-Medjugorjie

On Friday I leave for another ten day trip. Guess who I'm going with. Yep, Anna. Anna Deitz, Megan Copelnik, and I will leave for Medjugorjie on Fridy. We are spending the whole ten days there.

My goal there is to pray much just like the last ten day trip. I want to pray for you. If you have any prayer intentions, PLEASE do not be afraid to send me some.

My e-mail is corbett@catholicexchange.com. Or, you can tell someone at home that you know I keep in contact with and they will let me know. I want to pray for you, please let me do that.

-Schönbrunn Palace

This weekend I had a history assignment to fulfill. I had to research a 19th century location and write a paper why it was relevant to the 19th century. I then had to visit the location and write another paper. The later is what I did this weekend. I chose the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, with a concentration on the Congress of Vienna which took place 1814-1815 in the palace.

I took Anna with me (of course, we are attached at the hip). It was a quick trip. We traveled there, saw the palace, and came back. I toured the palace and saw some of the rooms. There are 1,441 rooms in the palace, but I was permitted to see only 22. The rooms were elegant.

One thing I will note here is that I have recently been trying to learn about a particular image. It was in this novena book I have and just recently I noticed it was in there and became curious. I was reading an article from Catholic Exchange the day before I left for Vienna and the image was in there. It is an image promoted by the Vatican (I'm not sure when, though). I'm pretty sure the same image or at least one very similar was in the Schönbrunn Palace. I'm still looking into that, though. It was neat to have just read about it and then perhaps see it.

The day went well. No Anna and Annette moments except I got pinched by a large 'bug.' Anna said it was a lobster. It didn't hurt me, physically. We arrived back at the Kartause in time to make - of course - more chocolate bananas.

-Another Moment with Anna

The weekend after my trip to Rome and Assisi I decided to hang back in beautiful Gaming to catch up on studies and enjoy Gaming more.

I promised Anna that I would go see the waterfall with her. Right outside our campus are the Alps, and there are several things that you can hike to and enjoy. You can climb the mountains, go to Book Mountain and write your name in the book at the top, see the waterfall, and other things.

Anna knew that when it actually came down to it I would rather study theology than do something else, so I had to promise her before the weekend started that I would do this with her. And sure enough, when it came time to go, I was reluctant to go because I wanted to learn more. I did go, though.

Of course, there is still snow on the ground, so we wanted to see it while it was frozen and then see it when it was melted. In the beginning, the snow wasn't too bad, just under two feet. We got closer and closer and the snow got deeper and deeper as we went up the mountain. It got above our knees and Anna started to complain. I had a goal and I wanted to reach it so we continued on. The snow got to our hips and we still hadn't made it to the waterfall. I have never walked in that much snow before for that long, and knew that the snow was actually much deeper than that we just hadn't fallen in yet. We started to get concerned and knew this was becoming a bad idea for it could be dangerous.

It was funny, though, that of all people to run into this situation it was us two. I went a little ahead of Anna to see how much farther we had to go and the snow got to my waist. That was too much for me.

So with cold legs, soggy feet (even though we both had on water-proof shoes), and our goal not reached we turned around and went back.

Towards the end of the mountain Anna got tired of walking through it and rolled the rest of the way down. I got it on video. Don't tell her I told ya'll that. We then walked the mile or so back to the Kartause to warm up and ended with our daily task - making chocolate bananas. I did not realize how cold I actually was. My legs were blue (literally) for the rest of the day; they were not warm again till the next day.

It was still fun, especially because it happened to Anna and me.

-Gaming Day 10 Mondy

Back in Home Sweet Gaming. Most people slept all day. I had rested spiritually and physically all week so I studied and enjoyed the day off since we did not have school that day. There were only three days of school that week. There are not many days left of school.

-Assisi Last Day 9 Sundy

Not bright but early at 5AM all the students received a call on their hotel phone to get up to load the buses. We left at 6 AM to head back to Gaming.

The entire trip was beautiful and blessed. My goal was to pray more. I wanted to just get lost in prayer for that opportunity is sometimes hard to find as a busy student. Most of the days did not go as planned, only a few were slightly traumatic, but it all worked out and I enjoyed whatever happened. I was able to be still and know that He was near. I don't think I picked up actual schoolwork the entire time; those ten days were for God and me alone.

