Ello loves, just posting one of my last blogs after a wonderful Thanksgiving and trip to jolly ol' London, England!!!!
after Anne Frank, we just explored, ate dinner on the water, walked around a market for awhile (where I bought real nice gloves and H bought a hat) and then trammed over to the Heineken Factory.. but since we toured the Guinness Factory in Dublin, Ireland.. we decided it wasn't worth the money! So we took some pictures outside of it and headed to two different bars-one just to try some Heineken--which I surprisingly didn't mind! And then to this really adorable Irish pub! where I got some more Cider like in Ireland-yum yum! and we got delicious food, too! :) All was good until the trains.. the one we got on broke down numerous times and we had to stop and restart and such a bunch of times.. but then we thought the hassle was over.. NOPE! we got to Pochlarn, a little village outside of our village, which is only a 35 min train ride away.. but the train from Pochlarn to Gaming shut down for the weekend and no one at school decided to tell us.. so we called a bunch of people, tried to hitch hike to no avail, and then had to call a taxi to take us home.. which was super expensive! however, my grandma gave me emergency American money that i have not used all semester.. but i whipped it out and paid for the taxi ride with it.. so thanks Grandma, you saved us!! ( : 
HELLLLLO PEOLE! How is everyone doing? I’m doing really well. I’ve been in a rocky state of mind/mood for awhile now but today I am great! J I’m sorry this didn’t come up earlier, but it’s a long guy and they turn the internet off on Tuesday’s here! So, if anyone is on facebook, you have probably seen some of my pictures and such and you know that before I went on the 10 day pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi, Hannah and I took a best friend trip to Interlaken, Switzerland (only 6 hours out of the way!) which is like the capital of the world for extreme sports! Here we participated in PARAGLIDINGGGGGG! It was amazing. The view, the rush, the peacefulness! It was TOTALLY worth every penny. (Hannah now doesn’t get a Christmas gift.. oh well!)
Anyways, besides paragliding over and around the Alps, Hannah and I just basically enjoyed ourselves in Switzerland. My suitcase broke as we were just climbing the steps from the train station in Interlaken.. so buying a new suitcase was not really in my budget.. but it’s okay! Now I have one of those fancy hard cased suitcases! And it’s lime green, just for you Mary Kantoski! Thank you for helping me find it!!
So we just walked around and hung out until I surprised her with the paragliding adventure.. our pilots spoke real good English and they were so fun to be around. It wasn’t even that scary, really! It was so peaceful, just sitting there in the little mesh seat type thing, soaring through the alps! To get better air at one point in time, my pilot took me in circles real fast, that was like the coolest part, besides landing which was also really cool! I got to steer the parachute thingy for a couple minutes, too! SO EPIC. It took about 20 mins total. After recovering from our adreline rush, we went to Gimmelwald, a very small little town which is legit nestled in the alps.. but since it wasn’t like open season.. all there was to do there was to swing on swings.. we did that for like 10 mins and then went back down to Interlaken for the best meal we’ve had so far: MEXICAAAAN. I swear, I am learning to eat so many different foods over here! I apparently like refried beans now? Yeah.. I don’t understand myself either, but I do! I got this chicken stuff w/ Mexican rice and refried beans and I literally cleared my plate. Yum yum yum! And then we got these crepes w/ alcohol on them and our waiter lit them on fiiiire! We went to bed and got up in the morning to train down to Rome to meet up w/ the school!
Nov 7th: This is where Rome really started for us! Hahaha (: We had breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to the Vatican before high (Latin) mass at 10:30. I waited in line for a real long time to get into the tomb of the Popes, where I got to pray in front of a bunch of the Pope’s tombs, including JPII! :D I then waited in line for confession in the Basilica of St. Peter’s for 45 mins.. and like right before I got up there the priest said he was done taking people.. bumma! But then we had mass at 10:30, where there were at least 50 priests, deacons, bishops, and I believe a cardinal or two! Very epic. Hannah and I metroed back to the hotel after this to eat the food we brought for lunch. (we like to save money, yupp) there was a tour of St. Peter’s that afternoon which was neat to hear all about the frescos and such in more depth, seeing the incorrupt body of Pope John 23rd, and the Pieta! Which is beautiful by the way.. I just love Mary. We had dinner, which was the best of the meals throughout the 5 days or so we were there, and then we had a Holy Hour at the convent close by—dedicated to the Sacred Heart, yup!!—where I received the most amazing confession from my main man, Fr. Ron. I just adore the little turtle of a priest. He’s like a grandfather, friend, and priest all in one.. jolly really. 
