Bonjour from Paris!

Well after spending a couple of days in Rome with the Joliet guys at the NAC and Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of the great Diocese of Joliet, Max and I boarded a plane Friday morning headed to France.  Our first stop was Paris and almost immediately, we realized we weren't in Rome any more.  First off, Paris is just so much more diverse than Rome.  So seeing people of different ethnic groups that you usually didn't run into in Rome kind of threw me for a loop.  Also, I am pretty sure that French isn't even a real language.  It's just a bunch of mumbles and stuff and people somehow manage to communicate with it.  While my Italian was remedial at best, being able to know what a menu says or how to ask for directions would have come in handy many times here.  Anyways, on to what we did.

Our first stop was Notre Dame.  The great Gothic Cathedral of Paris and home to the famous hunchback.  It was an incredible church and its architecture is stunning.  I think that Gothic is probably my favorite church style, so being able to be in the "proto-Gothic" church was pretty awesome.  One thing that hit me there that surprisingly didn't hit me yet this semester was how disappointing it was that so many people were there for the building itself, and did not care at all that it was a Church.  This is super prevalent in Rome, but it never really occurred to me there.  But here, that is all I could think about in that church.  Because if we believe that a Church is God's dwelling place, His house, which we do believe, then I feel like it would be good to say Hi to the homeowner sometime during the tour.  It is like being let into one of the greatest houses of all time, and even seeing the owner, but only taking a picture of him, not even thinking about going over or even just waving hello.  So while it was a cool church, I just wish that it was more of a church than a big tourist trap.  Anyways, after Notre Dame, we headed over to Sainte Chappelle.  now if you have seen the Catholicism Series by Fr. Robert Barron, you have seen Sainte Chappelle.  Sainte Chappelle is the church with the magnificent stained glass windows featured in the opening sequence.  Again, absolutely gorgeous, but now the chapel is owned by the government.  That means that it won't ever function as a church ever again and it is there purely for artistic worth.  So this art, which was originally meant to draw people's minds and hearts to God during prayer, is now used to make some cash for the French government.  Lame.  Alas, that is the way it is.

Notre Dame

Inside Notre Dame

Sainte Chappelle (Don't mind the window restoration stuff)

Our only full day in Paris was packed.  We started off with some fresh fruit and croissants for breakfast.  Super tasty.  Then we headed to the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal, the church that St. Catherine Laboure received the visions the Miraculous Medal from Mary.  I have a big devotion to the Miraculous Medal and have been wearing one everyday for about 3 years now, so it was cool to be able to visit the church where it all started.  Within the church, there was a large statue of Mary as she appeared on the medal and also the tombs of St. Catherine Laboure and St. Louise de Merillac.  I was baptized at St. Louise de Merillac Parish in Brookfield, so it was cool to see her as well.  After that church, we went around the corner to see St. Vincent De Paul, who is one of my favorite saints.  We prayed there for a while and then went over to the Eiffel Tower.  Seeing that was nice I guess, but again, it is kind of like "Well. there it is.  Let's take a picture and move along."  And then we walked over to the Arc di Triumph and down the Champs Ulysses.  We waved to the Louvre, after seeing way too much art this past semester in art class, continued on our way.  That night, we went to a Mozart and Bach concert in Sainte Chappelle, which was incredible.  Awesome music in an awesome setting.  Gotta love it.

St. Louise de Marillac

Miraculous Medal Sanctuary

St. Catherine Laboure (Yes, she is wearing the flying nun habit, it is a real thing)

Church of St. Vincent De Paul.  Tomb is above the altar

Eiffel Tower!  Yeahhhhhh 

Ryan came with too!  

Arc di Triumph

Tomorrow, we head to Sacre Coeur, the church in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart.  They have had perpetual adoration there in that church continuously for over 131 years, including when Paris was getting bombed during the World Wars.  Pretty awesome.  And then tomorrow afternoon, we are heading down to Ars, the home of one of my patrons, St. John Vianney.  He is an incredible priest so I will have to fill you in after my time there.  Please continue pray for us as we travel Europe!

St. Vincent De Paul and St. John Vianney - Pray for Us!