-Assisi Day 8 Saturdy

This morning was to focus on the life of Saint Francis. We began with Mass right at Francis' tomb. I was the reader. From there we looked at the Basilica of Saint Francis, which was where we just had Mass. I was very drawn to the frescos on the first level of the basilica. The tour then continued, but I felt I should stay and did not want to continue being so busy with school tours. I stayed back at the Basilica to look at the frescos. The frescos were of the life of Saint Francis, that covered two of the long walls and then the front of the Church. The school gave us a paper stating a fragment of information about each of them. I was still thirsting for more so I went and bought a book about each of the frescos. I spent most of the rest of the morning there. After lunch I came back and spent the entire afternoon there reading the book and studying the frescos. They are so interesting and have so much detail in each of them. Right before I arrived in Assisi I had just finished a book on Francis so he was current in my mind. I read the entire book I had bought that day. When I had bought the book I also bought a rosary. It came to be 3:00 Pm and I wanted to pray, but not without the rosary blessed. I went to a monk that was there, but he did not speak English.
I said "Pater?" He said, "Bless?" I smiled big and nodded yes. He said a long prayer-I believe to be in Italian- and then blessed my rosary. I went straight to a pew and prayed a Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Then I got up and continued my study on the life of Saint Francis.

When I get back, I am willing to show the frescos copies that I have and explain the significance of each them to anybody who wants to know. I am a visual learner, so it helps me to see images and connect them in my mind that way.

That was a great day for me. I stayed in one church the entire day. I prayed as I studied and just soaked up as much as I could, just like I felt God was calling me to do that day.

That evening we had Sunday Mass for the next day was to be a travel day.

-Assisi Day 7 Fridy

On Friday we had Mass at San Rufino. You could see the remains of the Church before it was re-built under some glass paneling. After Mass we were able to see a cave where Saint Francis liked to pray in. I really like praying there. I tried to go back there later in the trip but I was not able to. I think we had special access at that time, which I was grateful for.

I have some great news to tell you. This whole morning the tour was to be devoted to the life of Saint Clare. I have already been wanting to learn more about her. The night before I checked my e-mail and received one from my school saying that I have received the Resident Assistant position for Clare Hall for the next academic year. What was a neat addition to that was the next morning (this day I am telling you about right now) was focused just on Saint Clare. It was a great opportunity for me to thank her, learn about her, and ask for her intercession. I saw the Basilica of Saint Clare, the clothes of Francis and Clare, breviary of Francis, and the actual San Damiano Cross. That was wonderful to see in person. We then walked down to the convent were she lived and died. I saw the dormitory where her earthly life ended. I also saw the refectory, chapel, courtyard, and a large crucifix.

Lunch time.

Then we had a pilgrimage walk from our residence to Francis hermitage. That was a neat walk. Just when I was about to give up, for at one point it became difficult, a man that I knew walked by and asked to carry my bag. I let him. I am very grateful for that.

That night we had a Steubie-style Praise and Worship at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva Church. It is good to pray in community.

-Rome Day 6 Thursdy

We left Rome to drive to Assisi early on Thursday after I had one last cup of their delicious cappuccino. By the end of the morning we had made it to the outside of Assisi and visited the Portiuncula. That was neat.

From there we went to Assisi and had time to ourselves till Mass that evening. I took a nap. It was a good nap. I went to Mass at Chiesa Nuova. Then it was dinner time and the bed time. As my dad still says, "Big day tommorra," so I went to sleep in order to have a good start for the next day.

-Rome Day 5 Wednesdy

On Wednesday, my schedule was once again thrown off a bit because I woke up late - which is not like me but happened for some reason. However, I was still able to make it to another school tour that began promptly at 8 AM starting in the Vatican. This tour was four hours long and we covered many places. I went to Castel Sant' Angelo, Via Corona, Piazza Navona, Chiesa Luigi in Francese, St. Agostino, Pantheon, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Trevi Fountain, Capuchin Franciscan Bone yard Church, and Santa Maria della Vittoria.

I will mention a few that stuck out to me. At Santa Maria Sopra Minerva I saw Saint Catherine of Siena's body. I was not expecting this at all; it was not till I was in front of her that I even knew that she was in this church. Several years back Father John gave me a book to read about her and since then she has been special to me. In the same Church was a small shrine perhaps dedicated to Saint Rita. There were many frescoes of her. My devotion to her has been slowly increasing; it's not something I was looking for it has just happened. I have a small statue of her sitting on my desk next to my computer right now. This shrine was neat because it is sort of rare to see Saint Rita around, especially if you don't know much about her. I've read several things about her and things of that sort. It was neat to see the frescoes because I noticed things there that would have only been noticed by reading about her. For instance, why there were bees around her head when she was born, which was visible in the fresco.

The history of the Pantheon from a pagan place to now a Catholic Church was really neat. It was also interesting how the top of it was still open, so snow and rain still came through it.

