Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Sorry... Again...
Unfortunately I have not had access to the Internet here in Madrid till now. It is pretty late and we have a long day tomorrow. I will try to put a longer and more detailed post up soon but know that Wprld Youth Day is absolutely incredible and Madrid is an amazing city. We are all in awe of the hospitality of the people and government of Spain and especially Madrid for allowing 1.5 million people and growing to invade their city. There are pilgrims everywhere and the joy in their hearts is tangible. The people of Madrid are experience a church that is very alive and filled with joy and I really believe it is changing the hearts of the people and their government. God is so good and he has blessed us with very nice facilities where we can all be together and beautiful weather. There will be more later but know we are keeping the prayers of you all and of the people of Phoenix, Arizona and the United States in our prayers especially as we prepair to welcome the Holy Father to Madrid tomorrow! We are all also very excited to see our Father, Father Don Kline tomorrow when he arrives here in Madrid! May God Bless you and please keep the prayers coming!
Paris
We arrived in Paris on Friday after a long day of driving. After eating dinner in downtown Paris we made our way to our hotel. He were all very tired so we went to bed to get a good nights rest.
We woke up Saturday morning and ate a quick French breakfast Of delicious croissants and jam and then headed for a bus tour around the city. We were surprised to learn that the city of Paris as it is now is a relatively new city. Most of the current structures were bulky in the 1800's and so the streets were much wider. Many people in the group throughout that Paris was a lot like New York City. After seeing the eiffel tower and the arc de triumph as well as many other famous sites in Paris, we broke from the tour group to have our own tour of the many beautiful little churches around Paris. We had holy mass as the church of the miraculous medal where the incorrupt body of St. Catherine, whom the blessed mother appeared to in order to reveal the medal, lies in rest beneath an altar. The church also contains the heart of St. Vincent de Paul which was very powerful for all of us to spend time in prayer before. We then headed to the church where the incorrupt body of St. Vincent de paul lies in rest. The churches in Europe are filled with relics of the saints. It has been beautiful hearing our youth as they realize that they have to be the saints to fill the churches of America. We went to several other churches around Paris including the one where St. Louis de Montefort said his first holy mass before meeting up again with the group for dinner.
On Sunday we headed to Holy Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. We were filled with wonder and awe at the glory of God which is so mamifested in that glorious house of God. Our eyes were all instantly drawn upwards as our souls were raised to contemplate the glory of God. After mass we were given free time to wander Paris. My group headed to a market to pick up food for a picnic along the Paris canal across from Notre Dame. We then headed to La Sacra-coure or the Church of the Sacred heart. We all fell in love with this beautiful church up on a hill shining as a light over all of Paris. It was a truly beautiful church. Many of us thought it was even better than Notre Dame. We were all very happy to discover that the church had perpetual adoration and so we were able to spend some time praising our Lord in this truly beautiful Church in honor of his Sacred heart. We especially prayed that the Lord would bless our diocese with an abundance of Vocations to the Priesthood. After spending some time in prayer we then headed to the Louvre museum where we were able to see many famous works of art including the Mona Lisa. After dinner we headed back to our Hotel to prepare for our day of travel to Madrid! May God Bless you abundantly and please keep us in your prayers as we embark on World Youth Day in Madrid!
We woke up Saturday morning and ate a quick French breakfast Of delicious croissants and jam and then headed for a bus tour around the city. We were surprised to learn that the city of Paris as it is now is a relatively new city. Most of the current structures were bulky in the 1800's and so the streets were much wider. Many people in the group throughout that Paris was a lot like New York City. After seeing the eiffel tower and the arc de triumph as well as many other famous sites in Paris, we broke from the tour group to have our own tour of the many beautiful little churches around Paris. We had holy mass as the church of the miraculous medal where the incorrupt body of St. Catherine, whom the blessed mother appeared to in order to reveal the medal, lies in rest beneath an altar. The church also contains the heart of St. Vincent de Paul which was very powerful for all of us to spend time in prayer before. We then headed to the church where the incorrupt body of St. Vincent de paul lies in rest. The churches in Europe are filled with relics of the saints. It has been beautiful hearing our youth as they realize that they have to be the saints to fill the churches of America. We went to several other churches around Paris including the one where St. Louis de Montefort said his first holy mass before meeting up again with the group for dinner.
