NAC Orientation Part II - Castel Gandolfo and the Vatican Gardens

Well, brothers and sisters, it's been a long, long week since I posted, and I cannot possibly contain all of it in one post, so I'm going to be posting past events piecemeal. Two Sundays ago we had the great privilege of attending the angelus service at Castel Gandolfo, where the Pope had been staying. We heard the Pope give a talk on St. Monica and Augustine, terribly appropriate considering my home parish and pastoral assignment, and on the Catholic family. Even though I have seen the Pope a handful of times now and even gotten to shake hands with him, it is always very moving being so near to him and listening to the words of wisdom which pour forth from the man.

Here I am with the other Steubenville men in my class.

Here are the NAC seminarians waiting to enter Castel Gandolfo

We actually saw the Pope inside a courtyard inside Gandolfo. It was a small but exceedingly high chamber. Most of the people were center and back a ways, but we got to come in through the side and stand under and to the Pope's left.

...hence the poor angle for my shot of the Pope.

It was a good place to stand, at least.

After we cleared out of Castel Gandolfo we walked to a nearby restaurant overlooking Lake Albano. The food was spectacular, the view was great, both only superceded by the company. We had a great time- one of the tables of guys got rained out because they didn't have complete cover, so they had to move indoors. Don't feel too sorry for them, though- they got dessert first and even got comped coffee. The most unique part of the day came after pranzo. Archbishop Harvey, the head of the papal household, gave us a tour of the vatican gardens at Castel Gandolfo. It was a rather humbling experience to be able to walk through the Pope's personal gardens. They were, of course, absolutely beautiful, and since Gandolfo used to be a part of the Roman Emperor's summer home, there were serious Roman ruins scattered throughout the garden, some having been restored and some left the way they were, perhaps to add an air of antiquity. It was stunningly beautiful. Archbishop Harvey also informed us that the Pope had his personal swimming pool in the gardens. We could not quite see it, though, since it had to have a roof put over it to keep paparazzi at bay. We were also shown the vatican farms, which provide the vatican with a great deal of the food they eat. There is actually a store, open only to vatican citizens and certain individuals with a pass, where they sell the surplus milk, meat, and other produce from the farm, so you could go there and buy milk from the papal farm. Holy cow! (sorry, that was awful... I'll try to refrain from any other bad jokes, like it would just be ridiculous to comment on how the holy cows would have calves with the papal bulls... you can see how our minds were wandering a wee bit during the tour.)




It was really an incredible experience and I am grateful that Archbishop Harvey was able to get us in for a quick tour before the Pope came out for his evening walk. Last year's class actually had to cut their tour slightly short because the Pope was going to come out for his walk and prayers! After this wonderful event, we really hit the books and got to our Italian this last week. That went well, but the week was just constant movement. It's been truly great, but just as an example one day last week (I think Weds. or Thurs.) my free time that day, aside from my prayer time, consisted of lying down on my bed and staring out the window for the length of one song from my iPod to keep my sanity before running to my next meeting. It's been a real whirlwind, but I can't say that that's at all been a bad thing. It's really getting us oriented and settled in quickly. This last weekend we went to Assisi for a relaxing break, a little quiet prayer, and a chance to get to know each other better. I'll write more on that and other things next time. May God bless you all.


P.S. I suspect this post will need to be broken up into two since I think I've reached the limit of content. Either that, or the internet here is dying- either is a distinct possibility.


P.P.S. According to the preview, these paragraphs and pictures might get jumbled together. Believe me, if that occurs know that there WERE spaces in this post at least once upon a time...

NAC Orientation Part I - Rome Sweet Home

So I've been in Rome roughly 36 hours now, and what a whirlwind orientation it has been! I don't have huge amounts of time to post, as things have not yet quieted down (and my brain is a little fried still), but I wanted to get something up, at least with the pictures of the morning. When the six of us who were on our flight got in at the airport, Monsignor Gruss was there to pick us up along with a few of the second-year men. We got in and were immediately welcomed by the others and led off to pray midmorning prayer. We then got a chance to shower (praise God!) and have lunch with the faculty and the rest of the new students. We then were given a tour of the building and had a little time to think about unpacking.

