More new friends...

When Padre Pio founded this hospital he had a very clear vision for it to be a "place of prayer and science." As much as he emphasized the spiritual aspects of the relief of suffering (which might seem most natural coming from a priest) Padre Pio urged the hospital to reach the highest levels of technical excellence and science.

As my friend Tiziana put it, "A pius cook is not necessarily a good cook yet." She explained Padre Pio's idea that if you work believing that you are taking care of the body of Christ "you have to do more, to strive for greatness and to be audacious." "This is the testimony of our faith," she said.

I mention all this to introduce to you a few of my new friends. As Padre Pio envisioned, Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (CSS) is a leading research institute in Italy. These wonderful women make up the breast cancer research team led by Doctoressa Paola Parrella (the woman on the far left). Doctoressa Parrella did her post-doc in genetic oncology at Johns Hopkins. She is brilliant and collegial, disciplined and humble, and certainly helping through her efforts to carry on the founding vision of Padre Pio.


CSS is strong in genetic research, and has an entire other research institute located in Rome (the Mendel Institute) which I'll get to visit in a few weeks. For any science-minded friends who are interested, you can see a list of some of the publications coming out of the CSS labs here. (Click on "visualizza"-- they all are published in English.) You also can also PubMed search the name "Dallapiccola B(runo)" He is the scientific director of CSS, the Mendel Institute and the director of the "Sceinza e Vita" (Science and Life) commmittee which I'm looking forward to learning more about when I visit him in Rome in a few weeks.

Rafaella extracts RNA from tumor tissue samples.

This last picture is one I took tonight in the thoracic surgery unit. I spend a good amount of time at an office in this unit working on my project, and the nurses and staff have been so kind to me. Today Anna came by around 5:00 and invited me for coffee in their little break room. I ended up staying in the nurses station until about 9:30 talking in between their work with Anna and (through her help) the rest of the group. She is the best, and it's been a huge blessing to have an english speaking friend in the unit!! I love this group!!

Nicola, Patrizia, me and Anna

Goodnight all! I hope you had a great 4th of July!!

Grazie Dr. Di Vagno!

This blog is dedicated to thanking my new mentor and friend, Dr. Giovanni Di Vagno. Dr. Di Vagno is the chief of the Ob-Gyn unit at Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, and a wonderful, wonderful person. I sent out an e-mail last week to a few doctors asking if I might be able to visit their units, and Dr. Di Vagno wrote back right away saying that if I came to his office on Monday that he would be happy to show me around.

I showed up on Monday morning, and Dr. Di Vagno did much more than show me around. He handed me a pair of scrubs and for the next three days proceeded to teach me more about Ob-Gyn than I thought possible. It was amazing!

Dr. Di Vagno's specialty is gynecologic oncology, and he is a gifted surgeon. He allowed me to observe his surgeries and to make rounds and see his patients with him as well (all while taking the time to teach me and to involve me in everything that was going on.) Dr. Di Vagno also introduced me to the Italian treat called "espressi freddi" (I'm sure I didn't get the spelling right... think ice cream + espresso) and the fine art of the coffee break. He treated me to lunch each day, and took the time to introduce me to practically everyone that we ran into as well. In my opinion the technical experiences I gained are definitely secondary to the mentor and teacher I now have who embodies the kind of physician that I'd like to be someday.

You are a wonderful doctor and a gifted teacher Dr. Di Vagno! I can't express my thanks enough to you for taking me under your wing. I hope our paths will cross again... let me know if you make it to Pittsburgh, or I'll just have to come back to Italy sometime :-) Have a wonderful vacation!!

Peter, Paul... and Magda

Today is the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. I marked this day on my calendar with anticipation last week I found out that there was going to be a group from the States having mass at 5:30 today at Santa Maria della Grazie. Not that I'm not thankful for mass in Italian, but this was going to be a treat to have mass in English.

Soon after I arrived at the church I found out that the mass was completely in sign language. Wow... God continues to teach me so much here. How many times in my life I completely take for granted being in a majority, being understood, being able to communicate. By default I am talking less and listening more these days. I know that this is not necessarily a bad thing...

