Rome Sweet Home

Bongiorno!

I honestly cannot believe that I just spent a week in Rome! God's goodness was abundant throughout this holy and sacred week, and I could truly spend months reflecting on what I saw, heard, and experienced while over there.

St. Peter's Bascillica at 6am

One thing that amazed me about this trip was how well organized it was for a group of 100 of us FOCUS missionaries to see Rome, participate in discussion on the New Evangelization, and offer encouragement to one-another for each of our on-campus missions. We were true pilgrims in a land where many have trod before, and we sincerely felt God's hand orchestrating everything in His divine providence throughout the entire week.

The sunrise over St. Peter's Square

 On the very long trip home last Sunday, I was thankful to have the time to do some reflecting on the events of the week. While the entire week in itself was impactful, there were a few things in particular that really struck me while over there. Below are some of my reflections:
  
The Synod Fathers: Throughout the week, we had the blessed opportunity to hear from several Bishops and Cardinals who were key participants in the Synod on the New Evangelization. Curtis Martin, the founder of FOCUS who was also a Synod participant, boldly and graciously asked these strong men of faith to take time out of their extremely busy schedules to spend at least an hour with 100 young adults from the U.S. The insights that the bishops and cardinals shared not only on the New Evangelization but on every aspect of our faith were truly inspirational and also very humbling. It was exciting to realize that FOCUS is definitely not the only way the Church is responding to this call for a re-igniting of the Catholic faith in the world, and it gave great hope to me for the future of the Church and the world. It also gave me a deeper poverty for the global church, particularly our brothers and sisters in many African countries who are literally dying for their faith on a daily basis. Although we too are facing a crisis of Religious Freedom in our country, it truly put things in perspective for me hearing about what these fellow children of God are enduring in their homelands for our religion.

Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna speaking with FOCUS missionaries

Connected with Christ: Rome was chalk-full of relics (holy articles) of the life and Passion of Jesus. We had the blessed opportunity to visit many of these holy churches which contained these articles. Some of these included: part of the cross that Jesus died on, a thorn from His crown of thorns, the sign that rested above His head on the cross ("INRI"), a large part of the pillar which Jesus was scourged at right before His crucifixion,--- and the most impactful for me--the Holy Stairs which Jesus walked up right after being scourged, and which at the top He was condemned to death. Here is an excerpt from my journal on my encounter with these Passion relics: "...being united with Jesus' passion and my fellow Christian brothers and sisters for centuries and making an active choice of following Jesus Christ always--what a truly profound experience!! The holiness of these relics was palpable, the sorrow for sins was profound and sanctifying, and the unity experienced to Jesus and all who came before me on these stairs and with these items was powerful. I will forever remember this experience." 

The Holy Stairs-- as an act of penance for Jesus' death, pilgrims must ascend these stairs on their knees

The Papal Audience: On Wednesday, we attended the Papal Audience-- a longstanding tradition at St. Peter's Square where thousands of faithful Christians gather to hear a message and receive a blessing from the Pope. Being in the audience of the Holy Father with 100,000 other faithful Catholics was quite profound, and the universality of the Church truly struck me there more than anywhere else in Rome. The entire audience was translated into eight different languages appropriate to the people in the audience that day, with Pope Benedict speaking a short message to the audience in each language. From my journal: "What beauty that something so deep as our faith would be the connecting point between 100,000 people, at least 8 languages, and hundreds of countries on just a random Wednesday afternoon in Vatican City. Even the fact that Pope Benedict and his delegates take time out of their busy schedules on a weekly basis to do this is very humbling and beautiful."

FOCUS meets the Pope! I'm the really short one right across from the Pope in between the men with the yellow and blue shirts :)

Assisi: On Friday, we were given a free day to explore anything else in Rome or other parts of Italy. I took a day trip with about 15 other people to the beautiful town of Assisi. This is truly a pilgrim town, nestled along a hill that stretched several miles. My good friend (and former teammate) Mary spent the day with me making a pilgrimage through the hills and narrow cobblestone streets of Assisi. We visited the tombs of St. Francis and St. Claire of Assisi, two truly humble people who, though they lived in the 1100's, are extremely influential examples even today of lives totally surrendered to Jesus Christ in poverty and charity. This was a perfect escape from the bustling and at times quite loud streets of Rome, with many peaceful memories that will remain with me for a long time.

The hillside of Assisi 

"In you, O Lord, I have found my peace." Psalm 131 

As you can probably tell, I could easily talk about this wonderful Rome pilgrimage in much greater depth. Hopefully this gives you a greater taste of the ways that God truly blessed this trip. I am eternally thankful to the Lord for giving me this opportunity and have been alive with the peace and insights I gained while I was there. I am making a small presentation at our Newman center in the upcoming weeks to share with the students and my teammates the insights of this experience and how it connects back to the mission that God has set us on here in La Crosse and in our own corners of the world. I will be putting the slideshow I make for that up on here next time! Below are a few more pictures I really love :).

One of the many beautiful churches that we visited in Rome

The most amazing cappucino I have ever had

Pizza!

Ciao! <3