This is the view from my room- our front yard. I thought the tree was actually rather artistic. Sadly, St. Peter's basilica is just a tiny bit to the right of what can been seen from my window, so I have to actually walk down the hall a little to see it. *sigh* What a tough life we lead here.

This and the two following are shots of my room. As you can see, I still haven't quite moved in, but I'm working on it. It's not luxurious, but it's a little like having a loft in downtown New York or something of the sort. It's tiny sure, but it's NEW YORK! Well, it's like that, except better, I guess.

THERE'S Saint Peter's. This is from the window at the end of my hall.

One of the coolest parts of the day come shortly thereafter, when we went on a very brief pilgrimage (as most of them are once you are already in Rome) to Sant'Agostino, the Church of Saint Augustine where St. Monica is entombed. This has special importance for me, obviously, since she is the patroness of my home parish, but it was also a great trip because we went to pray for our mothers at the tomb of the woman who so embodied maternal care and concern, without which none of us seminarians would be the same men we are today.

I finally got to bed around 10:30, I think, which wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been for the fact that I was running on roughly an hour of sleep over the previous 34 hours or so and the fact that we had to leave the college in our dress clerics the next morning at 6:45. That being said, I handled it better than I thought I was going to, I'm certain in no small part due to the graces from all the prayers people are offering up for me. We left this morning at 6:45 for St. Peter's basilica to celebrate Mass at the tomb of Saint Peter, which was rather moving. It was really great being at Mass surrounded by all these men dressed in their clerics discerning the priesthood along with me.

Here we are getting ready to depart, all dressed up in our clerics.

This is my class of 2013, all standing in Piazza San Pietro.

Here I am with Dan Ulishney, a classmate of mine from Franciscan.

I'm standing in front of the main altar in Saint Peter's. You can see the baldachino in the background. It is really breathtaking.

Shortly thereafter we took our Italian language placement exams. Those really weren't as stressful as they sound like they should be. I can't imagine I did nearly as well as most of the guys, since all but 8 of the 57 of us came over a month early to study Italian, but I don't think I did abysmally, either. Only time will tell, I suppose.

After that, I went shopping with Francis Marotti and got to spend some time with him. I've been most appreciative for his help already during these first 36 or so hours. It's been really great having all these men here that I know, though I'm trying really hard to spend time with all the others in the hopes that I get to know them just as well. I think that's it for now. Please pray for me! I've been keeping the people back home in my prayers. May God bless you.

P.S. Yes, I unabashedly plagiarized the title of this post from Scott Hahn, but I thought it most appropriate, so there!

My First Blog Post!!!

Alright, here goes nothing. T-minus forty-eight hours and counting! I'm almost packed and suffering from just the tiniest tad bit of trepidation. I wanted to get this blog up and running before the chaos ensued, so here it is. I obviously don't have anything impressive to show you as far as pictures are concerned (and I will spare you pictures of my clothing, nearly packed bags, nightmarishly disorganized room, saddened parents, etc.), so I will, as a test run, put up some old pictures of mine that are at least slightly relevant.

This was a picture of me overlooking St. Peter's Square back in 2006.

This is a picture of some of us at the Franciscan University Pre-The Graduation Ceremony in 2008. Three of us, Peter Van Lieshout, Dan Ulishney, and I, are all freshman at the North American College this year.

This is a picture of now Deacon Kurt Lucas and me in April of 2006 in the chapel underneath the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.

Ok, just for the record, I just realized how small the picture resolution is for these pictures- I'll take care of that in future posts... *sigh*

Very well, proper posts will be up soon enough. Pray for me!!! May God bless you all.