A few thoughts before I call it a night...

Today I began reading a book recommended to me by my friend Bob who works in the English office at the church. The book is a collection of Padre Pio's letters to/from his spiritual directors, and begins with a solid introduction to the life of Padre Pio. As I sat outside of the new church tonight after mass and read the first 40 pages or so, I was absolutely struck by something that has been on my mind a lot lately, but took form tonight in words from the introduction on Padre Pio's "Two Fine Projects":

"On fire with love for God and men, Padre Pio conceived and carried out two projects which were two different expressions of his love: a vertical expression towards God in the form of the 'Prayer Groups' and a horizontal one directed towards his fellowmen which took the form of a hospital known as the 'Home for the Relief of Suffering.'"

I have been hearing this theme since I arrived, but today it struck in a new way. I immediately looked up, and thought for a long time about the huge cross in front of me. I opened my notebook, and drew the cross. At the head I wrote "our minds to God in prayer" at the horizontal tip I wrote "our hands to our brothers and sisters in love" and in the center of the cross I drew a heart and wrote "the place of intersection."

The church and the hospital are physically nearly connected here. Beau pointed this out to me when he visited, and said that it is "all one work for the relief of suffering." The horizontal and the vertical. Both so important for the relief of suffering...

the hospital
the chruch

the two are connected by a stairway ascending to the way of the cross

A few more thoughts on my heart to share--

This is where I sat tonight to read my book...

This stream is made up of 12 little steps, designed to represent each of the 12 apostles.

If you've been to my apartment you might have noticed a framed print called "Festival of Lights" by John August Swanson. I have always, always loved the symbolism in this print of faith as a relay -- a long river-like stream-- of light, where we receive from those who come before us, and pass on to those who come after.

Well last night I attended a candlelight procession of Our Lady of Grace in the square outside the church and kept feeling like I was living this print. The pictures really don't do it justice, but it was beautiful. Truly a festival of light!



All in all, I think it was a fitting way to celebrate the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. Streams of flowing water... seas of glowing light. And the reminder of the call (the horizontal and the vertical that meet in the heart) to take our place after them to become the living stones.


Last but not least, this is Magda! Have you heard of "an Italian grandma"? Well, I have one here in San Giovanni Rotondo. She's teaching me Italian, taking me to the grocery store (where she picks out all of my fruit and buys me cookies), and feeding me gelatt0. Yep. Here is she is in all of her cute-Italian-grandma-ness :-)


Now I am off to bed... I get to spend the day tomorrow with the head of the Ob-Gyn unit, and I am really looking forward to it. Hope you all have a wonderful day today!

Queen of Peace

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long...

My good friend Beau came to visit me here in Italy last week, and over the weekend we journeyed together to Medjugorje. It was amazing week and so nice to have a friend here to share in this time with. I made a little video as a thank you to Beau for making the journey, and I thought I'd share it here too.



In Medjugorje we stayed at a little inn run by the Tunin family, and Matthew Tunin (who is my age and a gifted photographer) has created a really nice website where you can read all about the history of Medjugorje and the messages of peace coming to us from this humble little village. I also just read this interview with Mirjana that I really enjoyed. She seems so down to earth and likable, and I hope her words will bless you as they did for me.

If you read about Medjugorje you might read of the miracles that are experienced there-- the dancing sun, the statue of resurrected Christ dripping liquid from the knee-- but I assure you that the biggest miracle is what happens in the heart... there is a living peace, a vibrant sense of joy and an active way of love that permeates the place. Grace abounds, and I hope not only to return again someday, but to bring what I found there home to all of you.

love to you all!

nicole

ps. The quotes in the video are from messages from Our Lady. The music is the talented violin playing of a woman named Melinda Dumistrescu who has moved to Medjugorje to use her gifts to serve all of the pilgrims who come. She plays daily (I think) at mass and adoration services, and Beau and I both immediately though of Danielle when we heard her violin begin to play.

pps. There are stories for most of these photos-- especially the ones from Medjugorje. Please know that I would love to share the stories if you would like to know about them...

pps. I would also like to share a story about two people we were able to meet, Nancy and Partick Matta, and how their hearts have been changed. As today's Gospel reading says (which I always cling to in matters of discernment)...