On Sunday we headed to Holy Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. We were filled with wonder and awe at the glory of God which is so mamifested in that glorious house of God. Our eyes were all instantly drawn upwards as our souls were raised to contemplate the glory of God. After mass we were given free time to wander Paris. My group headed to a market to pick up food for a picnic along the Paris canal across from Notre Dame. We then headed to La Sacra-coure or the Church of the Sacred heart. We all fell in love with this beautiful church up on a hill shining as a light over all of Paris. It was a truly beautiful church. Many of us thought it was even better than Notre Dame. We were all very happy to discover that the church had perpetual adoration and so we were able to spend some time praising our Lord in this truly beautiful Church in honor of his Sacred heart. We especially prayed that the Lord would bless our diocese with an abundance of Vocations to the Priesthood. After spending some time in prayer we then headed to the Louvre museum where we were able to see many famous works of art including the Mona Lisa. After dinner we headed back to our Hotel to prepare for our day of travel to Madrid! May God Bless you abundantly and please keep us in your prayers as we embark on World Youth Day in Madrid!
Lucerne
Firenze and Pisa!
On this trip, every one of us has grown in understanding of the Lord's faithfulness. In so many ways, seen and unseen, our Heavenly Father has taken care of us to make this pilgrimage fruitful and blessed. This past Tuesday, we awoke in Montecatini, a tiny little town outside of Florence, and walked the silent streets to find the Catholic Church for Mass. The other EF group, which has Most Holy Trinity youth and young adults, and students from Northern Arizona University. Father Matt Lowry celebrated the sacrifice of the Mass for us in the beautiful basilica in the center of the town. After Mass we had breakfast, and made our way into Florence.
Florence, like all other towns and cities in Italy, is centuries old and has ridiculous amounts of history. We were dropped off at the Duomo and the ancient Baptistry and immediately in awe of the exterior of the church. The designer used three different colors of marble to build the church in a very ornamental way with intricate carvings of our Blessed Mother and the Saints. The Baptistry, located detached from the church, contained the Gates of Paradise, the famous gold doors that opened for the belt baptized to leave the Baptistry and enter the church.
The rest of the day we had free time to explore more churches, museums, take in the smell of real Italian leather, and get some amazing gelato, which was invented in Florence, so you know it was good :). A few of us took the opportunity to hike up the more than 400 stairs up to the top of the dome of the basilica to get beautiful views of all of Florence. FYI, this basilica is the fifth largest in all of europe, so it went very very high.
The next day, on our way to Switzerland, we stopped in Pisa, another small beautiful city. Besides the tourists and hundreds of pictures being taken of the leaning tower of Pisa, this place was quaint and quiet, and a nice resting place on our way to the Alps.
On this trip, every one of us has grown in understanding of the Lord's faithfulness. In so many ways, seen and unseen, our Heavenly Father has taken care of us to make this pilgrimage fruitful and blessed. This past Tuesday, we awoke in Montecatini, a tiny little town outside of Florence, and walked the silent streets to find the Catholic Church for Mass. The other EF group, which has Most Holy Trinity youth and young adults, and students from Northern Arizona University. Father Matt Lowry celebrated the sacrifice of the Mass for us in the beautiful basilica in the center of the town. After Mass we had breakfast, and made our way into Florence.
Florence, like all other towns and cities in Italy, is centuries old and has ridiculous amounts of history. We were dropped off at the Duomo and the ancient Baptistry and immediately in awe of the exterior of the church. The designer used three different colors of marble to build the church in a very ornamental way with intricate carvings of our Blessed Mother and the Saints. The Baptistry, located detached from the church, contained the Gates of Paradise, the famous gold doors that opened for the belt baptized to leave the Baptistry and enter the church.
The rest of the day we had free time to explore more churches, museums, take in the smell of real Italian leather, and get some amazing gelato, which was invented in Florence, so you know it was good :). A few of us took the opportunity to hike up the more than 400 stairs up to the top of the dome of the basilica to get beautiful views of all of Florence. FYI, this basilica is the fifth largest in all of europe, so it went very very high.
The next day, on our way to Switzerland, we stopped in Pisa, another small beautiful city. Besides the tourists and hundreds of pictures being taken of the leaning tower of Pisa, this place was quaint and quiet, and a nice resting place on our way to the Alps.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Sorry
Sorry we are a little behind on posts. We should be back up to date by tomorrow. We have had spotty Internet and have been very busy. Please pray for us today as we head from Lucerne to Paris! God bless you!
Firenze and Pisa!
On this trip, every one of us has grown in understanding of the Lord's faithfulness. In so many ways, seen and unseen, our Heavenly Father has taken care of us to make this pilgrimage fruitful and blessed. This past Tuesday, we awoke in Montecatini, a tiny little town outside of Florence, and walked the silent streets to find the Catholic Church for Mass. The other EF group, which has Most Holy Trinity youth and young adults, and students from Northern Arizona University. Father Matt Lowry celebrated the sacrifice of the Mass for us in the beautiful basilica in the center of the town. After Mass we had breakfast, and made our way into Florence.
