Excitement, Both Already Done and Yet to Come!

+JMJ+

I am afraid I am developing a coffee addiction.  I didn't want this to happen!  But the days are so full and the sleep is so short that I just feel like a new person after having a cafe macchiato (aka pure caffeine)!!  Heehee...someone stop me! (but don't really...)

My day started at 5:30 this morning.  I was up and on my way to St. Peter's for Mass (pretty much the only thing that could get me out of bed that early).  From St. Peter's, the others that went to Mass and I headed out to meet the rest of our class for Art and Architecture touring.  We arrived early, so we stopped at a cafe for coffee and breakfast.  I then proceeded to walk all over Rome in the rain with my class.  Rome is even beautiful on a dreary day!  We toured the Via Ostiense Museum, St. Anselm, which is the Benedictine House of Studies in Rome, the Basilica dei Santa Bonifacio e Alessio, Santa Sabina, and San Francesco Aripa.  Here are some highlights:

St. Anselm Church, the Benedictine House of Studies in Rome

Courtyard of St. Anselm's.  If you look closely, you can see St. Peter's looming in the fog.

Saint Alessio under staircase

This (above) sculpture of St. Alessio is in the Basilica dei Santa Bonifacio e Alessio.  St. Alessio has a really cool life story, so I'll share it briefly.  Time for a saint story!  So, St. Alessio made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and decided just to stay there.  However, after a number of years, Alessio began to become known for his holiness so he went back to where he came fron.  When he came back, Alessio didn't let anyone know who he was.  He came as a stranger to his family's house and asked for room to stay.  All of their rooms were full, but they allowed him to stay under their staircase.  He lived their for the rest of his life and died holding a paper in his hand oh which he had written his life story and his identity.  Upon his death, the pope had to come to pry the paper from Alessio's hand; the family learned they had been serving one of their own, all along.  The staircase in the picture in the church is the staircase that St. Alessio lived under.  St. Alessio teaches us a great lesson in hospitality: you never know who you might be serving or lending a hand to, so always treat them as Christ.

Orange grove through hole in the wall of Santa Sabino

View from lookout spot in the courtyard of Santa Sabino

A rainbow appeared just as we got to the lookout  spot!

Walking away from Santa Sabino

Get ready to have your mind blown.  This is the cell (now turned into a chapel) in which St. Francis stayed when he was in Rome.  We also got to see, touch, and venerate the rock that Francis used as a pillow!  Wow!

In the evening, some of my classmates and I prayed the rosary on Italian TV with Aleteia again.  I got to hold the World Youth Day Cross the whole time!!  Want to see?  Which reminds me, I decided not to take on the internships right now, in case anyone was wondering.  I think the Lord has something else in mind for me here...I wonder what it will be!  He's already given me so much!

After the rosary, the Rome program director took some of the students out for coffee (feeding my addiction...).  We were going to go to a talk on education in the Holy Land, but the speaker changed his mind last minute and decided to speak in French rather than English.  We left that event early since none of us could follow what was being said.

Students having coffee with Mr. Assaf, our fantastic program director

In other exciting news, I bought plane tickets tonight to go to Poland in March and I'm leaving in 4 hours (yikes!) to go to Assisi for the weekend!  I'll be praying for all of my Franciscan friends!  Farewell until Monday!

Random, colorful car I spotted today