Lauretta's wedding

On Saturday, Kev and I went to our friend Lauretta's wedding. It was our first Italian wedding.

The lovely bride organised for a bus to pick up some of her guests...very thoughtful indeed! The service was to begin at 11:00am. We got to the Domus at 7:30am and waited with some other friends for the bus to arrive. In true Italian form, it arrived at 8:30am. I suppose that it had to manage with  driving in bad conditions, after another snow storm the night before.  The bus drove us all over the place, stopping occasionaly to pick up other guests. After two hours, we passed Termini train station, which is about one hour walk from where we started. Then at 11:30am, we picked up the groom. The bus remained stationary while he greeted every single person on the bus - most of whom he hadn't met before. Then he got into a car which drove in front of the bus. We got to the church at 12:10pm. We knew that we wouldn't miss much, because we were with the groom and half of the guests. The dear bride waited in a car outside the church until we arrived.

Lauretta and Pino

After the wedding, we were invited to a buffet at a nearby restaurant. We thought it would be very simple, as the close family and friends were invited to the reception afterwards.  We were so surprised as it was such a swell affair. We ate such delicious food, and had an ample amount of beverages.

Carly at the reception

 Bernard, Simon, Carly, Kev

Claire, Bernard, Simon, Kev, Hele, Carly

Hele and Kev in a casual pose

 Hele and Kev in the snow - yay!

Then the snow ball fights began. It was great fun. It didn't matter that we were all dressed up.  It was a sight to see.

More snow

The snow continued to fall lightly all afternoon and through the night.

Kev in St Peter's Square - before the heavy snowfall



Hele and Kev in St Peter's Square

I was delighted to wake up on Saturday morning to look out my window and see everything covered in a thick blanket of snow. People were out on the streets playing, throwing snowballs and building snowmen.  It was such fun!

In front of our apartment

Around the corner from our place

Today there are still remains of the snow but it is mostly just ice. There are still some good patches of snow that can be used for emergency snowball fights though!

 

 

Domus Aurelia - ESM

Snow

After a week and a half in beautiful summery Australia, I am now experiencing cold wintry Rome.

Last week I was at the beach, now I am in the snow!!

It started of slowly....

Then got a bit heavier....

It started to leave a beautiful white blanket....

Then the snow fights began!

It was great because it started snowing at one of the few times when the students had free time on the schedule. They started throwing snowballs at each other, from one balcony to the other. They also took delight in being able to throw projectiles at the directors of the School!



Australia

I just returned from a lovely trip to Australia. It was part work, part holiday.

My purpose for going, was to attend the National Retreat of the Emmanuel Community which took place in Dromana (Mornington Peninsula). In this way, I could have several meetings regarding Emmanuel Youth, without having to travel all over the country.

I left Rome on a Monday night and arrived bright and early on the following Wednesday. I was greeted at the airport by my brother Alex and my two darling nephews, Mikey and Timmy. I enjoyed a couple of relaxing days at mum and dads. One afternoon I had the pleasure of a visit from three of mum's sisters, who never fail to entertain.

Then on the weekend I went to the retreat. Apart from the meetings, I was able to get a lot out of the times of prayer and the wonderful talks. To read about the weekend and to see pictures, check out this article written by my friend Fiona Basile. It was also wonderful to catch up with so many of my dear friends. It was so hard to say goodbye to them at the end of the weekend. I bawled and bawled.

I spent the following week at mum and dads, and basically went no where but Mass and the beach. I was in much need of a holiday as we really haven't stopped since WYD in Madrid last August.

On January 26th, we celebrated Australia Day in true fashion, by having a barbeque in the backyard. It was not the same without Kev, but Paul did a fabo job of cooking up the meat.

Dad and Paul preparing the Australia Day lunch

Me, Mum, dad, Paul, Alex, Steph, Mikey, Timmy, Dave and Jennifer

I hadn't seen most of dad's side of the family in a while, so we invited them to afternoon tea. It was splendid fun.

Hele, Penny, Steph, Alex

 Penny, Hele, Nina

Hele, Nick, Rachel

The whole clan

Mum and Hele

Dad, Steph, Paul

I had such a nice time in warm, sunny Australia with temperatures in the 30s. But, I missed my Kev, and the mission called, so I returned to Rome.

 

Christmas and New Year

We did a little Christmas mission on a couple of afternoons leading up to Christmas. Basically it involved singing carols on the street near St Peter's Square, and speaking to the people about what Christmas means to the. It was great. We offered each person a small candle that they could light at home to say a prayer for their family this Christmas.

