From Guest to Host and 7 friends later...
You, my friends who know me well, are accustomed to the way I facilitate my schedule. I am one who likes to succinctly plan out my days and weeks so that I know exactly what lies around the next corner, I find that this eliminates any randomness which may impinge upon my hard-lined scheduling.
This being said, you all realize the aforesaid could not be further from the truth! [Let us rewind several weeks] I had just completed my final exams and was looking forward to a few weeks in Rome to be lazy, watch West Wing, and see the Eternal City, pretty close to that order too. So when I was sitting at my computer and a friend of mine [a mutual friend of my sister and I who is currently studying in Spain with Loras College, which is close to home] IM'd me and joked about when I would come to visit Spain to hang out, I promptly responded with a...'well, lemme see'. And 20 minutes later I had round trip tickets purchased from Rome to Santiago, Spain for 5 days. I was able to stay with a my friend's host family while in Santiago and everything worked out great! That had been my second visit to Spain since being in Europe and ironically enough both trips have been to Santiago de Compostela. It has been fun making these trips as I have been battling with language every time! When I am in Italy I get tongue tied and slip into Spanish and when in Spain I seem to be able to remember Italian really well, quite convenient! As you could imagine, it was and will continue to be a rather comedic situation.
I was in Spain for about a week and had an excellent time! Having been in the city before all the the touristy things were out of the way so I was able to enjoy my time and just chill out in the medieval town of Galacian Catholic historicity. While there I was introduced to the rest of the gang from Loras and I had an excellent time being shown new places of the city as well as sharing a few secrets of the city with them that I had discovered a few months prior. In short, it was a great time all around!
3rd person
As the luck of J. Trowbridge would have it his 7 newfound friends of Loras-ly academia were planning a trip to Rome for awhile and their departure from Santiago just happened to be the same day that Jer would be returning to school.
1st person
I was very excited about this little bit of information and had shared my excitement with my fellow international travelers informing them that they would be MY first guests in Rome! This grace and opportunity of both spending time with these Catholic College Students and having the opportunity to be with them as they experienced the epicenter of their faith for the first time was a supreme joy that will not be forgotten! A few of my friends were even inclined to join in my academic experience and sat in on my Morals class which is taught by THE Papal Theologian, the Dominican Priest who discusses theology with Pope Benedict to make sure he is in congruence with the proper theological understanding of the Church...my teacher! They enjoyed being there as much as I enjoyed having them there!
In retrospect this group of college students whom I had only known for 9 days had become incorporated into my familial fold. It was like I had known them for years, a phenomenon they reciprocated! I attribute this to the grace of God through the time we had spent together in two of the most popular Catholic Cities in the world: Santiago, the resting place of St. James the Apostle, not to mention the destination of thousands of pilgrims a year who backpack through Spain, and Rome the universally recognized center of Christendom.
The Lord has and continues to bless me by introducing me to all sorts of awesome people. And as I consider my future in His ministry of priesthood I am filled with hope for the future He is calling me to embrace. I look forward to staying in touch with these friends of mine throughout my priestly future; after all, it is for these, my friends, that I was led into serving Christ in this way knowing that there is a part of all of us that continues to exist even after our bodies cannot support life. This part of us, our soul, shall ultimately reside in Heaven or Hell for a time, until Christ comes again and our souls are reunited with our bodies for an endless period of time in that resting place of our final judgment! Knowing this I want to do all I can to help all my friends to find, embrace and pursue that tough and narrow path that leads to eternal life while at the same time exemplifying how they can embrace the gifts of their personality so as to live Joyfully in Christ!
Hmmm...
I love the Lord and the gift of Himself which He daily makes available to us both through the apostolate of prayer but more concretely in the daily sacrifice and communal participation at His Eucharistic table in the Mass!
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
This being said, you all realize the aforesaid could not be further from the truth! [Let us rewind several weeks] I had just completed my final exams and was looking forward to a few weeks in Rome to be lazy, watch West Wing, and see the Eternal City, pretty close to that order too. So when I was sitting at my computer and a friend of mine [a mutual friend of my sister and I who is currently studying in Spain with Loras College, which is close to home] IM'd me and joked about when I would come to visit Spain to hang out, I promptly responded with a...'well, lemme see'. And 20 minutes later I had round trip tickets purchased from Rome to Santiago, Spain for 5 days. I was able to stay with a my friend's host family while in Santiago and everything worked out great! That had been my second visit to Spain since being in Europe and ironically enough both trips have been to Santiago de Compostela. It has been fun making these trips as I have been battling with language every time! When I am in Italy I get tongue tied and slip into Spanish and when in Spain I seem to be able to remember Italian really well, quite convenient! As you could imagine, it was and will continue to be a rather comedic situation.
I was in Spain for about a week and had an excellent time! Having been in the city before all the the touristy things were out of the way so I was able to enjoy my time and just chill out in the medieval town of Galacian Catholic historicity. While there I was introduced to the rest of the gang from Loras and I had an excellent time being shown new places of the city as well as sharing a few secrets of the city with them that I had discovered a few months prior. In short, it was a great time all around!
3rd person
As the luck of J. Trowbridge would have it his 7 newfound friends of Loras-ly academia were planning a trip to Rome for awhile and their departure from Santiago just happened to be the same day that Jer would be returning to school.
1st person
I was very excited about this little bit of information and had shared my excitement with my fellow international travelers informing them that they would be MY first guests in Rome! This grace and opportunity of both spending time with these Catholic College Students and having the opportunity to be with them as they experienced the epicenter of their faith for the first time was a supreme joy that will not be forgotten! A few of my friends were even inclined to join in my academic experience and sat in on my Morals class which is taught by THE Papal Theologian, the Dominican Priest who discusses theology with Pope Benedict to make sure he is in congruence with the proper theological understanding of the Church...my teacher! They enjoyed being there as much as I enjoyed having them there!
In retrospect this group of college students whom I had only known for 9 days had become incorporated into my familial fold. It was like I had known them for years, a phenomenon they reciprocated! I attribute this to the grace of God through the time we had spent together in two of the most popular Catholic Cities in the world: Santiago, the resting place of St. James the Apostle, not to mention the destination of thousands of pilgrims a year who backpack through Spain, and Rome the universally recognized center of Christendom.
The Lord has and continues to bless me by introducing me to all sorts of awesome people. And as I consider my future in His ministry of priesthood I am filled with hope for the future He is calling me to embrace. I look forward to staying in touch with these friends of mine throughout my priestly future; after all, it is for these, my friends, that I was led into serving Christ in this way knowing that there is a part of all of us that continues to exist even after our bodies cannot support life. This part of us, our soul, shall ultimately reside in Heaven or Hell for a time, until Christ comes again and our souls are reunited with our bodies for an endless period of time in that resting place of our final judgment! Knowing this I want to do all I can to help all my friends to find, embrace and pursue that tough and narrow path that leads to eternal life while at the same time exemplifying how they can embrace the gifts of their personality so as to live Joyfully in Christ!
Hmmm...
I love the Lord and the gift of Himself which He daily makes available to us both through the apostolate of prayer but more concretely in the daily sacrifice and communal participation at His Eucharistic table in the Mass!
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
posted by Jeremy Trowbridge at 11:32 AM
3 comments
