Sabbatical Blessing

On January 20, 2019 I will fly to Rome for a sabbatical as part of the Institute for Continuing Theological Education.  I am grateful to Bishop Quinn and the Diocese for their support of this opportunity.  My last sabbatical was in 2008.  It was a time of great blessing and renewal and I am excited about this new opportunity.

The Institute (ICTE for short) is a program of the North American College in Rome which is my alma mater.  I am excited to be returning.  I'm sure things have changed in the 33 years since I graduated but am looking forward to being a part of that community again.

The program is three months and consists of classes, tours, a retreat, and Mass in beautiful churches. The former convent has been renovated into the Casa O'Toole and I hear it is a very nice place to stay. 

After the conclusion of the formal program I will be traveling to Salzburg, Austria for Holy Week and a music festival.  I'll conclude my time away with a pilgrimage on the Camino to Santiago de Campostela which is the burial place of St. James.  This has been on my bucket list for a number of years and am delighted that I can have this as a part of my sabbatical.  I am also going to Egypt for a tour with Catholic Theological Union out of Chicago.  I love history and I have always wanted to visit. 

I will post from time to time.  It will be somewhat dependent on wireless access.  Please enjoy my adventures.  The next post will probably be right before I leave and then after I arrive.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Underground

Image
Today we began, as always, with prayer.  My liturgy group (made up of 6 of us) was responsible for leading today.  I took on the role of presiding at Morning and Evening Prayer.  Heading down for the latter shortly. We then headed back to St. Peter's for a tour of the excavations under the basilica.  I had done this when I was a student but it was every bit as fascinating as I remembered.  Our tour guide was a seminarian from Seattle who did an excellent job.  They are required to a lot of study and are tested and certified by the Vatican to be official guides.  Some of the men at the College in my time did this as well so it seems to be a well established tradition.  We began in the area that once was the Circus of Nero.  It had been a marshy area that was unused and Nero wanted to build a circus.  Since there was no more room in Rome proper he built it on the unused Vatican hill.  In the Circus was an obelisk that was later mo...
Read more

A beautiful Roman winter day

I am praying for all my family and friends back home as they endure what looks to be brutal weather.  Deep cold on top of the recent snow in some spots.  Today finally dawned bright and clear.  Still crisp but a beautiful day. I had a great birthday yesterday.  We had our first presentations and then the afternoon free.  I spent some time reading with a short siesta.  Love that tradition.  In the evening I went out with Msgr. Tom Cook from our diocese who is working over here for a couple of years.  We went to a nice restaurant that he recommended and had a terrific meal.  I had been saving some of my Roman favorites for my birthday so started out with Spaghetti alla Carbonara which is my favorite.  I remember thinking, when I first came over for studies in 1981 (yikes!), that I wasn't sure how I would survive on spaghetti and meatballs every day for the next four years.  Little did I know.  Such a variety and so many new fav...
Read more

My Weekend

It is now Monday and I thought I would post a quick update on our doings. Classes start tomorrow so I don't know what my time will be like. On Saturday we took the train into Brussels for a guided tour of the city. It was nice since the lousy weather kind of dampened my spirits for a lot of running around when I first arrived. We visited the Cathedral, the Grand Place, and the Royal part of the city. Brussels has a long history and many chapters in it. I would like to find a good book that goes through the history of this area. What little I have learned has been fascinating. We had beautiful, sunny weather. Temperatures were in the 50s so I thought it was great. All weekend and today have also been sunny and pleasant. Cool at night but nice during the day. Folks say this is unusual weather so I suppose we will be in for more rain and cold in the next few weeks. On Sunday we had a tour by the son of a couple who works at the College. He has lived in Leuven all his life ...
Read more