The Common Journey

Happy Easter!! Or as they say in Italy, Buona Pasqua!

 

In the past month and a half, I have had the opportunity to travel around Italy, including Cinque Terre twice, Siena, Rome twice, Assisi, Florence, Montichiari, Padua, and Venice. I am so grateful for the chance to experience these places!

I have encountered beauty beyond what I could have ever imagined.

The next series of blog posts are going to be a sort of recounting of the ways in which I have encountered beauty in each of these places. I have truly been impacted by what I have experienced and I do wish to share that with you.

What I am coming to understand is that if you do not allow yourself to be changed and impacted by what you experience, if you do not allow your horizon to be expanded, if you do not allow your heart to be opened to encounter the Heart of Christ in even the smallest ways, there is no point to traveling around and seeing new places.

Without this openness to change, what would be the point?

To be able to say that you have so many stamps in your passport book? To be able to post pictures of yourself on facebook at famous landmarks? To be able to say that you’ve been to dozens of countries?

If that’s how I viewed this opportunity to spend a semester studying and traveling around Europe, I would say I have missed the point.

This world is filled with so much beauty. In creation. In people. In the little things. But why is that?

To draw us back to our Creator. God has given us His creation, has created a truly beautiful world with irreplaceable people, to remind us of why we’re here on this earth in the first place.

We’re all on a journey; a journey towards His Heart and a journey towards Heaven.

We must allow the people and places we encounter to change us. We must allow them to draw our hearts back to God. And we must share our experiences with each other. We are not meant to keep encounters with beauty, truth, and goodness to ourselves.

And this, my dear sisters and brothers, is why I wish to share with you my experiences of the past month.