St. Peter's Rome EYC

What a great night! Thank you to our gracious hosts. They’re wondering why we don’t this monthly in stead of annually… we’ll see what we can do. Maybe sometime in the spring.
Merry Christmas from this amazing group!!!

Today, June 30th, was the last day of our pilgrimage. As we close out on our journey, I would like to reflect on what stood out to me the most. The first day started with a long plane ride and a bus ride following it as we traveled to Assisi. Before getting settled at the monastery we were staying at, we took a trip to San Damiano, where we met sister Elaine, who gave us an introduction of St. Francis. From there, I knew this trip was going to be special for me in getting closer with God. Assisi, a beautiful city on a mountain which had the most beautiful streets and grand churches. It’s hard for me to pick a church that stood out the most to me in Assisi because they all felt meaningful as there was something different and special about all of them, however, the basilica down the hills called Santa Maria degli Angeli stood out to me because of how quiet it was. To just walk around without noise and look at all the paintings and take in what was really around helped me really connect with God. Our second location in Italy, La Verna, was a smaller town up in the mountains where nature surrounded us. While staying there, we traveled to the Sanctuary of La Verna where the views were beautiful. A brother gave us a tour of the monastery and after we were allowed to go on our separate hikes. This gave me the opportunity to go out and explore and look at all the nature around me which really helped me feel closer to God. I felt that the reason St. Francis came here was for peace. A place doesn’t need to be grand and lively with people to be important. La Verna was lively with nature and peaceful, making it an important place to me. Our third location in Italy was Florence. We went to church at St. Mark’s which felt a little like home while reading the same scripture that we use at St. Peter’s. Even though the big city can feel like a stride away from the true meaning of a pilgrimage, it added a lot more. Here, everyone was able to connect together as we walked down the streets and ate dinners. On this trip, I got to know many people that I had barely interacted with before. I’m grateful to have had this group for a pilgrimage as we traveled the journey and grew closer together.
-Lucas Herring

Today, June 29th, was our first full day in Florence and while the busyness of the city distracts us from the true meaning of our pilgrimage, small parts of today reminded us of the whole point. I was inspired by Nick during our pre-compline convos when he said something along the lines of, “Even though the cities we’ve been in are so populated and we are constantly doing something with our fellow pilgrims, this trip can feel isolating because of the language and culture barriers.” I thought about this before walking into church this morning. Our visit for Sunday morning church at Saint Mark’s Church in Florence felt a little like home., with the similar Anglican Sunday service in English and its combination of coffee, cake, and conversations upstairs after the service. The priest talked about names and their significance, how being called bad names stuck and changed how we feel about ourselves and how good ones became an expectation to live up to. He told the story about how at the time Simon was called Peter by Jesus and that’s the only name that mattered from that point on. It reminded me that any name I’ve ever been called has never mattered because the only one that matters is what god calls me. To pull from the Songs of Solomon, "Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves."(versus 1:15-16). This plus the priests word put into perspective God’s unconditional love for us no matter what anyone else has to say or think about us.
-Callie Dempsey

Today, Thursday, June 26th, was mainly a travel day from Assisi to La Verna. It was still a very impactful day as we visited a beautiful church in Gubbio, the church of San Francesco. Visiting Assisi for those three days was very precious to me and something I will cherish for the rest of my life. From the beautiful churches to the amazing time spent with everybody here, I will always miss this place, but still I was ready to experience more about the footsteps of Saint Francis.
This church today, my personal favorite, was very gorgeous despite the fact that it was mostly smaller than some of the other churches we have seen. The church of San Francesco was located in Gubbio because this was a city that resonated a lot with Saint Francis. His dad was a merchant and Francis would often travel with his dad to Gubbio; in addition there is a very unique story about a Francis with a wolf. The story goes along with ideas of unity and coming together, as this wolf would continuously eat the people’s livestock and they needed Francis to put a stop to it. As Saint Francis goes to talk to the wolf, Saint Francis understands that the wolf is just trying to eat. He stops the wolf, with the agreement that the people make sure the wolf never goes hungry, and I thought that was a very beautiful story. This is a great story that represents Saint Francis as a person, someone who cares about every living thing and that animals are just as important as human beings.
Going into the actual church there wasn’t anything too different from other churches. However, at a closer glance some of these paintings describe amazing stories. One of these walls of paintings describes stories from Mary’s life. These were my personal favorite because I was able to look at these and figure them out piece by piece what they meant. The scene depicted moments from the before Mary was born with St. Joachim and St. Ann praying for a baby, to the birth of Christ, and Mary’s death and funeral. All these depictions were created with frescos which have beautiful coloring but are also weathered and partly cracked so you can’t fully see some of the paintings. Seeing these paintings was my favorite part of the day and a great way to show the magnificence of Mary.
With Assisi completely finished, we head out to La Verna. The drive up to this city was beautiful, an incredible view of this mountaintop city, and with this first part of our journey done, I can’t wait for what’s to come.
-Grant Molnar

Today is Wednesday June 25th, and today really struck home with me. We began our journey today at Maria Immacolata, our home away from home, with morning prayer and a simple breakfast. From that point we made our way to Basilica of St. Francis. This Basilica is really close to where we are staying, only taking about a 7 minute walk. The Basilica of St. Francis is a huge cathedral with many spaces for prayer, people constantly participating in services, and the location of the final resting place of St. Francis himself. This has been my favorite part so far because this was the building we drew several months ago for the fundraiser. Being able to recognize this monument was satisfying to see my study in faith was already paying off. Leaving from the Basilica of St. Francis, after a short lunch break, we traveled a couple miles to Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli where I navigated, leading the group down to the outskirts of Assisi from the main town. I made many mistakes, taking wrong turns or not turning where I needed to. To be honest, I was very humiliated with myself. After all I am a scout, I’ve led scouts through mountains before, but I couldn’t make my way through a small town? But during navigating, I revisited a concept explored by a brother at hostel the previous day. The brother spoke about a story where St. Francis broke his oath and ate meat, and he was so ashamed of himself that he asked his fellow friends to es**rt him in front of a crowd NAKED and shame him for what he’d done. However, the crowd did not shame Francis for what he had done. Much like the group that Francis had surrounding him, I had many kind souls around me as well. My fellow pilgrims did not shame me for the errors I’d made, even though they were many. They laughed with me, and continued to follow me as if I hadn’t made a single mistake once to begin with. When we arrived at Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, it was a breath of fresh air to step inside that church. Even though it was under construction, the church was quiet. The silence was so loud that you could hear whispers of tourists from the opposite side of the cathedral. In Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, we wrote in our journals, drew pictures, and sat in silence as we took it all in. One thing I notice upon exiting is how loud that the outside world is… and it was really hot… But from that point forward, our group took a ride back into the walls of Assisi, letting us enjoy our evening in fellowship. It might only be the second full day, but I feel a stronger connection with the ones around me. Coming into this trip, it felt awkward to talk to these new friends of mine, but I believe we all will become a bonded group by the end of our journey, wherever it might lead.
-Nicholas Bell