Ellie is 9️⃣

Ellie turned 9 while our family was on pilgrimage in Italy!

The day after we returned we had a Harry Potter themed birthday party to celebrate!

Ellie is such a gift - and has been blessed with so many talents. The newest one we get to see is in her creativity in writing and acting. After reading the first 3 Harry Potter books this past year and seeing the movies - she decided to write her own book and create a movie. Her main character is Grace Marren, who is a future relative of Harry Potter. In the movie Grace is played by Ellie, while her siblings and neighbors play the other characters - even mom and dad get an occasional role when not filming on our phones. Like Harry Potter, Grace and all of the characters speak with a British accent, which is no problem for Ellie and Francis who learn British English at school! 

It is such a joy to see Ellie produce these fantastic works!

She remains our bright, helpful, loving first-born with whom we are very pleased!!

In Assisi one of the souvenir shoe had a Harry Potter section! Ellie chose to get a Gryffendor wallet and a huge bow and arrow!

We love you, Ellie!! 💗

Holy House of Loreto

On our way home from Assisi, we were blessed to visit the Holy House of Loreto!

This small house within the basilica is said to have been Mary’s house - the house in which the Annunciation occurred and God became man!!

 his sleep the “Mother of Good Counsel” rewarded his humility by answering his request in a dream.

“Know that his house,” [Mary said to Father Georgevich in a dream], “is the same in which I was born and brought up. Here, at the Annunciation….I conceived the Creator of all things. Here, the Word of the Eternal Father became man. The altar which was brought with the house was consecrated by Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. This house has now come to your shores by the power of God…”

For the full story click here: https://catholicism.org/loreto-house.html

Sitting in the basilica, with Jack on my lap, I was able to pray the Litany of Loreto for the intentions of many dear loved ones. 

https://www.vatican.va/special/rosary/documents/litanie-lauretane_en.html





It is AMAZING and a bit hard to think the Annunciation may have happened here.  I did feel a lot of peace praying within the house. And a few days later I was reading F.J. Sheed’s “To Know Christ Jesus” and I saw the illustration below… the similarity to the Holy House of Loreto which I had just seen struck me. 







From Loreto we drove up the Italian eastern coast and spent the night in Padua. The next morning we went to Mass at St. Anthony of Padua’s basilica and saw his tomb and relics. We then made the 6 hour drive back to Gaming. 

It was a blessed and wonderful conclusion to our pilgrimage to Italy!

Beautiful Assisi 🇮🇹

After Rome, we headed to Assisi with the students!

It was February 10 — Ellie’s 9th birthday — when we arrived in Assisi!

As always, we loved our time spent there, enjoying the places St. Francis and St. Clare were —along with some great cafés :)

Talking With the Pope

The highlight of our pilgrimage to Italy/Vatican City was getting to talk to Pope Francis!

I was hoping Jack would get blessed like the others but had no idea our whole family would get to meet the Pope face to face!

 

The Wednesday Audience was in Paul VI Hall and the guards selected our family (mostly due to Jack) and a few other parents with babies to sit up front with the newly married couples waiting to be blessed. 

At the end of the audience the Pope greeted many guests. Then he made his way to our section, where we were sitting in the front row. At this time we were standing along the front railing. When he came to us he blessed each of our kids, laying his hand on their heads. Then he came back to us & he counted the kids in Italian, “Uno due tre quattro cinque!” In English, I told him we’d love to have more kids and I just kept saying, “We love you pope Francis!” 

I was struck by his humanity as I looked at him, seeing he’s, in one sense, just an old, holy man — and at the same time realizing he’s the Vicar of Christ. The quotes from the Magnificat magazine on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, I found very fitting as I reflected on being in Rome and meeting Pope Francis:

“Perhaps it would be a good thing if every Christian, certainly if every priest, could dream once in his life that he were pope, and wake from that nightmare in a sweat of agony” (Monsignor Ronald Knox).

“How blessed is the Church of Rome, on which the Apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their blood!” (Tertullian).

 So thankful for this gift — it was so surreal and very special for our family’s last (at least for the foreseeable future) time there!

Ps, our picture was used in the summary of the Pope’s remarks at the audience!

https://www.ncronline.org/news/theology/francis-chronicles/people-have-right-life-needed-health-care-pope-says-audience