Gaudete In Domino

Since I did not get a post out earlier this week, I thought I would do a posting from Paris where I am spending the week. This is a holiday weekend in much of Europe (Labor Day and Ascension Thursday). I arrived on Monday afternoon and made my way to the Montmartre area of Paris. I am staying in an apartment of the friends of one of the employees of the College. It is a bit out of the middle of things but in close access to the Metro and bus lines so I am having no trouble getting around. The bigger challenge has been the rain. It has been falling every day for a good part of the day. This has put a little crimp in my plans but with a little rearranging it is working out fine so far. I had only a few things I wanted to do. I have accomplished a couple already. On Tuesday I took a cooking class. A small group (4 of us) in the instructors apartment. I had trouble with a closed metro line and so arrived a little late. Two of the others ran into the same problem and arrived aft...

Another week has past rather quickly. It seems like I have just made a posting when another Monday rolls around. I am increasingly aware of the short duration of my remaining stay. The weather has finally begun to turn. It has been in the 50's and low 60's with rather cool evenings. It is supposed to warm up this week. We are all hoping it does. It seems that the weather at home is far better than it has been here these last few weeks. I am getting jealous! This week will be a regular school week. But on Wednesday we will be touring the InBev brewery in the afternoon. If any of you know Belgian beers you know that there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 different beers. Many of them are brewed in the abbeys by the monks. The ones which seem to have penetrated Minnesota to some extent are Stella Artois, Leffe, and Hoegaarden. The InBev brewery is where Stella Artois is brewed. It actually originated in Leuven. That should be fun. On a side note, while in Bu...

Boy, time sure goes fast over here. I can hardly believe that its been a week since my last post. I had hoped to do it sooner. Oh well, here goes. After my days in Budapest, Fr. Bernie and I went to Rome. We stayed at the North American College where I had been a student. We stayed on the fourth floor, hospital wing which had been my home for three of the four years I was in Rome. I was just down the hall from my old room. Our arrival was uneventful, my train and Fr. Bernie's plane arrived at about the same time. I waited for him to take the airport train into the city and we then took a cab to the College. We spent the afternoon just kind of getting situated and doing laundry. We both needed fresh clothes. That evening we went for dinner with Deacon Tom Niehaus, a seminarian for the Diocese of Winona. This visit to Rome was about showing Fr. Bernie the sights and returning to some old favorite places. Tuesday we simply walked around the city, stopping at all of the tou...

Well, I have made it back "home" to Leuven after two great weeks on the road. I will share my adventures in a couple of posts over then next few days so none of them get too long. After my wonderful experience of the Easter Vigil at Notre Dame in Paris I headed East for Easter Week. Destination - Budapest, Hungary. I had never been to Hungary or any of the Central European countries except Austria so it was a new experience. I began with an overnight in Cologne, Germany. Unfortunately many things were closed on Monday and I only had a short afternoon in town. In addition, the weather was cold, rainy and I woke up to light snow on Tuesday morning. This picture is the famous Cologne Cathedral which is one of the few buildings not heavily damaged by bombing during World War II. It houses the relics of the Three Kings who came to adore the infant Jesus. (Check Matthew's Gospel if you want the whole story!) It is very dark on the outside but is typical of Gothic archi...

Just a quick update before I have to be on my way back to Leuven. I leave tomorrow evening on the overnight train and arrive in Leuven on Monday early afternoon. On the trip from Budapest I had a compartment all to myself. I am hoping for the same tomorrow. Rome has been very nice. The weather has been mostly sunny and fairly warm. We were able to shed our sweaters most days as we walked along. Today is no exception. I took a morning walk to some of my favorite churches in Trastevere and had lunch in one of the little restaurants. The weather was beautiful and lots of people were out enjoying the fine day. Tonight I am having dinner with Fr. Joseph Hanefeldt who is presently a spiritual director at the North American College (NAC). He was a year ahead of me during my years here so it will be great to catch up. Last night I took our seminarian from Winona, Tom Niehaus, and Craig, a seminarian from Crookston, out to dinner. We had a delightful time. Since Fr. Michael Hoeppner...

I have made it to Rome and am looking forward to spending some time in the City once again. I have only a couple of goals this time - spend some time in the Vatican Museum and finally get to the Borghese Gallery which was under renovation all the while I studied here. It is not a large museum but has some interesting works. Beyond that I will take it as it comes. Budapest was wonderful. We enjoyed our time there and actually had decent weather. We had been expecting rain, snow and cold but none of that materialized. There was a chill in the air a couple of days but by the end we were able to have lunch outside at once of the cafe's that lined the street near our hotel. I will post more later, including some pictures. I just wanted to let you all know that I am well and having a great time!