Florence, like all other towns and cities in Italy, is centuries old and has ridiculous amounts of history. We were dropped off at the Duomo and the ancient Baptistry and immediately in awe of the exterior of the church. The designer used three different colors of marble to build the church in a very ornamental way with intricate carvings of our Blessed Mother and the Saints. The Baptistry, located detached from the church, contained the Gates of Paradise, the famous gold doors that opened for the belt baptized to leave the Baptistry and enter the church.
The rest of the day we had free time to explore more churches, museums, take in the smell of real Italian leather, and get some amazing gelato, which was invented in Florence, so you know it was good :). A few of us took the opportunity to hike up the more than 400 stairs up to the top of the dome of the basilica to get beautiful views of all of Florence. FYI, this basilica is the fifth largest in all of europe, so it went very very high.
The next day, on our way to Switzerland, we stopped in Pisa, another small beautiful city. Besides the tourists and hundreds of pictures being taken of the leaning tower of Pisa, this place was quaint and quiet, and a nice resting place on our way to the Alps.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Assisi!
We are very sorry that we have not been updating the blog the past couple days. The hotel that we were at for the second half of our Rome trip had very spotty wifi. I just put up the two blogs from day 4 and 5.
Today we had the beautiful experience of going to Assisi! We saw the incredible basilicas of Santa Maria de Los Angelas where the portiuncular chapel, the chapel that St. Francis received his call to rebuild the Church. We were able to pray and adore our Lord in the very church that St. Francis rebuilt with his hands. After this we went to the basilica of St. Clare. We were able to pray before the incorruptible body of this incredible saint. We begged her intercession for the rest of this beautiful pilgrimage and that she may especially bless our poor Clare sisters in the diocese of Phoenix as they work on building their monastery. After the Basilica of St.Clare we made our way to the house where St. Francis was born and lived his life until he renounced everything. It has since been turned into a very beautiful Church. Personally it was my favorite in all of Assisi. A truly beautiful Church. We then ate lunch at a beautiful little Restraunts on the side of a road and had the best food we have had in Italy so far. Then we ran into Seminarian Fernando Camou and Kevin Grimditch as they were finishing one of their Italian classes. Both of these men are seminarians for the Diocese of Phoenix who have been sent to the Pontifical North American College in Rome to continue their studies in Theology for the priesthood. They are both currently studying Italian for four weeks in Assisi. We joined them for "the best gelato in Assisi" and then headed down to the basilica of St. Francis. We were given our tour by a Franciscan friar from Connecticut. He showed us around this incredible basilica built over 800 years ago. We were able to go down to the crypt where St. Francis' body is reposed. The Holy Spirit was so present in this small chapel two levels below the main basilica that it was tangible felt by all in the group. It was truly incredible to pray before the bones of one of the greatest saints in history. We offered all of our intentions that were given to us as well as many prayers for our parish and for our diocese before him. After our tour of the upper basilica we finally ran into the pilgrims from Most Holy Trinity and Northern Arizona University. It was great to catch up with our fellow pilgrims from Phoenix. We then loaded the bus and were off for Florence. Many of us spent the evening down at a local laundry place washing all of our clothes. It was quite the experience trying to figure out what we were doing when everything was in Italian and seemed to be optimized for maximum confusion of the noisy American tourists! After about two hours we were finally done and headed back to our hotel. Tomorrow we will wake up for mass at the local parish and then head into the city of Florence to see the many beautiful churches and attractions in the city.
Thank you so much for your patience and for your prayers. Sorry about the spelling errors. It can be difficult to write these on an iPad. Know that we are praying for you daily. Dios te bendigo!
Today we had the beautiful experience of going to Assisi! We saw the incredible basilicas of Santa Maria de Los Angelas where the portiuncular chapel, the chapel that St. Francis received his call to rebuild the Church. We were able to pray and adore our Lord in the very church that St. Francis rebuilt with his hands. After this we went to the basilica of St. Clare. We were able to pray before the incorruptible body of this incredible saint. We begged her intercession for the rest of this beautiful pilgrimage and that she may especially bless our poor Clare sisters in the diocese of Phoenix as they work on building their monastery. After the Basilica of St.Clare we made our way to the house where St. Francis was born and lived his life until he renounced everything. It has since been turned into a very beautiful Church. Personally it was my favorite in all of Assisi. A truly beautiful Church. We then ate lunch at a beautiful little Restraunts on the side of a road and had the best food we have had in Italy so far. Then we ran into Seminarian Fernando Camou and Kevin Grimditch as they were finishing one of their Italian classes. Both of these men are seminarians for the Diocese of Phoenix who have been sent to the Pontifical North American College in Rome to continue their studies in Theology for the priesthood. They are both currently studying Italian for four weeks in Assisi. We joined them for "the best gelato in Assisi" and then headed down to the basilica of St. Francis. We were given our tour by a Franciscan friar from Connecticut. He showed us around this incredible basilica built over 800 years ago. We were able to go down to the crypt where St. Francis' body is reposed. The Holy Spirit was so present in this small chapel two levels below the main basilica that it was tangible felt by all in the group. It was truly incredible to pray before the bones of one of the greatest saints in history. We offered all of our intentions that were given to us as well as many prayers for our parish and for our diocese before him. After our tour of the upper basilica we finally ran into the pilgrims from Most Holy Trinity and Northern Arizona University. It was great to catch up with our fellow pilgrims from Phoenix. We then loaded the bus and were off for Florence. Many of us spent the evening down at a local laundry place washing all of our clothes. It was quite the experience trying to figure out what we were doing when everything was in Italian and seemed to be optimized for maximum confusion of the noisy American tourists! After about two hours we were finally done and headed back to our hotel. Tomorrow we will wake up for mass at the local parish and then head into the city of Florence to see the many beautiful churches and attractions in the city.
