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LIVING IN ROME
Rome Marathon
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With every stride I take, I place my feet along the streets of this historically rich city where the saints walked. I have desired to run a marathon since running Cross Country in high school and I figured coming to Rome would be a perfect opportunity. Training for the Rome Marathon has given me an excellent experience of the Eternal City.
Rome is filled with beautiful churches, but it also has several excellent, history preserving parks—the extravagant 17th century villas of the Borghese family and the Doria-Pamphili family, the sheep of Caffarella Park, which dates back at least to Vergil, and the ancient aqueducts, some of which existed before the birth of Christ. These are just a few of the beautiful, historic sights I am immersed in as I run around the city of Rome. While training for a marathon in a foreign country is by no means easy, it has given me the amazing opportunity to experience Rome in a unique way.
Hopkins Society
We need beauty; everyone does. Beauty is as necessary to mankind as food and air but without it, rather than die, we cease to be totally human. During World War II, Pope St. John Paul II didn’t fight in the battlefield, but he was part of a group struggling to keep Polish culture alive through poetry and plays. He was fighting for beauty. Rome is certainly beautiful, but it’s also easy to let it become routine. So, as another way to immerse ourselves in beauty, on Sunday evenings, many of us gather on the roof to read poetry, essays, and short stories. We discuss them, relax, and enjoy some food and each other’s company.
The Hopkins Society, named after the Victorian poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Hopkins, gives us a chance to better appreciate these works by sharing our insights and growing closer with one another in the process. I’m glad that I’ve been going and have even taken ideas from those nights to adoration. I’ve found that the more time I spend learning about beauty the easier it is to see beauty in my own vocation, in the Church, and in the Eucharist.
