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St. Peters Basilica: 7 Quick Takes
Rome — where do I begin? On some level, Rome is like every other big city out there — traffic, noise, the constant activity of people doing all the things that people do in big cities. But Rome is also strangely unlike any other big city in the world– it is literally bursting at the seams with all things Catholic — slowly the big city fades and you begin to notice that everywhere you look there is some aspect of our faith represented in living color. It is a city of pilgrims, of saints, of sinners. In a real way, it is a city that belongs to all of us — for what else does the word “catholic”…
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Florence: What Art, Beauty, and Naked Statues Have to Do with Being Catholic
“This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair”. ~John Paul II, Letter to Artists~ One of the reasons I love being around kids is that they ask the honest questions that adults are too afraid to ask. When traveling to Florence with kids, a question that will almost inevitably come up is, “Why so many naked people?” I’m not talking about the people passing by, but everywhere you look — in churches, piazzas, and museums — there are naked people depicted in very life-like reality. It might surprise you that the Church was one of the greatest patrons of the arts — and without the Church,…
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7 Quick Takes in Florence
You may have read last week’s post about our time in Assisi. If not, you might want to begin here. For the second leg of our family pilgrimage in Italy, we chose Florence. Perhaps it’s not the first place you would think of for a family pilgrimage — but believe me, there were many unexpected blessings to be found in this city. Please come back next week for more about our adventures in Florence, but for now I am linking up with Kelly for my 7 Quick Takes of Florence. Enjoy! The winding streets of Florence all seemed to lead to the Duomo – I couldn’t get enough of them! One of the things…
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The First Leg of our Family Pilgrimage and 7 Quick Takes in Assisi
“Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face”. ~Muhammad Ali~ “God doesn’t always give us what we want, but He always gives us what we need.” ~Me and about 10,000 other people throughout history~ If you missed my post last week, you may not know that we recently returned from a family pilgrimage to Italy. We had planned for months, and it only took the first leg of our trip to throw all of our plans out the window. We had to sit on a runway in Detroit because of rain in Chicago– really O’Hare — because of rain?! We were told we would have 15 minutes to run from one end of O’Hare…