Another thing that was neat was Berini's Saint Teresa of Avilla in Ecstasy. This was a neat statue, all white and much detail, in my opinion. I was only able to see it for a few moments, but it was neat.

After that it was free time till another tour in the afternoon. I wanted alone time after seeing that many places with so many people in such a short amount of time. So guess where I went - the Vatican of course. I sat outside and ate my lunch, said the Liturgy of the Hours, and just enjoyed being.

At 3 pm we met at Santa Scala to ascend the holy stairs on our knees. I prayed much during that. We then had Mass at Saint John Lateran. Instead of going back to dinner with the school, Rebecca and I were posta meet up with Paul for dinner. We ended up not finding the place, sad, and ate elsewhere. This was to be our last night in Rome, so we decided to go back to the Vatican (I just couldn't get enough of it) to see it at night.

We sat on the Vatican's left arm as I tried to care for my weak feet as we prayed and sang aloud a litany of saints. This litany consisted of any saints that we could think of, so it was long and beautiful. As we were praying we heard more singing, and thought it would be funny if it were students from our campus. We quickly decided it wasn't but thought that some of them really looked like our students. Then they sang a particular song and it was quickly identified as Frannies singing. As the typical Frannie thing, we joined them the moment we heard. We joined them at the center of the Vatican, by the obelisk.

This was incredible. Others started to gather. It was a very large crowd. Richard, a pre-theologate student, had brought his guitar and we just sang and praised the Lord together. The interesting thing was no one had planned to do this, I don't think. There just happened to be people walking around, even our students, and we just joined up. We didn't have to ask questions, we just sang. We all have the same goal, we didn't need to speak to each other. There were also some seminarians there and a priest that would be coming to America to talk at some of the Steubenville conferences this summer. We did not plan to meet him, it was just good timing. He prayed over anybody who wanted to receive prayer. This night was very powerful for many people.

-Rome Day 4 Tuesdy

This day started off by going to the Vatican in order to participate in the Scavi Tour. This took place underneath the Vatican where many tombs were. I saw a box of remains of Saint Peter's body. There was also a significant Christian mosaic there. These tombs were place here before the Vatican was there but also during a pagan time, so the Christian mosaic was a rare find. I also saw a sarcophagus that was Christian and pagan; the tour guide pointed out how we could tell this. I also saw part of the original pillar of the original basilica, before the Saint Peter's Basilica that we know of now was built over it. After that I saw the tomb of Saint Peter. The actual tomb! Saint Peter's material remains are in there! It was such an honor to stand there in his presence, asking for his intercession and praying for the Church.

After the tour was finished, I saw the tombs of John Paul II, Pius XII, and Pius X. From then I had time to myself till a tour that afternoon so I prayed in the adoration chapel and spent some time in the basilica. I accidently stayed for a Mass, again - that seems to happen to me quite often, I'm praying and a Mass starts and I'm oblivious to it.

That afternoon was a tour of Saint Peter by some of the seminarians from the North American College. During that tour our good friend Paul Kolker came and met up with Rebecca and I. Many of you know Paul; he is from our diocese and is in is second year studying as a seminarian at the NAC. He took us to a coffee shop and spoke Italian to them. I was impressed to hear him speak Italian, for he didn't know any Italian before he came to school here. It was great to see Paul and hear how he was doing.

By the way, the weather was wonderful the entire time, except it did rain much. As I am writing this, it is snowing cats and dogs out my Gaming window.

That evening we went to Mass at Saint Paul Basilica in another part of Rome. This Church was different . In the inside, there were portraits surrounding the Church of all the popes. That was so neat to see. I wish I coulda taken photos of them all, but I did not take any. After that was the usual dinner at the hotel with the school. I was not able to make it to adoration with the school that night because I was in search for a pharmacy with Ryan and Anna; however, we had a great time and ended up meeting with two Mormons from America on the road. They helped us out and it was neat to speak with them; I have never spoke with Mormons before so it was interesting to hear what they had to say.

-Rome Day 3 Mondy

This day was an experience I will never forget. I went everywhere I had planned not to go. That does not mean it was a bad day, though, just very different from what I had expected.

