Christmas

Our celebration of the birth of Christ was wonderful. Obviously it was difficult not being with our families, but we had a very blessed time here with our ESM family.

We decided to stay at the Domus (the hotel where the School is run) over the last few days because we knew that there would be a few late nights and early mornings. It allowed us to get more involved in the celebrations.

On Christmas Eve we all went to the Centro San Lorenzo. This is the International Youth Centre which was set up by Pope John Paul II as a place of welcome for young pilgrims. It has been entrusted to the Emmanuel Community. We had the Mass of Emmanuel - the first of the Christmas Masses. This was followed by a party. Then we made our way to St Peter's Square to sing carols in front of the life-size nativity. Many people gathered around to watch and to join in. This was amazing because it was dark and cold and raining. It sounded really good though, and the students loved it.


Christmas Eve in St Peter's Square

At 10:00pm the students tried to get into the Basilica for the midnight Mass. Normally we would be given tickets for this, but unfortunately this year we couldn't get any. Miraculously, they managed to get inside without tickets. Two of our students were chosen to do readings for the Mass: Adela from Nicaragua, and Monika from Germany. It made us so proud.

Kev and I didn't try and get into the Basilica. We went back to the Domus to watch the Mass on the television, while enjoying extra-special hot chocolate (more like chocolate mousse) and limoncello. After this I went to bed but Kev stayed up until after 2:00am to speak with his family in Australia.

I got up at 6:00am the following morning to skype my family, but Skype wasn't working. I went to the candle-lit Dawn Mass at 6:30am. I kept trying to skype but it was down all day.

In the evening we had our main Christmas celebration. The students did a great job decorating the dining room and preparing fantastic food.


Dining Room at the ESM


Hele and Kev

Since the beginning of Advent (the four weeks leading up to Christmas) we have been praying for our own personal 'Advent Angel" (everyone's name was put in a hat). We prayed for this person every day and left notes and small gifts for them throughout Advent. It was done in secret so on Christmas Night we had to try and guess who our Advent Angel was. We also received a gift from this person.

This was done in between the many courses and was coordinated by Matthieu who took it upon himself to dress up as Santa for the night. We certainly have some keen students this year!

The students also gave each of the Team members a beautiful gift - an icon and a card which they all wrote on. Their words were extremely kind and loving. We are very blessed indeed.


Fr Benoit, Fr Martin, Chidi, Santa, Hele & Kev

After dinner, the entertainment began. The students and priests had prepared many items for a talent show. It was hilarious. They are such a funny bunch. After about one hour, the dancing started and continued until well into the night. I went to bed after midnight though - getting old you know!

This morning I was finally able to skype my fam. It was nice to see them and chat with them. I miss you fam!

***********************************************************************

Tomorrow morning we will take the students to Paray Le Monial in France for a retreat with the Emmanuel Community. I look forward to the rest/prayer time, but also to catching up with some of our friends from Australia and other parts of the world.

As we approach 2011, I have been thinking about all that we have done this year. Apart from working tremendously hard here in Rome, we have also visited many many places. Here is a list of those places, starting with Melbourne which is where we were living until February 7th this year:

Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Lismore/Gold Coast, Australia
Manila, Philippines
Rome, Italy
Vienna, Austria
Dublin, Ireland
Paris, France
Dundee, Scotland
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Altotting, Germany
Paray Le Monial, France
Chiemsee, Germany
London, England (just Hele)
Minneapolis, U.S.A. (just Hele)
Altotting, Germany (just Kev)
London, England,
and tomorrow: Paray Le Monial, France

So it has been a very busy year, but a wonderful one. It is amazing how much God has blessed us since we made ourselves available to serve him full-time on mission.

Thank you for following the blog this year, and for leaving 'interesting' comments. We appreciate it so much!!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas, and we wish you all the best for the new year.

Catching up with friends

We have had more time to catch up with friends lately. A couple of weeks ago we had dinner with Jamie and Grace who are teachers at St Bedes (where Kev used to teach). They were accompanying eleven students on a trip to Italy. We met them at the Spanish Steps and had dinner at a restaurant nearby. We had pizza and pasta! It was good to see them again. It was also good because Kev and I don't get out much!


