New Year - of Faith

We started another ESM year with a new group of students. As usual, we began on October 1st with a pilgrimage to Assisi. It was a great week. The students are lovely and so is the Team! We were also blessed to have two priests accompany us.

ESM 2012 - 2013

One morning we had our morning prayer at a little spot which looks over the basilica. We were singing joyful songs of praise, and we must have sounded pretty good. A television crew from Italy's history channel heard us and asked if they could do a story on us. So they filmed us praying and then interviewed us. Originally they were there to do a story on the Conference that was taking place, with a dialogue between 'believers and non-believers'. It will air on October 24th.

The programme was pretty-much the same as previous years - we visited significant sites, we prayed, we gave talks, we ate, and we had fun. One day we went to the Church of San Damiano which is where St Francis received the message from Jesus to rebuild His Church. It was a nice little walk to prepare us for what was to come later in the week....

Kev - donning his new hat

Each year we ask the students to put on a theatre night - the only criteria is that each act be related to St Francis or St Claire, and that they make us laugh. Well, did we laugh. They were hilarious. One of the highlights was, "St Francis - the musical". It was fantastic. In past years, the Team has been put on the spot because we haven't planned anything, but the students insist that we also do something. This has resulted in some terrible improvisations. This year we put our heads together for half an hour before the show, and the result was some terrible improvisations. Oh well, at least people laughed.

The next day we trekked up the hill (or mountain) to visit the 'Carceri'. This is an isolated place where St Francis used to go to pray, where he could be alone with God. It was a lovely walk, but almost too much for this old bird. By the time we got to the top, it was worth the effort because it is such a magnificent place. After wandering around for a bit, we had Mass at the outdoor altar.

Mass at Carceri (little prisons)

Just before heading back to Rome, we went to the Basilica of Mary of the Angels. The basilica was built on a site where St Francis used to pray. It is also where he died. We had Mass in a side chapel where he used to shed tears for his sins. It is called 'the chapel of tears'.

 Fr Fabian and Fr Rafael (not shedding tears)

On October 11th we went to Mass at St Peter's Square to celebrate the Year of Faith, which will finish in November next year. It was great for our students to be at a Papal Mass, and even better because two of them had been chosen to meet the Pope. Anna from Australia and Robert from the U.S.A. were given a message from the Pope, as representatives of the youth of the world. Here is an article about it from Zenit.

ESM students

 Pope Benedict XVI

Hele, Kristina, Kev

The following day we were the first group to lead a Rosary in St Peter's Square, as part of a daily Rosary for the Year of Faith. Check it out: Rosary in St Peter's Square

Now we are full-swing into the year. It is already very very busy...but we are managing to have fun!