This week while touring Italy I have had many great experiences. Something that helped me more deeply understand the Catholic Church as a global church, was the Papal Audience outside the Vatican. This experience was very eye opening. While outside the Vatican I saw people of many different backgrounds and countries celebrating the Pope. People were cheering and running around trying to take pictures of the Pope. This really conveys how people look up to him and admire him. The Pope greets people with open arms. As he was going around in his mobile he was kissing children on the forehead showing compassion for all people. He is very welcoming to all individuals. Also, he is very caring for the homeless. The Vatican is a place for the homeless to come find peace. Seeing all of the people standing outside the Vatican for the Pope helped me to have a deeper understanding of the Global Church.

The piece of artwork in the Vatican titled, “The Proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception” by Francesco Podesti clearly represents the Trinity. In the painting the portion at the top represents the Triumphant Church with the Holy Trinity, the angels and saints honoring and the Immaculate Virgin Mary. The bottom portion of the piece of artwork represents the Militant Church. Pope Pius IX is the head announcing the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception inside St Peter’s Basilica. The Holy Trinity is shown by representing God as three people. In the image you can see Virgin Mary in the center. The father and the son are represented on the right and left hand sides. The Holy Spirit is represented by the dove that is flying above the whole scene. Overall, this painting strongly depicts the Holy Trinity with beautiful details.

So far while visiting the Vatican City I have had many amazing experiences. While visiting the beautiful basilica has made me feel closer to God. While visiting the Vatican City as a tourist, I have had many amazing experiences. In Cavanaugh’s migrant/tourist/pilgrim/monk reading he states, As Eric Leed writes, “For the ancients the journey had value in that it explained human fate and necessity, while the moderns extolled it as a manifestation of freedom and as an escape from necessity and purposiveness” (Cavanaugh, page 346). Being a tourist and visiting all of the beautiful landmarks in the Vatican City such as the Basilica and the Vatican Museum I have felt an escape from everyday life. I have been able to feel a sense of relaxation and appreciation for our history on religion.  “Sightseeing is a kind of collective striving for a transcendence of the modern totality, a way of attempting to overcome the discontinuity of modernity, of incorporating its fragments into unified experience” (Cavanaugh, page 346). I have been given the opportunity to take time and appreciate the churches like the Basilica. Also, the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel allowed me to appreciate religion. During the Papal Audience I noticed how everyone looked up to the Pope. People of all different backgrounds gathered to see him. This showed how he is a big influence on people of all religions.

When reflecting on my experiences and thinking about the six paths to God by James Martin I have been on the path of exploration. During my time so far in the Vatican City I have visited many churches. While visiting these churches I have been stepping into new religious traditions which has been a great experience for me. Seeing these churches and religious landmarks, I have developed an even greater appreciation for different faiths. All of the religious artwork has also left an impact on me and has helped me understand different religions on an even deeper level. Each piece of artwork tells a different story depicting Jesus. Overall, as a tourist visiting new territories I have definitely felt an even greater appreciation for God and faith. It has been a great experience so far.

I really enjoyed participating in the panini run in Rome, Italy. Providing food to the homeless is very eye opening and rewarding. When comparing this volunteer experience to my experience in New York, I realize even more that it is important to help the homeless population. There are people in need no matter where you are in the world. In New York I participated in the midnight run which is almost the same as the panini run. I noticed how in New York it was much easier for me to communicate with the homeless because we both spoke English. I was able to carry on with conversations and realize how thankful the people were. In Rome I was not able to have conversations with the homeless due to a language barrier. In New York I was able to talk to the homeless population and understand how grateful the people were. In Rome I could definitely tell that the people were thankful, but it was hard to communicate. Also, in New York people wanted seconds and thirds of the sandwich bags we gave out. In Rome the homeless population only took one and they were sharing their food with each other. I found this very surprising because during the midnight run in New York people wanted as much food as they could get. It was nice seeing the community care for each other in Rome.