Grace, Hele, Jamie, Kev


Kev and Jamie at the Spanish Steps (inside the restaurant)

On Monday we had lunch with Jackie and Conor and Finn. We had pizza and pasta! Finn was being absolutely gorgeous. He just kept laughing and laughing. He made me feel like I was really funny - usually I am the only one who laughs at my jokes. Thanks Finn.

Finn laughing

Jackie, Finn, Conor and Hele

Yesterday we had a visit from Mark and Kate and the kids, as well as Kate's parents and sister Bronwyn. They all came over to the Domus for lunch. I don't even want to think about the fact that they won't be in Rome for much longer - it's too sad.

Andy Moore arrived in Rome last night/this morning. We have only seen him briefly, but he will be around for the next week, so that will be good. We saw him a couple of times in London a few weeks ago, because he kindly came to some events at the mission.

We look forward to seeing a few more familiar faces in the coming days.

By the way, if any of you watch the broadcast of the Midnight Mass at St Peters for Christmas, keep an eye out for two of our students who will do the readings: Adela from Nicaragua, and Monika from Germany.

If I don't write again beforehand, we will wish you Peace and Joy of the beautiful little Baby Jesus!

Mission in London

"Come to Me, Let not your hearts be troubled"

Kev and I are still recovering from our ten day mission in London. We had been preparing for the mission since July, so we still can't believe that it has finished.

We arived in London of Friday 26th November, and were welcomed into the homes of parishioners. The Mission Team consisted of 50 people, including the ESM Team and students, past students, and members of the Emmanuel Community from near and far. In true form, the Anderson family were all there!

During the mission, we met with and visited local people in the schools, streets, the shopping centres, restaurants, cafes, homes, hospitals, pubs, and of course in the church.

The weather on the first couple of days was very nice, but a bit chilly. Then we woke one morning to a picture of beauty...........


The street in front of the church

The snow was a great treat for some - especially the ESM students from Nicaragua, Brasil and Egypt. The local children would also have been pleased, as many of the schools closed down. This made things difficult for us, as we had been planning the school visits for months. We even had Fr Benoit and Fr Xavier come especially for the Reconciliation Programme on the Wednesday. We had to come up with other things to do on those days.


Fr Benoit taking aim... unware of the student behind him!

Some of the missionaries came up with their own way of evangelising, by making known the message of God's love on every single car in sight. Little did they know that this car belonged to the parish priest's neighbour who is a Freemason. Oops.


"God loves you"

The snow also meant that we didn't have as many people attending the evening programme as we would have liked. But those who came received a great deal from the mission. On the Thursday night, we had a Eucharistic procession through the street in front of the church. An Anglican friend of one of the missionaries said that he was so touched by the procession that he decided to come to all the events after that.


Eucharistic Procession

On the Saturday night, we had a youth event called, "Nightfever". Kev and I helped organise Nightfever for WYD in Sydney. This was the same type of thing, but on a smaller scale. We had a band (Kev was on acoustic guitar), a talk by Msgr Armitage - it was fantastic! We also had a play and a testimony, followed by a time of prayer in the church. It was definately a highlight of the mission.


Nightfever band


The crowd loved it!

The next morning was the last day of the mission. Archbishop Peter Smith celebrated the final Mass. Then we had a party in the hall. Many of the students were getting sad because the mission was coming to an end. That's what we want!

Archbishop Peter Smith and the Mission Team

On Sunday afternoon, we took the ESM students into the city for some sightseeing. It was nice to relax after such a hectic week.

Kev and Hele and Big Ben

On Monday morning we said our goodbyes to the parish. I will miss Laura - she did all the ground-work in preparation for the mission. She was a student of the ESM two years ago. It was great working with her.


Hele & Laura

We made our way to the airport via train. Lost a few students on the way because it was peak hour and they couldn't get on the train. But all turned out well and we ALL made it back to Rome safely.

Here is the Mission Prayer that Laura and I composed:

Jesus,
I seek Freedom
I look for Peace
I await Fulfillment
I crave Comfort
I need Security
I long for Happiness
I want more...

You know the desires of my heart, and you say,

“COME TO ME...
Let not your hearts be troubled”

You are the source of peace, joy and hope.

Let me know who you really are.
Let me become who I was created to be.
Let me know the truth.
Let me be more loving.
Let me know that that I am loved.
Let me come to you!