"By their fruits you will know them."

more sights from rome...

Hi everyone!

I have so much catching up to do on the blog from the last week and a half of traveling! I have arrived to San Giovanni Rotondo where I will be doing my project this summer, and I am very thankful to have internet here at my apartment. So now that I have internet I am going to start sharing photos and hopefully some stories too from the past two weeks. Here first are the rest of the pictures from Rome. Enjoy!

this is me with marcy, one of my brother's roommates, who met me at the airport and was an awesome guide through rome!

This picture is for Ryan-- the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola

the pantheon

trevi fountain!!

Roma!

To me this picture captures perfectly my first day in Italy. It was absolutely magical.

I will write much more soon, but had to share a few photos interspersed with part of my journal entry to explain what happened my first few hours in the Eternal City...

As we were on the bus for a second go around the city we were planning to get off at the Trevi Fountain, get some dinner, and then do a night walk through Campo de Fiori and then head to St. Peter’s (because I was just dying to see it in person not from the bus and in the glow of evening.) Something even better happened than I had thought. As our bus approached the majestic view of St. Peter’s from atop a hill, we heard the sound of choir singing, and saw that St. Peter’s square was flooded with candle-light. I was in love!

Marcy and I changed our plans, and decided to head to the square. When we go there, we saw several big screens projecting the image of a man who was speaking. I immediately thought it was the Pope. Marcy wasn’t sure, and said that she thought he came out publicly on Wednesdays and Sundays. We worked our way closer, and I asked a guard, “Is the man speaking the Pope?” “Si, si,” he said.

Marcy and I hurried closer into the group. We didn’t have candles, but were now surrounded by their glow. I found a program and with my limited understanding of Italian realized that it was a celebration in honor of Mary, I believe concluding the month of May in her honor (it was May 31st—the feast of the visitation.)


How beautiful and fitting that my first, long dreamed of visit to Rome was on Mary’s day of the Visitation. I have always thought of the visitation as a feast day of friendship, as Mary ran to Elizabeth to share her good news. She wanted to tell her friend, to be with her friend, to not be alone as she was waiting for Christ. As Marcy and I stood there in awe, the Pope raised his hand and offered his blessing. Blessed by the Pope! Less than 12 hours in Rome…

More to come soon!!! Love to you all!

La vita e bella...

As I write this I am up way too late getting my packing and last minute preparations done for what is still unbelievable to me... tomorrow I leave for Italy for the summer! I took a major hiatus from the blog while finishing up the school year, moving out of my apartment, etc, but I hope and plan to blog often from Italy. You all are and will be in my prayers on this journey.

I've also wanted to post this for about two weeks now, but I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all who made my 30th birthday such a special and memorable day. I will never forget it!!!!

Here are some pictures of our group celebrating with dinner at Bucca de Beppo's. What an awesome night full of beautiful people. I feel so blessed to have such great friends and family, and the night was exactly what I hoped it would be (and more)... a celebration of life. Birthdays are a wonderful time to remember that every human life is full of infinite wonder and possibility. I prayed that this gathering would be a time when everyone there would know how much they are loved and how special they are to me, and that we all would leave knowing in a new way that la vita e bella. Life is beautiful...

katie, megan and i
the "may birhtdays" -- katie, me, abby and cheryl

i had to include this photo of abby and me. she is such a doll!!

prayers

This morning I read the very sad news that Maria Chapman, the youngest daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman and one of his three daughters adopted from China, was killed last night in a tragic accident at their home. My heart just breaks for this family. Please join me in praying for them, especially for their son who was involved in the accident.

May God bless this family.