In Pope Francis’ Mercy reading a quote that stood out to me was, “To give bread to the hungry is necessary. But there is also a deeper hunger, a hunger for happiness” (Francis, page 40). This quote conveys how it is important to provide food to the hungry, but the true importance is how it makes the person feel. During both my volunteer experiences seeing a smile on people’s faces is what made the experience so great for me. It feels nice to know you are making someone’s day. Another quote from Pope Francis was, “Production of food is efficient, yet millions of persons continue to suffer and die from hunger”(Francis, page 38). Many people struggle due to homelessness. In Rome we went outside the Vatican and there were a lot of homeless people on the street. The homeless people laid out in the cold with an umbrella shielding their faces. What was surprising to me was how the people just kept to themselves and didn’t bother begging for food, or money. In New York the people begged and wanted seconds and thirds. Outside the Vatican in Rome the people were content with just getting one sandwich bag. It is upsetting how there is so much food in the world yet people are still faced with homelessness. Overall, this was a great experience for me and I really enjoyed helping the homeless in another country. I will never forget this experience.

    I am excited to be immersed into Italian culture during my time in Rome. My visit to the Eternal City will be very sacred. I am eager to visit the Vatican, and feel blessed to reflect on the Catholic religion while in Rome. I am looking forward to viewing the art and architecture in St. Peter’s Bascilica. This pilgrimage will help me to discover myself in a new culture.

While in Rome I know that there will be a lot of changes that I will have to adjust to. I am hoping that I will adjust quickly to the new environment, and time change. I anticipate making new friends, and to become as immersed into the culture as much as I possibly can. Even though we will only be in Rome for a short time I’m hoping to experience as much as possible. I am a little nervous about not being able to see all of the sights I want to see in the short amount of time that we are there. I am hoping to gain as much of an appreciation of the culture as I can while abroad.

I am hoping that this trip will be very spiritual for me. Through volunteering and helping the homeless in Rome there will be a sense of appreciation. I am looking forward to this experience that we will have while abroad. It was a great feeling to participate in the Midnight Run with St. John’s Ministry. I think that it will be a very emotional experience to help the homeless while abroad, and to compare it to my experience here in New York. Although there will be many amazing landmarks and sights to see abroad, spirituality will definitely play a big role.

    Overall, I am really looking forward to this experience. It will be a great experiencing and immersing myself into a new culture. I have never been out of the country and I anticipate that this will be a very memorable experience.

Feminist Christology

Sexism is a serious issue within the Bible. Women are seen as secondary to men. In the book of Genesis the story of Eve displays the idea of male dominance over female dominance. Man was created before female. In the painting “Jesus Calls the Disciples” Christ is represented as a female. This piece of artwork would be appealing towards female theologians because of the representation of Christ as female. This image is important because women are often defined by men and the artwork is stepping outside of the box. Male representation is normally the standard when looking at Christ. Jesus is represented by Sophia in this image. Sophia is a force of unity for both male and female. This image is appealing to me because I like how it shows Christ doesn’t need to be represented as male. It represents how women don’t have to be controlled by men and can have power. In the image one of the disciples is looking out at a man in a boat waving. This display of female communication represents the hope that women have for gender equality.

    People can sometimes act reluctant towards the homeless population. When I’m in the city I always see people avoiding the homeless people and walking around them. I sometimes feel that the homeless are viewed as dangerous and unstable. I was a little nervous about the midnight run at first because I had never gone up to a homeless person before and I knew this would be a new experience for me. During my academic service learning experience doing the midnight run my views on the homeless are completely different. It’s important to always help those who are less fortunate. When helping out the homeless you leave a big impact on them and it often makes their day. The feeling that you get when a homeless person has a smile on their face is unbelievable. It feels great to know you’re making a difference and interacting with someone who might not have as much socialization on a regular basis.

    During the midnight run we were transported on the campus ministry bus to the city. We prepared meals and placed them in bags. Each bag contained a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a turkey and ham sandwich. A snack was also included to distribute to the homeless. We also brought boxes filled with clothes and toiletries to provide the homeless with essentials. We stopped at several different stops and it was amazing seeing how many homeless people were standing waiting for us to arrive. It felt great and sad at the same time seeing all the people jumping up and down as they saw us pulling up to the curb on the bus. The line of homeless people waiting to get food was so long it was unbelievable.