Nov. 9th: We started off the day w/ another tour.. more enjoyable/interesting to me than thefirst! It was pouring rain again but it was fun ( : Just some highlights for me, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and a bunch of churches that I don’t remember the names of.. but I remember the important things!! One had an image of Our Lady that saved the Romans in battle once (her eyes blinded the other side!) also in this one church was the marble sculpture of St. Teresa of Avila in Ecstasy. Talk about amazing?! The sculpture was based off of her writings in her diary I believe.. it was her being stabbed repeatedly by an angel for the salvation of souls.. as she’s in pain, she too is in ecstasy. She loves the Lordso much and she loves the suffering inflicted upon her. I just could apply this to my life so much.. my sickness that some believe to be spiritual just came right to mind and my depression/rocky past.. I just wanted to stay there and contemplate it for hours.. she was so happy and in love with Jesus!!! After that we went to this church that was decorated with Capuchin Friars legitimate bones. It was super creepy but kind of cool at the same time. There were 5 different chapels all decorated w/ around 500 friar’s bones, a couple were dressed up in habits! It was to tell the city of Rome, an expensive and fancy place at the time that no matter what you obtain on earth, everyone will end up like this. Very cool. The other church I fell in love with contained the Virgin of Childbirth.. if you know my family and I at all you’ll understand why I loved this so much. My mom had 13 miscarriages and I was blessed enough to be born completely natural of my two loving parents (in between 8 and 5). My mom obviously could not have any more children and we were blessed to receive the gift of my sister, Riley, who was born (a miracle in itself) into a not so loving home.. and after a 3 ½ year custody battle, she’s ours! :D I just loved the Virgin and I prayed especially in thanksgiving for my own life and my sister’s.. and my mom because she’s an incredible woman to go through such things and still be so strong in her faith. There was also a statue of St. Anne, Mary, and the child Jesus.. also making me want to cry because of my family. This reminded me ofmygrandma, my mother, and myself (No, I’m not like Christ.. I just am in comparative genealogy!!) It just made me so thankful for the gift of my family, the faith passed on from my gram to my mom to me, just as St. Anne did to the Mother of God. My grandma never gave up on my mom, who never gave up in having children, who when she received me, never gave up on me.. cool, huh? Yeah, I know.. I’m blessed. :D That afternoon was my Scavi Tour (it was not included in the price of the trip.. but I thought it was def. worth it) anyways, it’s an underground tour of St. Peter’s where excavations have taken place for the past 40 years or so on finding St. Peter’s tomb/body. It was really neat, we went real far underground and we had an awesome tour guide from America who was just a gem! After 45 mins or so and seeing lots of Pagan tombs that they uncovered, we saw his tomb! It was epic. I got to go somewhere a lot of people do not get to see! After that I found some random Frannies and we found a bus to mass at Cosmos and Damian, which was really fun. Dinner, holy hour, sleepy time. Next!
Nov. 10th: We woke up and left nice and early to go to the Papal Audience! We sat there for a good 3 hours.. waiting.. and waiting.. and waiting.. but then Pope Benedict came out and he spoke in like 8 different languages and it was AWESOME! :) Then I went shopping for some Vatican-y gifts and such.. we then had some free time and I yet again forget what I was doing but I do remember it was raining! At 2:45 we climbed the steps of Santa Scala, which are the steps that Jesus climbed to meet Pilate. It was really intense and beautiful. After that we had mass at St. John Lateran’s Basilica where a piece of the Last Supper table is! Very cool, very cool. After mass we had a tour of Santa Croce that contains relics of Christ, which was very awesome—there was a piece of the cross of Christ, a thorn of His crown of thorn, His name plate above the cross, a nail from the cross, and St. Thomas’ finger that touched the side of Christ. Dinner. Packed for leaving for the next day. Bed! : )
The next day(Nov. 11th) we boarded the buses and were off to Assisi!! :D We got to Our Lady of the Angels, the city sort of underneath the hill of Assisi.. this is where the Portiuncula is! It was BEAUTIFUL. There was so much to see and so little time (which is why I went back later).. there was the Port, of course! And then the site of St. Francis’ death called the Transitus Chapel.. there is a statue of St. Francis that’s been there since the construction of the church and magically there are 2 doves that live in a basket attached to St. Francis’ arms-real doves! Just hanging out and living there.. so beautiful, such an example of his spirituality. There was a rose garden where Francis was tempted by the devil to roll in the thorns and when he did angels came down and miraculously made the roses never bear thorns anymore (still seen today!) After our 45 mins there, we went on a bus up to Assisi,it seriously looks like you went back in time.. it’s all made of stone, just so beautiful!!!! We checked into our gorgeousssss hotel, where Hannah broke a door stopper, so funny. We explored a bit, and then went to mass at San Rufino. We went back to the hotel for dinny din, explored some more, had a holy hour, and went to bed.
