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From Abroad

Today is Ash Wednesday- which is the beginning of Lent. Tonight I attended mass at a small Italian Catholic Church in our town and it was such a great experience. First off- the church was beautiful. It was so old (they’re actually restoring it at the present moment), but it was gorgeous. The whole mass was done in Italian so it was cool to see how they do things. There were a few differences between mass here and from back home. One difference was that they only kneel once during the whole mass- for the breaking of the bread. The rest of the time is either standing or sitting (even when they come back from communion). Also, when we received our ashes they were white, instead of black, and instead of putting them on our forehead- they sprinkled them in our hair. The music was very beautiful- they had a group of 12 girls and a woman playing the guitar. The acoustics in the church were superb and it made the music very enjoyable.

It was a great experience and I’m really glad I went. If I don’t travel on the weekends and I’m here for Sunday I’ll definitely be attending mass there.

Ciao!!

<3 Julie!

Ps. I think I’m going to Florence- Firenze, Italia – this weekend and I’m reallllly excited!! Our two friends here, Sara and Jackie, have a friend studying there so we are going to go and stay with her! :-)