    One of my favorite experiences while doing the midnight run was when a lady was walking by coming back from work and saw us and got so excited and started jumping and dancing saying that this made her whole day. Even though some people may have a job it’s difficult to have enough money to have the essentials and support a family. It felt so good seeing someone walk by and have her whole day made even better. When she saw that we had clothes as well she got even more excited and ran to the back of the truck to get socks.

    In Pope Francis’ Mercy reading it states, “To give bread to the hungry is necessary. But there is also a deeper hunger, a hunger for happiness” (Francis, page 40). This shows that it is important to feed the hungry, but the true importance is how it makes the person feel. It brings a person joy to share joy. When I saw the smile on people’s faces it is what drove me to continue to provide food and interact with the homeless even after my volunteer experience. Making people happy makes you feel happy too. “Production of food is efficient, yet millions of persons continue to suffer and die from hunger”(Francis, page 38). It’s sad how there is so much food to supply to others in this world, yet people who don’t have money have to face starvation. During the midnight run homeless people were begging for seconds and thirds of the snack bags. It’s insane to me how there is so much food production and people are still faced with no food or very little food.

    Pope Francis emphasizes the universal destination of all goods. This is a teaching of the Catholic Church. All goods of creation should be for the humankind as a whole. It should not depend on the amount of money someone has. During my volunteer experience I realized how the smallest things can make the homeless happy. Something as simple as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made them so excited. If the universal destination of all goods was a thing starvation would not be as much of an issue. “All people would have fair access to essential and primary goods that every person needs to which he or she has a right” (Francis, page 38).

    The Parable of the Good Samaritan displays neighborly love. A man that goes from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked by robbers and stripped naked. They beat him up until he is half dead. A priest and Levite see him and walk around to the other side of the road. They do not help him. A Samaritan stops to take care of him and takes him to an Inn and pays to take care of the man. This parable relates to my volunteer experience a lot. A lot of the time when seeing a homeless person people will avoid them and go to the opposite side of the street. Even though they are human like us we still avoid them and view them poorly.

In the parable people see the man is injured yet they go to the other side of the road to avoid him. During my volunteer experience we directly went up to the homeless and helped them out by providing them with essentials and food. This relates to how the Samaritan goes up to the man who is injured and helps care for him. The man was a Jew and Samaritans are enemies of Jews. The Samaritan went up to the man at his own risk to help take care of him. The Samaritan spends his own money and promises to come back to the Inn showing compassion for the man even though Jews are enemies of the Samaritan. The moral of the parable is that we should love everyone. This relates to my volunteer experience because we showed that we cared about helping the homeless. It’s important to show respect and care for everyone.

Overall, through this volunteer experience I’ve learned it’s important to show love to all people. When you’re on the streets and you see a homeless person you should never avoid them. Go up to them and talk to them or give them food because it makes their day. You never know what someone is going through.

My favorite artistic representation of the Trinity from the slideshow in class was the Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Durer. This piece of artwork was visually appealing to me, and I found it interesting that it portrayed several different scenarios which caught my attention. The viewer is able to see what goes on in two perspectives, earth and in Heaven. In the piece of artwork we see the holy spirit which is the bird at the top. The holy spirit is surrounded by light. The light represents power and praise. The father in the image looks kingly and is presenting the son being crucified for salvation. The father’s cloak is held up on each side by angels. The father’s cloak being held up represents his power. The father and the son are inside a triangle showing togetherness.

The holy spirit is surrounded by angels. On the sides of the cross there are saints watching. John the Baptist is on the right kneeling down. You can also see King David and Moses. On the left side is Mary and saints behind her waving palm branches. At the bottom of the painting are people that are worshipping God. The painting shows how all the people are joined together. At the very bottom you can see the land. The images of the father, son, and holy spirit are taking place above everything. This is my favorite painting because out of all of them I found this one the most intriguing. I like all of the details. The artist did a great job representing the Trinity. The viewer can see how God exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.