Nov 12th: We went to mass at Santa Chiara, St. Clare’s Basilica! This is where the San Daminao cross that spoke to Francis is located. Anyways.. I just fell in love with St. Clare. She was so intense and dedicated to Our Lord and Francis.. and just like left her family for Jesus, giving up all she had.. amazing. Anyways, after mass, we went down and saw a bunch of her and St. Francis’ relics (habits, books, etc) and then we saw her body and I got to pray in front of her all by myself for a bit.. it was so intense. We had a tour of Assisi led by our TOR sisters!!! This included a trip to San Damino church where St. Clare had her convent, there was a beautiful and intense crucifix, and she died there, too..so great.Woohoo! We had lunch and then we had a pilgrimage walk to Francis’ hermitage.. very physically demanding, but awesome. There was this gorgeous and peaceful statue of St. Francis just looking up into the sky. We had dinner and a FOP at like the smallest church.. ever but it was really good and probs one of my favorite FOP’s ever. (I’ll attach the emotions/spiritual stuff after the facts and figures!)
Greetings from Gaming!
“Well, Mary.. here I am. I’ve been here in Medj for almost 24 hours now.. as the nice tour ladysaid, you invited me here.. so why? I started going up Apparition Hill today [readers, this is the hill on the west side of Medj where Our Lady first appeared and appeared most often to the children] with shoes on [a lot of climbers go barefoot for intentions] and halfway up, on the 2nd of 5th joyful mystery, I just felt you telling me that you didn’t create me to be mediocre. You didn’t create me to be complacent, you didn’t create me to be content, you didn’t create me to be comfortable. I was created to suffer for you and your Son. Only suffering will bring about happiness, not only for myself but more so others. I prayed on top of Apparition Hill for a bit and then made my way down, the most painful thing I did all weekend. Each rock that jabbed into my foot reminded me of your Sorrowful heart and your Son’s passion. I went to confession that evening after dinner, which was with a German priest who spoke only a bit of English.. which was interesting.. and then I went by myself to the Resurrection Statue. [This is a bronze statue of Jesus given to Medj in1998, in 2001 it started to leak a watery substance from it’s right knee.. a few years later it was proven to be human tears.] Although it was a different knee than the one I injured, it was in the same exact spot that my knee dislocated to. THIS ROCKED MY LIFEEE, JESUS! You, Lord, are pouring tears because of all of the hatred, violence, lack of respect for life and the Eucharist.. and even though you already died for us on the cross, you continually suffer for us still! And through this beautiful miracle here at Medj, you showed me that the suffering I endure or have endured do help you.. little old Erin Brennan can help the magnificent Savior of the world. Even though I was not as close to You then in 10th grade as I am now (and how much further I still have to go, Lord!). I was helping you bear your cross with my suffering. I shed tears through my knee as you still do today. Another thing I felt in my prayer in front of You, and throughout my journey in Europe in general, is that how much more responsibility I have now. I’ve turned away from my sinful past and now I know the truth, I know what is right and wrong and it’s time to live it. I know what will bring my salvation and what will doom me to hell.. and I continue to fall back into my sin. Even though I’m here where Your Mother appeared, I’m still sinning! How can you love such a sinner? How can you want my hand in marriage still, Jesus? I am not worthy to receive you.”
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Hey guysssssss,
On Thursday (10/7), Mrs. Newton, one of the Karatuse mom’s drove us to the train station because we were pushing it on time.. we boarded the train and continued on until Salzburg.. where we missed our connection to Venice. (as did about 30 other FUS kids) A very nice conductor dude helped us all get to our specific destinations and we arrived in Naples 2 hours later than planned, at 4pm on the 8th. (Which was Rachel Rea’s 20th Birthday!! WOOHOO!) We arrived, met by 2 volunteers with the MOC’s, who walked us to the convent (thank God they were there.. we never would of made it, it was all back alleys) Naples isn’t really the prettiest city or anything, quite dirty actually..and the convent was just a little hole in the wall.. but it was beautiful. The Sisters led us to our room, which was this cute little apartment like thing—with a classroom type thing for the little kids that come once a week, a ‘dining’ room area, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a door to the outside where there was a sink to wash our dishes and also steps that wound up the back of the building to a roof where we could do our laundry!-- We got situated, took a nap, ate dinner, and went back to sleep for the night.. ready to start fresh in the morning!
