Tour de Benedicts

This will probably be my last update from Rome as I am just nine days away from returning home to Iowa. We are just about to start finals week(s) which determine most, if not all of our grades for the semester.

Thank you to all the readers of this blog, especially those who have supported me along the semester with your prayers, e-mails, and letters. I keep you in my prayers too.

For my (most likely) last blog from Rome, I will post a few pictures from over the last few weeks relating to our new pope, Pope Benedict XVI.

First, a picture from our group tour of the Vatican gardens. One of the deacons from the North American College who helps lead us during our Wednesday Community Nights is destined to be a Vatican beauracrat some day because he already knows how to pull all the right strings and has all the right connections. We took a tour with him and saw this unusual sight just twenty days after the election of Pope Benedict. The gardener said that Pope Benedict's crest is "piu' dificile" (more difficult) than
John Paul II's papal seal.

This picture was taken last Wednesday by Tim, from our group at Bernardi.  Tim and Anna go almost every week to the Wednesday general audiences and so they know all the tips, tricks, and sweet spots to getting, well, this close to the pope.  I was really gratful to them - I was right next to the barrier, so I was pretty much as close as you can get to the pope.  It was raining cats and dogs that Wednesday until about five minutes before Benedict came out in his pope-mobile, when it completely dried up and looked like this.  He then proceeded to give his main speech in Italian, and then it commenced raining again.

I finished off my Tour de Benedict yesterday with a trip to Monte Cassino with John, Sara, and Dan.  This is one of the more famous monasteries that Benedict started, but was completely destroyed during World War II as it was caught in the crossfire between the Germans and the Allies.  The Italian government completely funded its rebuilding, and the monestary today stands almost exactly as it was before the War.  One of the only places that were not hit were the tombs of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica (his sister) which we visited. 

This semester has been a great blessing.  Again, thank you for your prayers.  I arrive home in Iowa in just nine days.

Be not afraid,

Noah

::::::::qdtb:::::::::

Successors of Peter, Vicars of Christ

Perhaps these two photographs, taken at the exact same spot right outside our residence, could explain some of the external events that having been taking place during my semester in Rome.  The picture below are posters put up by the diocese of Rome which say "To God," and were posted a few days after the death of Pope John Paul II the Great.

Only a few weeks later, these new posters had been put up, saying that "The diocese of Rome greets with joy its new Bishop."  The church mourned the loss of JPII, prayed for its cardinals to select a new leader for the Church, and now rejoices in its new leader and greets with hope the future.

Vatican events have calmed down since last month, but homework load has increased.  I'm doing a paper on the island nation of Malta and how it has been effected by joining the EU over the last year, also a project on church altars throughout the last two thousand years.

Beyond that, I am missing friends and family and looking forward to living in Common Ground, Campus Ministry's house of hospitality at UST next year.  I'll be living with three other men working to help create a Christ-centered community at UST.

That's about it for now.

God bless.

-Noah

QDTB

Today I got a chance to read the English translations of Cardinal Ratzinger's pre-conclave homily and also the address he gave to the cardinals the day after being elected pope.

Something that particularly struck me from the pre-conclave homily:

"All people desire to leave a lasting mark. But what endures? Money does not. Even buildings do not, nor books. After a certain time, longer or shorter, all these things disappear. The only thing that lasts for ever is the human soul, the human person created by God for eternity.

The fruit that endures is therefore all that we have sown in human souls: love, knowledge, a gesture capable of touching hearts, words that open the soul to joy in the Lord. So let us go and pray to the Lord to help us bear fruit that endures. Only in this way will the earth be changed from a valley of tears to a garden of God."

The notion which is being propounded in much of the media that Benedetto is a cold, mean, conservative who wants to make people's lives more miserable is quite unfounded.  I think this man has a good heart and an excellent mind, and we must only continue to pray that he is blessed by God to lead the church.

I, for one, am excited about the Church.  I am excited for his papacy.

To finish with a few more words from Pope Benedict:

"Dear Ones, this intimate recognition for a gift of divine mercy prevails in my heart in spite of everything. I consider this a grace obtained for me by my venerated predecessor, John Paul II. It seems I can feel his strong hand squeezing mine; I seem to see his smiling eyes and listen to his words, addressed to me especially at this moment: 'Do not be afraid!'

Yes, Be not afraid.

QDtb,

Noah

WOW.

God bless Pope Benedict XVI!  Habemus papam.

I think that probably everyone reading this has received a papal blessing today.  If so, it was the first blessing given by Pope Benedict XVI!

The story:

After returning home from our Church Architecture class, the news that the new pope was elected and that the white smoke had indeed been seen was proclaimed throughout the Bernardi residence.

I grabbed my camera and said to myself, "Don't think, just run."  Unfortunately this meant that the 200 miraculous medals I bought yesterday did not get blessed, but never fear, they will before it's all said and done.

Anna and I started taking off together and decided to take the metro.  We were so excited that will followed instinct and accidently took the metro IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!  We realized it only as we were crossing the river.  We got out of the metro and ran over to the other side, but when the subway came through it was completely full.

So we ran.  And I made it to the collonade just as I was able to hear the joyful cry, "Habemus Papam!"  I was in St. Peter's square (just barely, I think...) when the new pope was elected!

Wow, it was so very cool to be there.  It's funny because the viewers back at home probably know better what was said than I do, but I did indeed catch the general sentiment - excitement and hope! - I did receive the blessing.  From what I know, friends and family are also blessed through those present.  If this is true, you are all blessed!

Italians were soon cheering "Benedetto...Benedetto!"  Some were crying, most everyone looked very excited, or as one Italian woman said on her cell phone "Sono troppo contento, sono troppo troppo contentissimo!"  I am so happy, so very very very happy!  And we were.  It was such a blessing to be there, one I am not worthy of at all.  I hope that I was an "ambassador" in a sense, for all of you who could not attend.

So, onward!  May the new Holy Father guide our Church.  He who is no longer Cardinal Ratzinger, but Pope Benedict the sixteenth.  Holy Spirit, guide him.  Mary our mother, guide him to guide us into Christ!

And, be not afraid.

QDTB,

Noah

With the nine days of mourning for the Holy Father coming to a close yesterday, all eyes seem to be on the Sistine chapel and all hearts are on the Holy Spirit, asking blessing on the cardinals and the conclave.

Today was also a day of prayer for vocations, and we can see the Holy Father is still speaking to the church, even after his death with the message he wrote for this Sunday. You can see in it his love for the youth, and his challenge to them; his belief that we as young people can live holy lives is really a cool thing.

Fr. Mitchell, a priest who came on our retreat to Viterbo, had his reflections published by Godspy.com.

More news to come as the conclave begins.

God bless,

Noah

:::::qdtb:::::::