Fifth Station of the Cross at Benedictine Monastery.
Emily and I with my current idol, Sr. Rose ;)
Fish Nibblers are back...in case you didn't know they ever were....
I loved the Benedictine Monastery, but it IS the hottest place on earth...I risked heat exhaustion with each morning cup of coffee and hot shower.

Inside Indie

On our postulant blog (http://fsppostulants.blogspot.com) you will find most likely some appropriate pics of our Easter celebration and exhibit in Indianapolis.

I offer you here the "off the beaten path" pics, if you will ;)

The week was really beautiful. Triduum was thoroughly celebrated with much reflection as you can imagine. We had a retreat on Good Friday and went to every liturgy imaginable for Triduum including a Maronite ritual on the eve of Holy Saturday (or also Good Friday) that was like a funeral for Jesus. They took the corpus off of a cross (not too big to be frightening for me ;) and put the 'body' in a coffin type thing and carried it around the Church while chanting lamentations in Arabic. I saw something similar in Guatemala, which I believe they do every Saturday to commemorate the Lord's burial before His resurrection. In Guate, they moan and throw flowers on the body...and the body is much more real looking for those of us with statue phobias (me!)....

Anyways, Easter was celebrated with Mass in the morning, a big lunch/dinner, and Easter egg hunt which, I don't like to brag but, I WON. Ha! It was all in good fun and so far every holiday we've celebrated, each feast has been very appropriate and fun for me.

Easter Monday, Emily, Sr. Jerome, Sr. Laura, and I were off to Indianaoplis for the NCEA- National Catholic Educators Association- convention. We had a table along with 500 other exhibitors! It was huge! Apparently over 5,000 people attended. We did meet alot of lovely people, and for me, I really enjoyed the mission aspect of the trip. This is our mission in action, and it was cool to be doing during the week the apostles were also going out telling the Good News of the Resurrection.

The highlight(s) of the week in Indie for me were probably hanging out with Sr. Rose, our "celebrity" sister who came in from LA to give a talk at the conference. She really embodies what I love about our mission- using the modern means of the media- like secular films and our culture- to preach and teach about Christ. She spoke about how we need to create discussion with kids and be "in the culture" with them...not block it out. She reviews movies for St. Anthony Messenger Press and has a blog on aol.com 'my journals'. You should check it out- Rose Pacatte- just google her name!

The other highlight, aside from meeting people and distributing our materials, was staying at a Benedictine Monastery. We stayed with the sisters instead of getting a hotel and it was such a peaceful place. The sisters were very hospitable and funny....I think the pictures will explain better though, so enough talking....

God bless your Easter Season! 62 days til my break! :)

Peace,
Julia

Balanchine piece from my sister's performance
ask me about the story

I wrote this awesome entry about a crazy story that happened here in the convent involving me, three nuns, and a coffeemaker. But Blogger decided not to save it and it was a really long story, so if you care for me to recount the story, just ask me to tell you the story of "One Cup". Alina even made me a t-shirt commemorating and aiding my re-telling of the story. I've included the picture of the t-shirt (yes, it is my first year workcamp shirt doctored up), so that may spark your interest. It's better in person, I think...which I'll be able to tell to some of you IN person in....80 days!

It's officially 80 days until our break. We've started a countdown. Is that weird? It's not a bad thing, like we want to leave, we are all just looking forward to going to our respective homes (we being the postulants). We have been given May 30-June 21 for our break, so I hope to go home to Elyria, then head down to DC for the first weekend in June, and then Chicago to visit my cousin and go to a wedding June 14th.

We (the postulants again) will be spending July in Boston to take some classes. I really, really hope to go to my BFF Catherine's wedding in July, so if you could pray for that, I'd appreciate God's will on that one! I know I've been to a ton of weddings, but this one is really important!! :)

My parents were just in town for my sister's spring performance. I went too and it was a really great show. The first two works were very modern and the second piece in particular (Circle of Fifths) I really liked 'cause it was so abstract. Then we all got to hang out with a family which is always nice. I still can't believe how much God has given me this great consolation of having my family so easily accesible in St. Louis!

We (the St. Louis community this time :) are doing a bunch of exhibits these next couple weeks. The Archdiocese has a Men's Conference which they expect 1,000 men to attend and Sr. Laura and I are going to have a display of our books there. Then, Sr. Laura, Sr. Jerome, Emily and I are going on a ROAD TRIP to Indianapolis to a big National Religious Educators' conference during Easter Week. We'll be there all week! I'm looking forward to that. A change of scenery always does me good!

So that's my update. Again, I'm so bummed that blogger didn't save my One Cup story. Enjoy the picture and savor the phrase: "I only made one cup". It can be a very spiritual reflection on community life...hmmmmm....