(One of Steven's latest songs-- "Cinderella"-- dedicated to his daughters, with his own explanation of its meaning after the song.)

ordinary life, extraordinary love

Today is the feast day of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. There are so many reasons to love her, but one that I love so much is how she was said to harmonize the demands of the different aspects of her life and vocation (wife, mother, doctor) with simplicity and equilibrium. She has been a great role model to me and to so many, and will only continue to be so as her life story is told!

In his homily for her canonization on May 16th, 2004 (which her husband and three living children attended!), Pope John Paul II said,

Gianna Beretta Molla was a simple, but more than ever, significant messenger of divine love. In a letter to her future husband a few days before their marriage, she wrote: "Love is the most beautiful sentiment the Lord has put into the soul of men and women".

Following the example of Christ, who "having loved his own... loved them to the end" (Jn 13: 1), this holy mother of a family remained heroically faithful to the commitment she made on the day of her marriage. The extreme sacrifice she sealed with her life testifies that only those who have the courage to give of themselves totally to God and to others are able to fulfil themselves.

Through the example of Gianna Beretta Molla, may our age rediscover the pure, chaste and fruitful beauty of conjugal love, lived as a response to the divine call!

On Saint Gianna's feast day, I want to share congratulations (and encouraging words from Saint Gianna) to Amy on her recent wedding to Bryan, and to Candace on the recent birth and baptism of her newest daughter, Cecilia Josephine. Like Saint Gianna, may your committed love in marriage and motherhood always be a sign to the world of the love of God. I love you both!

Amy and Bryan April 12, 2008

"Lord, keep Your grace in my heart. Live in me so that Your grace be mine. Make it that I may bear every day some flowers and new fruit". -Saint Gianna

Me with Candace's beautiful daughters, Gemma, Cecilia and Grace

"Look at the mothers who truly love their children: how many sacrifices they make for them. They are ready for everything, even to give their own blood so that their babies grow up good, healthy and strong." -Saint Gianna

saint luke passionist mission, haiti

It seems almost impossible to try to fully describe what we experienced in our time with Fr. Rick. I think the best I can do is to say that the closest I have ever felt to knowing Christ was walking in this man's footsteps.

"Saint Luke Passionist Haiti Mission" is the mission for the poor that he leads in Port au Prince (in addition to St. Damian's Children's Hospital and St. Helene's orphanage, which are funded separately).

At this website you can read all about this mission. The section titled "Investing in Humanity" gives a description of all of his team's works and projects, and is helpful in seeing the full range of what they are working to do.

"Rainbows at Midnight" is a collection of Fr. Rick's own personal reflections over the past several years. These are a gift from a man on the front lines of the work for human dignity.

As he says in the introduction:

These reflections are not properly about Haiti, though they are about real life incidents that happened there.

They reflect a reality about any place, and any time, where people of any race and any class live out an assault on their human dignity. Wherever and whenever the dignity of human beings is marred, the human spirit finds itself in hostile conditions and seeks desperately to preserve what is human about it. It is amazing how the human spirit finds light and hope in the most despairing darkness. This is the unfailing light of God's grace, ever present and faithful, fiercely persistent in trying to renew the face of the earth and the human heart.

In these reflections, the ancient human scourges of poverty, ignorance, illness and violence desecrate humanity and pulverize the spirit. And from these ashes many people, with the help of God, fight valiantly to rise.


Thank you for reading, and God bless you!

with love,
nicole


ps. Today begins a novena to Saint Gianna that would end on her feast day, April 28th. Here's a little about Saint Gianna from last year's blog-- more to come about her soon!

the passionist sign

This entry begins a series of entries dedicated to Fr. Rick Frechette-- the humble, strong and dedicated Passionist priest and physician we were so blessed to spend time with in Haiti. This first entry is about the sign of his order and the meaning of his life.

The Passionist Sign

The special insignia of every Passionist is the "Sign", the heart-shaped emblem you see on this page. It catches, in an image, the meaning of Passionist life.

In the middle of the emblem are the Words, JESU XPI PASSIO. Written in Greek and Latin, the languages of the early Church, those words mean: "the Passion of Jesus Christ," (The three nails at the bottom and the cross at the top remind us symbolically of his suffering and death.)