National Community Weekend

Last weekend we went back to Assisi for the meeting of Emmanuel Community members from all over Italy. It was only five weeks since we had been there with the ESM students, but this time we weren't organising anything, so it was more relaxed.

We arrived on Friday evening after a nice trip on the train. It gave me time to continue reading the first of the Narnia books in Italian. I may be finished by the time we return to Australia.

On Saturday morning we had Mass in the Basilica of Santa Chiara. Then we had a lot of time to pray in front of the San Damiano cross. The weather was wonderful, so we were able to enjoy the views, before listening to some great talks.

Hele and Kev

I just love Assisi. It is such a holy place and is so inspiring......

The gang from Rome

We were all so happy that we could hardly contain our excitement....

Carly and Kev

There were about 140 people at the Community Weekend, including about 14 Aussies. I was surprised at how many people from the Italian Community that I know now. Some of them I remember from when I did the ESM myself eight years ago.

Elena, Beppe, Lauretta and Hele

It was a great weekend.

Pilgrimage of the Seven Churches

On Saturday 6th November, we joined the ESM students and about 50 other young people on the Pilgrimage of the Seven Churches of Rome. It is a centuries-old pilgrimage made famous by good old St Philip Neri who wanted to keep the young ones out of mischief.

The pilgrimage was organised by the Centro San Lorenzo (our good buddy Bernard is the Director). It was advertised as, "20 kilometres, 7 churches, 2 shoes, zero euro". The map below gives some idea of how far we walked.

Map of Rome

We had marvellous weather, although it wasn't obvious at 6:30 in the morning when we had to leave home. Our meeting place was the Basilica of St Peter for Holy Mass at 7:00am. We were blessed enough to have the altar at the tomb of the great saint himself: St Peter! This was pretty special.


1. Basilica of St Peter

After this we went to the Centro San Lorenzo for some breakfast - coffee and croisants...mmmmmmmm. The first leg of our pilgrimage was the longest. It was a great opportunity to get to know the students better.


2. Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls

Before entering each church, we sang some hymns of praise and heard a bit about the history of the church (in english and italian). Then we had time to go inside and pray.


3. Minor Basilica of St Sebastian Outside the Walls

By the time we left this church, the sun giving us a warm 22 degrees, and it was time to eat. We had a picnic lunch in the gardens at the catacombs.


4. Basilica of St John Lateran


5. Minor Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem

Okay, we were starting to get pretty tired by this point. A few blisters were making themselves known. I had a little sleep on the steps outside the church while we were being told about the history of the place. I am sure it was very interesting.


6. Minor Basilica of St Lawrence


7. Basilica of St Mary Major
This is one of my favourite churches in the world - I take after my mother. She gave me a particular love for the statue of Our Lady Queen of Peace inside. If you are ever looking for it, it is on the left just past the first side chapel.

After this we were all pretty exhausted. It was about 7:00pm. We decided not to go out with some of the students who somehow, still had energy.

It was a great day - I highly recommend the pilgrimage to visitors to Rome!

United States

I just came back from the United States for a National Emmanuel Community Weekend. I am the Co-ordinator for the youth in the English speaking countries, so this was a good opportunity to meet all the young people, and the leaders of the Community in one hit! I also had the opportunity to give WYD a plug.

It was a strange few days in this great continent. Many things were familiar to me, but only because I had seen them on television or at the movies. I left Rome on Thursday morning and arrived in Minneapolis at night. I stayed with some members of the Emmanuel Community: Mary and Heather, both of whom did the ESM in past years. (In fact, the whole weekend turned out to be a bit of an ESM reunion).

The next morning we went for a lovely walk along the Mississippi River amid the beautiful autumn trees. Squirrels darted in and out of the path - I felt like I was in a cartoon. We don't have squirrels in Australia.


Helen and Laura - the Mississippi River

Later in the day we drove to some place, somewhere in the countryside (I don't know where) for the Community gathering. It was great to meet so many people who I have been working with all year via email and skype. One of the best parts was catching up with Jerry who did the ESM with me eight years ago. Thank God he hasn't changed a bit!


Jerry and Hele - trouble reunited

It was also a joy to catch up with Kelsey (BFF) who did the ESM last year. So, apart from all the wonderful times of prayer and the inspiring talks, it was so good to spend time with these great people!


