archbishop depending) announces the different groups present for each language. Our group was announced and we all jumped up and cheered and we have a lot of loud guys so our yell was nice and loud. :)

So we were there from about 8am until 1pm...grabbed some lunch and headed back to Bernardi. I had some HUGE blisters. :( Had a nice relaxing afternoon on the terrace :) And then we had community dinner. Fr. Carola was gone (our chaplain) so we didn't have our normal discussion night we'll usually have. But it was a very fun night :) We ended up playing a wild game of Trivial Pursuit and got to hear some crazy stories of Matthew's summer job sheering llamas. :) He worked for a guy names Floyd! It was hysterical.

This morning we had our first Italian class with Marta! Wow it is weird... I keep trying to translate into German and I don't even remember German that well! It was fun though. We learned how to order things from the "Bar" (aka coffee shop) adn then we got to try our skills out at the Ang's bar.

Lizzie adn I then tried some pasta with some of the seminarians at a close pasta place. Amazing! Except I'm not getting enough meat because the pasta gets burned off so quick because we walk so far every day!

Then we met Dr. Lev back at the Ang to take a mad bus trip to the Catacombs of Pricilla. One of Dr. Lev's good friends gives tours there. It was amazing. We started out with mass by Fr. Justin and Fr. Dereck--both from the diocese of LaCrosse! Danielle--this is THE Fr. Dereck you know from Steven's Point! How cool! He just got sent here last month by his diocese to study. :)

But yes we had mass in the catacombs among all the martyrs on the feast of our guardian angels! Wow amazing...and claustrophobic!

Then Dr. Lev's friend gave us an amazing tour. He's brilliant...so must history just in all the art on the walls and everything...One of the first depictions of the Blessed Mother is on the walls! :) So much proof of the Church's history and the Truth found in Her. :)

Afterwards we had a crazy trip back on the bus and the metro. I thought we were going to die and was not appreciative of being dominated by many of people crowded around. Gross-ness. But that's okay...because we had martyr's dust on us. :)

Then Marisa Laura and I went for a little run down by the Tiber River :) And then went out to eat at a place where the guy greeted me in German and we had a quick convo. :) aha.

Well it's real late here and I have to get up early for Italian class again and then the Scavi tour! Saturday we are going on a 7 church pilgrimage and Sunday mass at the Vatican.

Woahs!

Love you all and miss you!

God love ya!

Sam :)