Busy week... playing pilgrim!
Wow, I can't believe the week is gone already... and that Monday I have a whole new round of classes again (yikes!). Before I go on - I have to share my good news, I was pretty worried about one of my final exam grades (Moral Theology), well, today I happened to be at the Angelicum and noticed that some more final grade results had been posted, including mine - I got a 9.5 (!) in my Moral Theology final, and a 10 in Spiritual Theology. Boy am I a happy camper right now, let me tell you... So, one semester down, another just getting started!
This past week, I've spent my time pretty much enjoying a (mostly) empty Rome - the time to be a pilgrim here is when there are almost no tourist groups herding about... as I've commented before. (At the risk of saying a self-defeating statement, I recommend all of you to come to Rome during January/February instead of the more "popular" times, sure it's a bit chilly sometimes, but it's mostly sunny, and definitely a more "Roman Rome" than any other time!)
On Tuesday, a good friend of mine, Christopher, flew into Rome from Minnesota "on business" (kind of... he is part of the Saint Paul's Outreach, a group that does apostolic ministry to college students, they came to Rome to give a retreat for the seminarians at the NAC). Christopher studied here on the UST Catholic Studies in Rome program last spring (a year ago already!), and so he and I had fun just rambling around Rome for a few days. On Tuesday we met up for lunch and then wandered from the Ang to the Trevi to Piazza Navona, eating gelato and so on. Christopher also came over to Bernardi and joined us for the Wednesday evening gathering (Mass & dinner), and we also got together and spent most of the day Thursday "church hopping" - mostly looking for places I hadn't been to yet, and most of the ones on my previously mentioned "wish list"... More on that later.
In between, on Wednesday morning/afternoon I met up with Zadok the Roman down at the obelisk by St. John Lateran - we walked across the southern part of Rome, from St. John Lateran over to the Aventine hill, stopping at churches all along the way, and then picked up the tram from the Aventine to San Lorenzo (open this time!), we went back towards the city center and had a late lunch and found more gelato before heading back to the house.
As for today - well, we met up with Fr. Carola for lunch, and then went to the Ang to try to register for an intermediate Italian class (and discovered the grades - yippie!), and then headed over towards the Vatican to go liturgical shopping (Fr. Carola sent us to pick up more copies of Christian Prayer, and we also had a candle snuffer, candle wick lighter, quick-lighting charcoal, and a "tassle pull" for the bell on our shopping list -- have you ever tried to ask for "candle snuffer" in Italian?? It ain't easy, let me tell you!! LOL! We got everything but the tassle pull though... wish me luck on that one, hmmm.)
And here I am now, on my last Friday evening on semester break. It's been a blessed week! I think I'll post a few pictures up and then go relax for a bit with Pope Benedict, before our nightly Holy Hour.
This past week, I've spent my time pretty much enjoying a (mostly) empty Rome - the time to be a pilgrim here is when there are almost no tourist groups herding about... as I've commented before. (At the risk of saying a self-defeating statement, I recommend all of you to come to Rome during January/February instead of the more "popular" times, sure it's a bit chilly sometimes, but it's mostly sunny, and definitely a more "Roman Rome" than any other time!)
On Tuesday, a good friend of mine, Christopher, flew into Rome from Minnesota "on business" (kind of... he is part of the Saint Paul's Outreach, a group that does apostolic ministry to college students, they came to Rome to give a retreat for the seminarians at the NAC). Christopher studied here on the UST Catholic Studies in Rome program last spring (a year ago already!), and so he and I had fun just rambling around Rome for a few days. On Tuesday we met up for lunch and then wandered from the Ang to the Trevi to Piazza Navona, eating gelato and so on. Christopher also came over to Bernardi and joined us for the Wednesday evening gathering (Mass & dinner), and we also got together and spent most of the day Thursday "church hopping" - mostly looking for places I hadn't been to yet, and most of the ones on my previously mentioned "wish list"... More on that later.
In between, on Wednesday morning/afternoon I met up with Zadok the Roman down at the obelisk by St. John Lateran - we walked across the southern part of Rome, from St. John Lateran over to the Aventine hill, stopping at churches all along the way, and then picked up the tram from the Aventine to San Lorenzo (open this time!), we went back towards the city center and had a late lunch and found more gelato before heading back to the house.
As for today - well, we met up with Fr. Carola for lunch, and then went to the Ang to try to register for an intermediate Italian class (and discovered the grades - yippie!), and then headed over towards the Vatican to go liturgical shopping (Fr. Carola sent us to pick up more copies of Christian Prayer, and we also had a candle snuffer, candle wick lighter, quick-lighting charcoal, and a "tassle pull" for the bell on our shopping list -- have you ever tried to ask for "candle snuffer" in Italian?? It ain't easy, let me tell you!! LOL! We got everything but the tassle pull though... wish me luck on that one, hmmm.)
And here I am now, on my last Friday evening on semester break. It's been a blessed week! I think I'll post a few pictures up and then go relax for a bit with Pope Benedict, before our nightly Holy Hour.
posted by Maria Neva @ 2/17/2006 08:13:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home