Olivier, Fr Sean, Kelsey, Camile, Jerry, Hele, Heather

On Sunday we all headed back into Minneapolis, to the parish of St Stephen's for it's 125th anniversary. The parish priest, Fr Joseph, is the only Emmanuel Community priest in the United States (so far). The bishop was there, the church was packed - it was a very joyful Mass.


Fr Joseph Williams

After lunch most of us headed down to the lake for a time of prayer and street evangelisation. We sang hymns and prayed for the passers-by. Many people were happy to talk to us and share stories of faith and joy in the blessings of God. The kids of the Community did a great job handing out holy cards - the littlest missionaries that I have ever seen. It was great.

At night a group of us went out for dinner for Mary's birthday. Another unusual dining experience for an Aussie girl. We ordered from a family menu, which means that each portion is supposed to feed about four people. So we chose a few meals between us all and shared every thing. It was delicious!


Mary - the birthday girl, and Helen

What better time to discuss matters relating to the youth of the Emmanuel Community than in a diner for breakfast? Again, I felt like I was on a movie set. In fact, this was the diner used in many films including Mighty Ducks.

Helen, Kelsey and Jerry - all a bit excited about the situation!

Mary and Laura - ESM year of 2008-2009

Mmmmmmmmmm

My friends were surprised when I told them that in Australia we choose between bacon and eggs OR pancakes for breakfast, but never never never both. I was also happy when the waitress kept coming over and topping up our coffees. Surely this doesn't happen in real life !

Helen, Laura, Kelsey, Jerry and Mary in front of Mickey's Diner

I didn't tell anyone this, but I had a quiet wish of visiting the second largest mall in the world - Mall of America. Luckily it was also a wish of Jerry's, so he suggested that we go.



Clearly I can't contain my excitement

Mall of America is known for it's fun park in the middle of all the shops. It is a sight to see!

Rides galore


Jerry and the Ferris Wheel

Even though we both thought that ferris wheels were boring, we thought that we should go on it, so we did. Jerry wanted to go on the scary roller coaster, but I don't do scary. He said it was no fun going on it by himself, so I foolishly went on it. It had a vertical drop at one point, and several upside twisty-turnies. As I was getting out the girl who controlled the ride said, "You should have seen your face!". She said that she had never seen anyone go as red as me. I am not embarrassed because I was releaved that I didn't do much worse, like throw up or wet myself. I was still shaking an hour later.

The weather was pretty bad on Tuesday - the day that I had to fly home. I was worried that there may be delays with my flight. I was trying not to worry about the fact that I only had 90 minutes in Philadelphia to connect to my Flight to Rome. At the airport it said every thing was running on time. When I got on the plane, the announcement said that we would wait for an hour on the tarmac. Again, I tried not to stress. I prayed a Rosary and 'let it go'. I arrived in Philadelphia ten minutes after we were supposed to board. I ran sooooo fast between terminals, and was one of the last people on the plane! Phew. It was half empty too, which meant that I could stretch out a bit.

Well, it was a great trip. It would have been absolutely fantastic if only I had my Kev with me.

St Mary of the Cross

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop was declared a saint by the Holy Father on Sunday 17th October 2010. She is the first Australian to be canonised!


Banner of St Mary of the Cross - St Peter's Square

Five other people were also canonised on the same day: a Canadian; a Spaniard; a Pole; and two Italians.


Images of the six newly canonised saints at St Peter's

Kev and I met up with some Aussie friends at St Peter's Square at 7:45am, so that we would be ready when the gates opened at 8:00am. We are very blessed to know one of the Officials who works for the Congregation for the Cause of Saints, who gave us very good tickets to this wonderful event.


Proud Australians

The Square was absolutely packed, and the crowds spilled into the surrounding streets to be part of this day in history.


St Peter's Square - Canonisation of St Mary of the Cross


Pope Benedict XVI

It was wonderful to hear the Holy Father speak about St Mary of the Cross, who is such a good role model for us. It was a very proud moment for all Australians. The Mass was beautiful, and it was particularly special as the Gospel was first chanted in Latin by a deacon, and then in Greek by a Greek priest.


Our Holy Father

It was also great to bump into so many friends who had come all the way over from Australia - approximately 8000 - but we didn't know them all!


Kev, Hele and Bernard - we take holiness very seriously!


Part of the Aussie contingent