Rome: Day 3

We started the day with a walking tour that highlighted some of the famous Roman buildings as well as paintings in various churches. In the afternoon, we took a trip to St. Paul’s Basilica outside the city walls where we got to celebrate Mass. 

Rome: Day 2

On our second full day in Rome, we started the morning with Mass at St. Cosmos and Damien Basilica, which is the motherhouse for the TOR Friars. After, we spent the rest of the morning on a walking tour that focused on Ancient Rome and the life of the early Christians. We had free time in the afternoon to explore Rome on our own and then got to go on the scavi tour beneath St. Peter’s. The Scavi tour is a tour of an ancient burial grounds underneath St. Peter’s Basilica that contains the bones of St. Peter. We ended the night with praise and worship at the Pontifical North American College led by the seminarians there.

Rome: Day 1

I spent my first day in Rome hanging out at the Vatican. We climbed the cupola first thing in the morning and then went to Mass inside St. Peter’s. Right after Mass, we stood outside in the square to pray the Angelus with Pope Benedict XVI. During the afternoon, we got a tour of St. Peter’s by some members of the NAC.

On March 1st, all of us in Gaming finished up midterms and rushed to the train station to start our first ten day break. Before heading to Rome to catch up with the school, my friends and decided to take a small pre-trip to Florence. In Florence, we went to various art museums and even got to see the David. After buying our first gelato of the trip, we spent our afternoon walking along the river and hiking up to the highest point of the city. As you can see, there’s nothing that can beat the Tuscan countryside.

I feel super blessed to have spent my 20th birthday in Austria. Although my birthday fell right in the middle of midterms, I was able to take the night off of studying and head down to the Keller with some of my friends. Two days later, I left for my ten day break in Italy….I don’t think a birthday could get much better than that :)

I worte this after my pilgirmage to Poland two weeks ago. It’s inspired by everything I saw and experienced there as well as Professor Cassidy’s Divine Mercy class that I’m taking here in Austria.

Huge thanks to my awesome music team for helping get this recording!

About ten days ago, I went on a weekend pilgrimage to Poland. We left the Kartause around 8pm on Thursday and arrived in Czestochowa at 6am, which was just in time for the unveiling of the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa at the Basilica. Afterwards, we got to celebrate Mass in the image chapel. That afternoon, we toured Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. While there, I got to pray outside the cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe. The next day, we spent in Krakow and got to visit the Divine Mercy Shrine where St. Faustina lived. We spent Sunday in Wadowice, the hometown of Bl. Pope John Paul II. We visited his home parish and got to pray outside his baptismal font. Overall, Poland has been my favorite place that I’ve been. The people, culture, and atmosphere were incredible and I’m hoping to go back sometime this semester

I decided to spend this weekend in Gaming and go skiing with some of my friends. We drove about 30 minutes away to a town called Lakenhop. Lakenhop sits right on the edge of the Alps and was breathtakingly gorgeous. I’m not much of a skier, but was able to hold my own on the slopes. Now I can officially cross skiing in the Alps off my bucket list :)

I left on February 3rd to spend a weekend in Budapest, Hungary. The weekend was full of adventures including spending a day at the famous Baths, shopping at the markets, and hiking up Buda mountain. Budapest was a gorgeous city and the highlight for me was the Cave Church, where we got to celebrate Mass in Magyar.

This past weekend was our school trip to Salzburg, Austria. This is where The Sound of Music was filmed. We got to tour all the different locations where they filmed as well as other parts of historical Salzburg. That night, we got to hear the Salzburg Orchestra perform a some Mozart classics and the next morning, Mozart’s Mass pieces were featured during Sunday Mass at the Catherdral. Everyone’s favorite part of Salzburg was the Augustiner Brewery. The Augustiner is famous for their beer, an it did not disappoint! On our way back to Gaming, we stopped in the small town of Mondsee for lunch and to tour the Church where the wedding for the Sound of Music was filmed.