Every Passionist takes a special vow, a solemn promise, to spend his energies in promoting remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus. This vow defines the purpose of the Passionist community. We pledge to keep deep in our hearts the memory of the cross and to do what is in our power to remind others of it.

Why promise to do something like this? The answer lies with the meaning of the cross and death of Jesus Christ for the world.

First, the death of Jesus was no mere brutal execution of an extraordinary Jewish teacher and prophet long ago. His death was an event that changed human history. Jesus died that others might live. God so loved the world that he allowed his only Son to give his very life for us. The cross becomes the symbol telling us God's love is stronger than death. Passionists want to tell the world about that love.

But there are other reasons for the Passionist vow. Jesus' death on the cross was a death in the cause of justice. He was executed because he challenged accepted values. He sided with the poor and the outcasts. He condemned oppressive structures. Jesus was a prophet and prophets meet strong opposition.

His cross reminds us that Christians must listen to the cries of the poor. We are in solidarity with those whom society may forget or even exploit. The cross is a sign of justice. To remind the world about the cross is to challenge the world for its injustice and neglect. Passionists are pledged to that challenge.

Finally, remembering the cross means remembering those in the world who bear the cross today: the disabled, the sick, the dying, the grieving, those isolated and alone -- all who bear the burden of pain. Jesus identified himself with the "least". He shared their burdens and brought them hope. He, too, bore the cross.

Christians who believe in Jesus find strength in the memory of his Passion. Jesus knew pain and death. He also tasted the victory of everlasting life. Death is not the final word for those who believe. This , too, is part of the Resurrection message Passionists proclaim to the world.

The special sign we wear is meant to symbolize a solemn commitment to proclaim God's great love made known through the cross of Jesus. We nourish that memory in our hearts through prayer. We share that good news with all the world. We proclaim it through preaching, in our parishes and retreat centers, through radio and television, and by our presence in hospitals, classrooms, campuses, missions and those ministries of service to the community.

(From "St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center" website)

good times, great cause

Our class officers planned an awesome event that was held last night-- a med school semi-formal and fundraiser for Gilda's Club. It was a great night!

Much more to come about Haiti soon too. Abby is working on uploading 300+ pictures. Much more soon...

Beginning to tell the stories from Haiti...

Hi again everyone. Hope you are all having a good day today. Thanks again for all of your prayers and support for our group who went to Haiti. On behalf of Abby, Christine, Shanti, Gil, Arun, Nikesh and myself, I truly thank all of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers. There is so much to share, and I know that it will take some time to do so, but I want to begin with sharing this video. The man we spent the second half of the week with is Fr. Rick Frechette. He is a Passionist priest and a physician, and in my humble opinion, a living saint. He has dedicated his life to the poorest of the poor in Haiti, and I do not know words adequate enough to describe his goodness. He is the beautiful man in the video with the gentle voice and the stethescope around his neck.

We were with him both at the street clinics in the worst slums and at St. Damien's children's hospital. The images from the slums tell the story better than I ever could, and are just as we witnessed. Watching this video feels as if I was holding the video camera myself. To have walked with him those several days has changed us all, I believe. Time will tell how...

good news

Hi everyone,

Thank you all so much for your prayers while we were in Haiti. There is so much to share about our experiences, and I promise that I will share much in the very near future. Tonight, though, I just wanted to share some very good news. My good friends Paola and Joey just found out that they have a daughter waiting for them in Ethiopia. Paola sent some pictures, and she is absolutely beautiful. Their court date will probably be in late May, and Paola asks for prayers that it is sooner.

Paola and Joey are adopting through an organization called "All God's Children International" inspired by a woman named Heather Beazely when she was 18 years old. (The video becomes an infomercial for a cd, but the story is really something.) Also, in case God is moving in your heart, here is a list of some of the children who are waiting for families.

Much more soon about Haiti. In the meantime, enjoy this song I've just discovered. It's beautiful...