Hello everyone! Thanks for coming back!
This was the first full week after Italy, and this weekend we leave for a pilgrimage to Warsaw! Life has certainly slowed its pace after the fast pace of the streets of Rome.
We didn’t have any class this Monday, so we all were able to sleep in on Monday before getting some errands done. My mind has started to realize that I’m about halfway done here, and I need to start working on my finals papers! I haven’t had really any homework while here, which is nice, because the focus is to learn all the material you need to have a good final paper. The difficulty with that is that it’s very easy to say, “Oh it’s ok if I don’t get any work done today, it’s not like anything is due!” So this has definitely been a week of getting organized and on top of my school work after being a little lax before this.
Monday night as usual was community night. After a beautiful time in adoration, Fr. Bernardo and Fr. Jonas came over for dinner, as usual, followed by a game of spoons! Fr. Bernardo left the victor that night, and we all agreed we’re going to need to play another card game next Monday night because competition just makes community night more fun.
Tuesday was our first day back in class with our communication discussion class. Afterward, we hunted down a certain ice cream shop we heard was really good, because how else do you end the school day?
St. Anne’s Church has a little student lounge attached to the church, so Analise and I headed there next to do some homework and meet up with a few other friends. I left early since I’m on meal crew this week and had to get dinner started for the group. After dinner, we watched the documentary, “Liberating a Continent” as a group, which showed how John Paul II was an integral part of taking down communism in the 20th century. The devil definitely didn’t want us to watch it because the internet took a long time to connect, but we were able to watch it in the end!
Wednesday tends to be the busiest day with both philosophy and history classes. After finishing our tour of three gothic churches for history class (so beautiful!) we headed back home to work on a little homework before heading to our weekly private English Mass! That has been one of my favorite parts of being here. Having a private Mass is such a beautiful experience for our community because we all get to pray together in such a specific way. It’s also great having our chaplains able to write homilies specifically for our small group because it can apply more directly to our lives than if they were writing a homily for a larger group.
After Mass, we asked Fr. Jonas to come and bless some sacramentals we’d bought or received during our time in Italy and Poland, followed by dinner! Some of the group went downtown afterward to attend the Stations of the Cross put on by St. Anne’s Church. I ended up staying back that night, but I was shown pictures later of the beautiful procession throughout Old Town Krakow, with hundreds of people attending. It’s so beautiful to see a city so full of faith.
Thursday was our last full day before leaving for Warsaw. It was a very cozy day with all the rain outside. We drank a lot of tea with cookies while playing quiet music and working on homework.
After this, Analise and I went to dinner at our friend Joanna’s house and then went with her to an event called Christ in the City. The Mariacki basilica holds Eucharistic adoration with music and they invite anyone to come, and even go out into the streets inviting people to come and spend some time with Jesus! It was such a beautiful way to end the day.
This weekend I head to Warsaw on pilgrimage, please pray for me, and I continue to pray for all of you. Czesc!