Awe and Wonder

This past week has been full of God's grace. I am still in awe of it, actually. This place is so freakin' blessed! If you open your heart to it, you can receive untold graces while you're here.

It started a week ago, when we took a day trip to Vienna. The city is beautiful, but the most awe-inspiring moment for me was going into the National Treasury where all of the Hapsburg family's crown jewels are kept. No, I didn't start drooling over a tiara, although they were beautiful. My favorite part was tucked away in a corner, past all of the robes and jewels, where the family's personal collection of relics are kept. Since Vienna was the last capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and since the Hapsburg family was devoutly Catholic, they acquired the largest collection of relics in Europe outside of the Vatican. Shelves and shelves full of relics of saints in ornate frames and holders. Even a piece of Mary's mantle! But amongst these saints are relics of even more value. Relics that have literally touched the body of Jesus Christ, that are an essential part of His Passion and Death. A piece of the tablecloth used at the Last Supper. A thorn from the crown of thorns, slender yet deathly pointy. A piece of wood from the True Cross. One of the nails that pierced Jesus on the Cross. I would have cried if my body wasn't so frozen in wonder at seeing these things. The nail pierced my own heart, imagining it going through His ravaged body. That nail bore my salvation. Woah. I stood in front of each piece, meditating upon it and asking for God's grace to flow out onto me. Boy did He deliver.

All of last week, God kept showing His love for me in different ways. Some stronger than others. In one particularly blessed experience, I literally felt His love surrounding me like a cocoon. Like a forcefield. It took my breath away! The Holy Spirit has infused me in a new way, and I'm discovering gifts that I never had before. I'm learning to give my heart totally to Him and let His love flow out from me.

He's also keeping Haiti alive in my heart while I'm here, which is something I was curious about. It seems like at almost every Mass so far the choir has sung songs that remind me of Haiti, or of mission work in general. I also discovered a billboard on the walk from the Kartause to the center of Gaming, that is a picture of a black woman crying amongst the rubble of some disaster with an ad for an Austrian humanitarian aid agency. I'm almost 100% positive it's a picture from Haiti after the earthquake. Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the patron saint of Haiti, is EVERYWHERE I look. There's even a picture of her in the "secret" chapel that I love to go pray in, which is up a narrow set of spiral stairs in one of the towers of the main chapel building. God is showing me that I'm not abandoning my love for Haiti by coming to Europe. I was feeling guilty, for coming here when no one there will ever have this opportunity. I could have spent all this money to help them instead. But God is good, and is giving me little signs every day to show me that I did not abandon them at all, because they are in my heart. And through the experiences He is going to give me here, I will be better able to go and serve them in the future according to His will.

It's crazy how He had to drag me all the way to Austria to show me how much He loves me. But we serve a crazy God :)

All glory to Him, now and forever!