The past 2 days that I have been in Rome have been amazing! I am speechless on how amazing this place is. Everything I have done has practically left me in tears of awe, joy and just feeling overwhelmingly blessed! I know that this next 4 months will be some of the most blessed months of my life! I am diving in head first!!
We started Orientation today. I will tell you about 3 of the things we did. 1 yesterday and 2 today:
The first thing we did as a group was take a tour of the city. We walked for 4 hours. We saw Piazza Navona, Roman Forum, and the The Colosseum (and many little places along the way). Here is a picture of me at the Colosseum.
Second thing was that we had a group scavenger hunts with 4 people in each group. Our objective was to find as many places as we could on the list that they provided that were all over Rome. This was all to teach us how to navigate around the city and how to ask for things in Italian if you don't know something... And we only had 2 hours (we had to be back by 3:30 on the dot or else all our work wouldn't be accepted...so there was pressure for sure!) My group found 6/10 which was pretty good but it was a difficult time! We got back with 10 seconds to spare!! The phrase they want us to memorize is that : "every difficulty is an adventure." This is so true, and has helped immensely throughout the day.
The last thing we did was go to Mass at St. Paul's Outside the Walls Basilica (I walked inside and I almost cried, it was that beautiful and breathtaking!). Cardinal Harvey celebrated Mass for us- Cardinal Harvey who has resided in Rome for 40 years, was the coordinator for all of the Papal Audiences that Pope Benedict had and Pope Saint John Paul II (I believe-he definitely worked/works closely with JP2 and now with Pope Francis...He now lives in the Vatican). He also was in the Papal Conclave for Pope Francis! This was a big honor and was a very beautiful private Mass in English for us students. The night kept getting better and better. We not only had Mass with him, but he also came to dinner with us at a Pizzeria. Even better, I got to sit across from him at dinner, and this was one of the best conversations I have had in my life! There were 4 of us talking to him directly. We were encouraged to ask any questions we wanted so I took advantage of that in a heart beat! Some of the questions I asked that I have been wondering for a while were: What was it like participating in the Conclave for Pope Francis? (He can only say limited things about the events of the process, but what he did say was amazing!) There was a rumor going around that the Cardinals knew that it would be Pope Francis almost right off the bat, and that they really didn't need to go through the nuts and bolts of the check-list they have for voting as much because they knew who it was going to be- He confirmed that this rumor is true, and he said that the Holy Spirit came down full force from the very beginning and made the process very clear and to the point. He said that the "requirements and personal qualities" of the voting process for what the future Pope should be a person not afraid to speak about the faith to all- to be very welcoming and open, have a peaceful presence among others, and a Spirit that shows Christ through his words and actions. All the requirements he said became almost non-existent, because the Holy Spirit had shown them clearly who they need to vote on, so they need not do any of the research. And we can see that this was all true as we can see what Pope Francis has done for the Church in the just the last year of his Papacy! He went on to mention that it was a very holy and spiritual process for him, one that he will never forget, and one that he wouldn't be able to explain fully because he is at a loss for words when trying to say how beautiful it was. WOW. The last question I asked him was: Was there anything that Pope Saint JP2 said to you that you would want to share with others? And he replied: "Be bold. Do not be afraid to witness to your faith to others around you..there will always be diversity and difficulty but this must not be an excuse. Press forward in faith no matter the cost".
This truly was a beautiful experience tonight that I will never forget. I just had dinner with a Cardinal that knew/knows very well and worked/works closely with the 3 Pope's of my lifetime! That does not happen every day. Wow, I feel extremely blessed! And this happened on my 2nd day of being in Rome! I can only imagine what other beautiful things are to come in the next 4 months!!!! :)
Here is a picture of me at St. Paul's Outside the Walls tonight.
Peace and Blessings!
Anne
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