We started the week on Monday (10/11) with quiiite an incident! We went to morning prayer at 5AM and I was holding the key to our door, Hannah (who is quite the prayer.. aka she would of stayed there all day if we would of let her) asked for the key to leave.. so I knew something was up.. so I let her go for like a minute and then followed her down-Thank God I did! She sat on a chair in our dining room and told me to find her a bucket, while I was looking for a bucket I saw her falling off the chair.. I was a little too late, but I caught her legs before they hit, however her head already smacked onto the hard floor. She had passed out and I panicked. After a few choice words and prayers, she came to. The nuns spoiled her the rest of the day! H slept during morning work, so Jen and I went upstairs with Sr. Marie Bernadette again, while Danielle chopped veggies in the kitchen! It was raining quite badly.. but we went to serve and so we did! Sr. asked us to pull the awnings over the outside patio/roof where the men often gathered to hang out.. so we did, me in a white tee and all! We pretended we were in a water park w/ the MOC’s.. it was great (: we then washed clothes, under a roof, but then hung them to dry.. not under a roof, so they got all wet again? It was interesting.. btw this is all hand-washing! I had motherly skill during 10 day.. it was impressive to say the least! Jen and I then straightened up and made some people’s beds, Sr. asked us to find the one man a sweater and said, “I hope he doesn’t get any fatter, but I can say that because I, too, am getting fatter!” She was so funny. Lunch, adoration (where the fish lady gave Jen cough drops), soup kitchen and then we organized some of the closet that Jen and Danielle did the day before, where we made up a song about fish lady. This was the first day I felt very spiritually dry, I just was so mad at myself for not taking full advantage of being with the MOC’s, taking a break from school.. kind of like I do in general here in Austria, often getting frustrated with myself for being depressed or upset because I’m here and I should take advantage of it, right?.. I was just distraught and I thought it was mostly spiritual.. I’ll continue on with this later..
On the 13th, we did the normal morning routine where we ‘swopped’ the men’s home (that was how Sr. Marie Bernadette said mopped) Hannah and I also cleaned the men’s kitchen.. which was VILE! Where the 2nd nastiest thing happened to me, while cleaning the bottom counters, I found a dish that smelt like dog vomit, where I found some type of solid in an oil/grease/fat base.. after almost vomiting, I took it to Sr. who asked me to drain and clean it into the sewage system(hole in the wall).. which I did. GROSSSSSSSSSS! I’m not going to keep repeating myself about my day unless something interesting happens just so you know.. at adoration on their little chalkboard w/ the #’s for mass was written, “In thanksgiving for our friends from USA”.. I almost cried. It was so freaking adorable. The Missionaries of Charity were thankful for us!!! AHHH. Later that night, we were singing ‘umbrella’ (ella, ella, ella.. a part) and Sr. Marie Bernadette came out of a door behind us and goes ‘AA-AA-OOH-AA!”, it was HILARIOUS. She was such a joy. After the night activities, we wrote the sister’s a letter of thanksgiving and wrote our intentions and we planned to give it to them after night prayer w/ our donation.. however we got the surprise of a lifetime when all 6 of them came into our room about a half hour before night prayer! They hung out for about 10 minutes, a couple of them gave us little gifts, including a miraculous medal which is really special to me because that’s what Momma T always gave out. Sr. MB was again hilarious, as always.. and after we said good-bye they invited us to sing w/ them in front of Our Lady that evening and process around the church by candlelight for the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.. TALK ABOUT AWESOME?! WE SANG A DECADE OF THE ROSARY AROUND THE MOC’S CHAPEL IN NAPLES, ITALY BY CANDLELIGHT FOR OUR LADY OF FATIMA.. WHAT?!?!?!? <33333 it was the best possible way I could of asked to end our time there. 
In the morning we went shopping and got some Padre Pio things and then got on a bus back to Foggia, where we took a train back to Gaming and got in Sunday morning at 9am! It was a long day of travel, but it was so great to be back at the Kartause. It would have been better to be coming home to 677 Avalon Road.. but that’s okay, soon enough!! : ) I lectured at the 10am mass, which was really great, and then I just slept and was lazy all day.. which was SUPA! And much needed. 