Thank you so much for your patience and for your prayers. Sorry about the spelling errors. It can be difficult to write these on an iPad. Know that we are praying for you daily. Dios te bendigo!
Day 5!
Another glorious morning, only this time at a different hotel and with three high school groups from other parts of the United States. Began with a guided drive around Rome, and ending up right at the Colosseum for a tour. Being in such an old gigantic, building contracted by the hands of men was mind-blowing. For those of you that watch the History Channel, it does no justice to how massive this place really is. One amazing thing that many people are unaware of is that fact that the Colosseum is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Come again? Yes it is! This place was built for gladiators to fight, and they were considered athletes at the time, and many people strove to be one. Then they Romans began doing public executions of prisoners as a show for the audience. As Christianity became prominent, they became the prisoners, and were martyred in front of thousands of blood-thirsty Romans.
Our Blessed Mother is the Queen of all Martyrs, so it is only appropriate that this once very dark place be dedicated to Our Lady. the Pope himself visits the Colosseum every Good Friday, in honor of the thousands who were murdered for their faith.
Around noon we trekked to yet another Catholic Church (they are literally on every corner) to celebrate Mass. We arrived at a church called Santa Maria.... (insert long, beautiful Italian word here), planning to have Mass. This church is Father Theilo's favorite Church in the entire world, and we were able to see why. It is the only gothic style Catholic church in all of Rome, and boy was it incredible. Also this is the church that contains the body of Saint Catherine of Siena (Doctor and martyr FYI!!!). For whatever reason, they were not having Mass at the time we expected so we thought we would have to find another Church.
Well, since God is so faithful and amazing, Father Theilo was given the opportunity to celebrate Mass for us on the MAIN ALTAR right in front of Saint Catherine. Another one of those moments when you ask yourself, or even out loud, "is this real life?" and it totally was.
After we collected ourselves and our excitement after Mass we split up for some adventures in the city. The hotspots were the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, The Trevi Fountain, and of course gelato.
Afterwards it was wonderful to meet up again with our brothers and sisters for dinner. We have truly grown together in ways only we and the Lord could understand, and we still have 15 more days to go. It will get harder, more tiring, and more demanding as each day passes, but having brothers and sisters along your side make it all the more feasible. We have got a lot more dying of ourselves to do and lets just say we are ready.
Dun dun dun!
Our Blessed Mother is the Queen of all Martyrs, so it is only appropriate that this once very dark place be dedicated to Our Lady. the Pope himself visits the Colosseum every Good Friday, in honor of the thousands who were murdered for their faith.
Around noon we trekked to yet another Catholic Church (they are literally on every corner) to celebrate Mass. We arrived at a church called Santa Maria.... (insert long, beautiful Italian word here), planning to have Mass. This church is Father Theilo's favorite Church in the entire world, and we were able to see why. It is the only gothic style Catholic church in all of Rome, and boy was it incredible. Also this is the church that contains the body of Saint Catherine of Siena (Doctor and martyr FYI!!!). For whatever reason, they were not having Mass at the time we expected so we thought we would have to find another Church.
Well, since God is so faithful and amazing, Father Theilo was given the opportunity to celebrate Mass for us on the MAIN ALTAR right in front of Saint Catherine. Another one of those moments when you ask yourself, or even out loud, "is this real life?" and it totally was.
After we collected ourselves and our excitement after Mass we split up for some adventures in the city. The hotspots were the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, The Trevi Fountain, and of course gelato.
Afterwards it was wonderful to meet up again with our brothers and sisters for dinner. We have truly grown together in ways only we and the Lord could understand, and we still have 15 more days to go. It will get harder, more tiring, and more demanding as each day passes, but having brothers and sisters along your side make it all the more feasible. We have got a lot more dying of ourselves to do and lets just say we are ready.
Dun dun dun!
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