the pursuit of happiness: TBT: When in Rome....

Thursday, January 23, 2014

TBT: When in Rome....

Today I'm going down memory lane to my trip to Rome. I can't even explain how cool it was to be at the VATICAN. The heart of my Church. We got to attend mass at the Vatican and hundreds of priests were processing in, and I really thought my heart was going to explode.

That being said, we did consume lots of gelato here as well :)

A couple highlights before I delve into the photo dump:
1) The Jonas Brother's were in Rome the same time we were! Unfortunately, that was the night I was being tired and stayed in the hotel while other people went out to the Trevi fountain aaaanndd got their pictures with the Jo Bros. At the most romantic location in the world. And I missed it. I guess it just was not my day. And yes, this was the only time I ever regretted being an introvert. Of course, everyone somehow knew of my love for the Jo Bros and I got many questions the following day about if I had seen them and gotten a picture!! And no, no I didn't. But it was still cool none-the-less :p
2) This story is actually really cool and amazing. For those of you who don't know, I have a huge love for Bl. Pope John Paul II. He is the man. We have the same birthday, and I wrote to him in 5th grade and told him that, and one of is secretaries responded. Since then, I always felt like we have this connection. Now that he is in heaven, I know he and I have an even greater connection because he can pray for me :) So, we took the tour of the tombs of the popes (this was when his tomb was still down below with the other tombs, now it has moved up to the main church) and I took some time to pray in front of his tomb. Of course it was packed. There were people everywhere praying. His tomb was roped off though, and they weren't allowing anyone to go near it. And us crazy Catholics, like to touch the tombs/relics of holy people and especially like to touch rosaries, prayer cards, anything of the sort as well. I have a rosary that I had been touching to so many relics up until this time, and I reaaaallly wanted to have it touched to JP2s tomb. After all, he is my main man! So I prayed to him. Basically I said in my heart, Alright JP2, I know you and I have this special little bond going on, and I really would like it if you could make something happen here

I kid you not, what happened next was incredible. This priest appeared, literally out of nowhere, and walked up to the guard and asked if the guard could touch some prayer cards to the tomb for him. He didn't want to say no to a priest so he agreed. I found myself leaping up from where I was kneeling (so unlike me to approach strangers) and ran up and basically threw my rosary into the guards hand. He glanced at me, then glanced around to make sure no one else noticed, and then placed it on his tomb for a few seconds and handed it back to me. My heart was pounding so fast and I felt his presence. It was amazing :)

So without further ado, here are the photos!