All I had wanted to do was to go to the Vatican and pray. I just wanted to be there and spend time there, as from my previous blog ya'll could imagine why I would have that desire. I made it there and my friend Anna slipped and fell on the stairs of the Vatican and hit her head very hard. She had on the wrong shoes because I was going to tape her feet so she could wear the appropriate shoes, but before that happened she fell. We went to find medical tape for it, but after we had done that her feet were too swollen to fit in regular shoes. For the NEXT 8 HOURS of the day we walked around Rome trying to find sandals for her to wear. This seems like it would be a quick task. There were shoe stores everywhere, just not the shoes that had no backs to them. So basically Anna and I saw what we felt like all of Rome in the non-touristy areas. It was still a neat day, though. I had planned to pray, so I still could as I walked through the city. I still saw new parts of Rome, just not the parts I had planned. We walked probably 10-15 miles that day. We did find her shoes at the end of the day; but by that time my feet needed help for I did not plan to walk that much. The rest of the week I was taping my feet just like the good ol' Crossroads days.

Before that Anna and I did not know each other very well. Since that day we have been together almost every day and do many things together. People tease that we are attached at the hip.

-Rome Day 2 Sundy

L to R: Eden Wolf, Dan Devine, Annette Corbett, Grace Wilson, Rebecca Wunderlick, Jeff Pomeisl,

Corey Tufford(those that went to Honduras know him), Ben Cahill, Teresa, and Jessica Kozlowski

As I said previously, I did not go to the Vatican, but that was the only thing I wanted to see the whole trip. Today was the day that I was able to see Mother Church. I got off the metro with some students and was praying the rosary. I knew we were walking to the Vatican, but I did not know where exactly it was. As I was praying the fourth glorious mystery, I stepped into the arms of Mother Church. There I was, surrounded by the saints, angels, and our Lord.

This is what I've been living for and thinking about since I was a little girl. Reflecting on when I was a child, I used to line up my dolls and play monopoly when there was no one to play with. It was my dolls and me, and God that would play monopoly. No joke. And I knew He did lots of other things, so I would tell Him when it was His turn. What I'm getting at is even as a child, even though it was a very much imperfect desire and still is, I would try to think of God as a whole, and when I was older and understood the Church, the Church as a whole. There I was standing in the Vatican, in the arms of Mother Church, seeing what I had known about, but never thinking that a small town country girl would be given this opportunity. Standing where so many other pilgrims had traveled - many alone on foot- to go where they knew the truth was, and knew the importance of it.

I finally made it home. I thought I had known what God's plan was for me, but as you know, being in Europe was the farthest from my mind. It was not even an option. Little Annette doesn't do things like that. But God is so much bigger and wanted me to see His Church. When I become a catechist in a year, He wants me to know His Church and the truth so that is way I am able to evangelize and catechize like apostles and St. Peter, whose sarcophagus is under the altar in St. Peter Basilica. "Upon this rock I will build my Church."

So I finished my rosary and was then able to look at the Vatican. Statues of saints surrounded the top of the Vatican. St. Peter's Basilica is enormous.

- Rome Day 1 Saturdy

I have crossed the half-way point in my journey through Europe . . . kinda feel funny about that.

I recently arrived back to the Kartause from my ten day pilgrimage in Rome and Assisi. I experienced so much and in so many ways. It was a great pilgrimage, very grace filled. If I can get it all worked out, I will post one day each day about my trip rather than trying to put ten days in a long blog. I know I will not be able to say everything that happened or be able to express it properly, but I will do my best

So Day One.

We arrived in Rome that morning by traveling through the night by bus. I usually sit on the bus with Rebecca on trips - her and I have a good system for that - but it did not work out that way. It was still a good night, though. At Hotel Gelsomino, I was on the fourth floor. I very much enjoyed the view. In the distance I could see and hear hens and roosters - it was a taste of home.

It was free time till Mass that evening so I went with my friend, Anna, to "conquer Rome" as was a joke between her and I. Anna went to Rome about five years ago so she was familiar with Rome. Knowing that we would be at the Vatican the next day, she took me to some other things. She took me to the Spanish steps. Many people hand there and at night young people tend to hang there. Anna told me some funny stories about her previous trip. We went to the Trevi Fountain; later in the trip I learned that about 3,000€ is put in the fountain a day, and it is given to the poor. And before that a man used to collect money from the fountain every night and they thought he was a government worker - but he was not.

After that it was time to meet up with Anna's friend, Collin, who is studying in Rome this year. We met at the Pantheon and then he took us around and showed us some cultural things.

As a group, we ate dinner together every night at our hotel. I really enjoyed that. Just to be with other students and leaders and to hear about what they did during the day. I also enjoyed it because I was able to talk more with the students and get to know them better because sometimes that is difficult when we are all studying. That particular night was not as enjoyable for I got sick, but I still enjoyed the night.

Overall, it was a good day to relax, recover from the long bus ride, and prepare for the spiritual journey that was to take place the next days.