Hello to everyone : ) It is thursday morning and my midterms are officially done. It is truly the grace of God at work through our hard work that we get all that studying done. I've been fighting off a cold so hopefully tonight I can get a lot of rest.

I don't have any grand stories to tell about this weekend because I stayed back to study. It was really refreshing to stay back this weekend and enjoy the Kartause. Spring is coming on because the layers are coming off, I can see the ground, and I can hear the birds : ) If this place is gorgeous in the snow it is even more beautiful in the spring. In 32 hours I will be loading a bus headed to Rome, where apparently it is even warmer. I will be spending five days in Rome and 5 days in Assisi, the area where St. Francis is from. I'm sure I'll have much more to say once we get back.

Since I don't have stories to share I will share a bit of what I'm learning through my experience in Austria for your own edification and reflection. A part of what I have come to realize while being here in Gaming is that my life is part of a much greater whole and that the meaning of my life only takes shape in reference to this greater whole and my cooperation with it, that is, the love of God. I often believe and act as if the fulfillment of my life is in seeking my own ends (what I think is best for myself) but I'm beginning to realize that we are only fully ourselves and fully human when we realize that our lives are part of a much greater plan of God. We will be happy only in so far as we see ourselves within this plan, which in the end is the true plan for our greatest happiness. So in losing myself in the heart of God I am finding myself and the more I surrender, the more of myself I am given. An amazing realization for me is that the more I surrender my plans to God, the more I realize the uniqueness of who I am in His sight, that He would make ME and YOU for a specific purpose within His plan. It isn't about every person getting the most or the best, but each person being the best ME according to God's divine plan of love for me.

It is hard to summarize or even share thoughts of the heart, but that is for you to get a sense of what this semester is and will continue to be for me. Further though, I think it is an awakening to recognize what my life is truly about, not just this semester.

I leave for Rome tomorrow night so please email me any intentions that you would like me to pray for OR if you want me to get you anything : ) I send much love and I take each of you with me. St. Francis, pray for us!!