Christmas eve was very busy. The ESM spent the afternoon on the streets near the main train station, speaking with the homeless, and offereing them a small Christmas gift - some homemade biscuits. Unfortunately, I couldn't go, but it went very well.

Then in the evening, we went to the first of the four Christmas Masses. It began at the Youth Centre with Mass at 6pm, and was followed by a little party. Then we went to Mass with the Holy Father at St Peter's. It was a miracle that we were able to go. We weren't able to get tickets from our usual source, so we had to scrounge around for them. Slowly we started to get almost enough for the whole School to go - we needed 25 tickets, but only had 15. Then, by the evening we had 41 tickets and ended up giving them away to people on St Peter's Square.

Christmas eve at St Peters

After the midnight Mass (at 10pm) we went back to the School and continued with the celebrations - Fr Benoit brought out the whiskey! Soon we were joined by a group of our students. After this, Kev and I each called our families back home. I was so happy to be able to see my dear mum, dad, and brothers. (Unfortunately Alex and my sister-in-laws and nephews were not there, but I will see them soon!!!). We went to bed at about 3am.

Whiskey o'clock!!!

I somehow managed to get up in time for the dawn Mass at 6:30am. We insisted that Fr Benoit say this Mass in case anyone wanted to go, so I thought that I should be there. I am so glad that I went. It really made it feel like Christmas! - Then back to bed for another hour!

We then went back to the Youth Centre for Mass at 10am, followed by the Pope's message to the people in St Peter's Square.

Urbi et Orbi
Then at night we had our special Christmas dinner with entertainment by our students. It was a hoot.

Kev and Hele at Christmas dinner
We slept the next day.

The following day we went to Paray le Monial for the Fraternity Retreat. We were able to have lots of meetings with everyone who it is normally difficult to get in contact with, because they were all there too. It was great to see four students who did the School with me nine years ago: Leen, Olivier, Ricardo and Lili.  We also got to see Julian, who lived with us in the Mission House in Sydney in our first year of marriage, and has just been ordained a deacon.

Kev, Julie and Hele

Hele, Deacon Julian, Kev

After a wild (not really) New Years Eve, we returned to Rome on January 1st 2012!

Dublin Mission

After a couple of days in Germany, I joined the rest of the group in Dublin for a mission. It was in preparation for the Eucharistic Congress which will take place next June.

It was a difficult mission, as the Church is really in crisis after the scandals and abuses by some rotten eggs. But, we were able to bring joy into the lives of so many people, and to show that Jesus is loves and mercy.

We visited schools, universities, pubs and soup kitchens. We also spent a lot of time singing and speaking with people on the streets.

One day, Kev and I had lunch together for a bit of quiet time. We stumbled across an Aussie Pie Shop.  It was a tiny little corner shop that sold pies, ginger beer, cherry ripes and lamingtons.  It was great.

Kev enjoying a taste of home.

Three of our students from last year joined us for the mission. It was a joy to have them with us, and they were such a great addition to the team.

Juan, Kev, Hele, Lucy, Lisa

The mission lasted two weeks. We were pretty tired afterwards. I stayed in bed for three days after returning to Rome!

We will probably go back for another mission in June.

Quadlocation

I have created a new word that describes being in four places at the one time: quadlocation.

The weekend before last was extremely busy. If I went to everthing that I was supposed to attend, I would have needed to be in four places at once. There was an event in Rome for the Pontifical Council for the Laity. The ESM was asked to look after the music for all the liturgy. There was also a meeting for all the Province leaders of the Emmanuel Community in Europe, which took place in Vienna. I was supposed to discuss the youth of the Community at this meeting. At the same time, there was a Youth Leaders Formation Course in Altotting, Germany. It was also the first weekend of our mission in Dublin.

Kev took care of the event in Rome, and as it involved music, I wasn't really missed. It was suggested that I fly to Vienna on the Friday, to be ready for a meeting on Saturday morning. Then someone was going to drive me to Germany in the afternoon, before flying to Ireland on Sunday. I decided that this was a bit much.

So I flew to Germany on Friday morning and spent the weekend in Altotting. Although it was a very busy weekend (I was the MC for the event, and had lot of meetings), it was really great. I got to see a lot of the young people from the English-speaking countries, which is a part of my work that I don't get to do very often.

Altotting - getting ready for Christmas

I was so happy to see some of our students from last year. When I saw Kristina, she threw open her arms and yelled, 'mummy!!!'. It was very cute.


Hele, Kristina, Juan, Maria


Monika, Juan, Maria, Hele


Then on Sunday night, I flew to Dublin to meet the rest of the ESM for our first mission for the year. Needless to say, I was very tired.