5 Weekly Graces Vol. 23

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope that your week is off to a beautiful start! Mondays are my day off, so yesterday was a nice combination of relaxing and productive - though it could have been more of the latter haha

I think I might finally be getting back into the rhythm of regular blogging and I'm pretty jazzed about it. I've missed writing down thoughts and ideas and sharing with you all.

Per usual, the beginning of the week means the 5 Weekly Graces post where I round up five moments from last week where I noticed some good in my life. As you will see, last week was lovely :)

1. Walks with Friends

On Saturday my roommate and I took a walk to the Berkeley Rose Garden which is blooming and gorgeous right now. I wish I had a photo to share but we left our phones at home. I then took her to a hidden waterfall nearby that is one of my favorite places in town. It's tucked away behind the local park and hard to find, but so worth the walk. One of my roommates my first year at school showed me it's location and I suppose I have now passed it on down to the next crop of students.

2. Delicious Food

Monday was my night to cook for the community and I ended up trying a recipe from Pinterest for Mexican Chicken Quinoa Casserole. It was amazing! I always get a little nervous trying out recipes for the first time if I'm sharing the finished product. This super simple recipe did not disappoint and left us with leftovers for a few days after.

3. Catholic Underground

A group of friends from the retreat I helped with a few weekends ago came up to Berkeley on Friday for an event put on by the local diocese. The title sounds a little sketch, no? Basically, the event was praise and adoration followed by music from an independent Catholic artist, Kevin Heider. I had never heard of him before, but really enjoyed his music and ended up purchasing an album. His song The Waiting is beautiful. Oh, and if the world wasn't small enough, he is from Ohio and knows my roommate from college's husband. Crazy.

4. Community Happy Hour

My school has 3 buildings of student housing and the building managers hosted a "happy hour" on Friday for all of us to get together and mingle. It was super low key and just a lot of fun to see so many friends in one place this close to graduation. I'm truly going to miss the beautiful community here.

5. Camino Reunion

On Saturday night one of the professors who walked the Camino Ignaciano with me this summer hosted a reunion for the group. I had seen some of them here and there, but we had not all gotten together since last semester. Three cheers for good friendship, good conversation and good food.

What about you? What moments from last week have left your heart filled with joy?

Peace,
Sarah

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Camino Ignaciano Part 1: Loyola

As many of you know, at the end of June I set off to begin the Camino Ignaciano, which is a pilgrimage following the footsteps of St Ignatius of Loyola beginning in Loyola (naturally) and ending in Manresa (near Barcelona). Ignatius is the founder of an order of Catholic priests called the Jesuits, which are founders of many famous universities like Georgetown, Marquette, Loyola of Chicago, Santa Clara, etc.

I plan to share some photos and experiences of the trip in the next few posts. Some places (like Loyola) will be obscure, but hey, it was part of my camino experience :P

I flew into Barcelona about half a day earlier than my classmates (yes, I got school credit to do this!) and spent the evening re-packing my pack and finishing preparations for the scheduled posts that were shared. 

Once we were all in Barcelona, we took another flight to Bilboa - which I had never heard of (woops). We were barely in the city, but we did get to see this giant flowery dog (not bear) in front of the Guggenheim. And who doesn't like giant flowery animals, amiright?

From there we took a bus to Loyola, where Ignatius was born. 

We spent 2 days touring Loyola before beginning our official walking. Loyola is a fairly small city, but if you are at all interested in the Jesuits and Ignatius, there is a lot to see and do. And even if you are not interested in that particular history, the town is very beautiful and was a lot of fun to just walk around. The streets are narrow and beautiful and lined with quaint little bakeries and boutiques. It was quite a change from bustling Barcelona, and I greatly enjoyed my time there. 

Typical of Europe, Loyola's basilica was absolutely stunning. It was literally right next to the hotel where we stayed and also connected to the home where Ignatius grew up. (I'll spare you the photos of the room in which he was born, healed from a canon to the leg, etc.)

I mentioned before, but the scallop shell is a common symbol for pilgrimage, in particular the Camino de Santiago. All along the way (photos to come) there we scallops pointing the way to Santiago and hidden in many forms of art. 

And one more, just for fun :)

Peace,
Sarah

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Buen Camino

For the next 2-3 weeks posting will be fairly slow here on Simply Sarah. Thirteen other classmates and I are about to begin a long backpacking trip through the Basque region of Spain on a pilgrimage called the Ignatian Camino. In a nutshell, it’s a journey walking to various significant sites from the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola who founded an order of Catholic priests called Jesuits. Both of my undergraduate school and graduate school are Jesuit schools and my year in Alaska was with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, so it will be something to visit these places I’ve been learning about for the past 7/8 years. The Jesuits have a deep emphasis on immersing oneself into different cultures and contexts in order to be educated on root causes of social injustices. Their passion and commitment to social justice is what sparked my own passion and pushed me on the career path I’m on today.

We will begin walking in Loyola, Spain on June 26^th (my mom’s birthday!) and end in Barcelona around July 8^th (my grandpa’s birthday!) which is when we will fly to Rome for 3 extra days. I’m very excited, but also pretty nervous.

Here is a map of the Camino Ignaciano for those interested:

Needless to say, my access to internet and free-time will be limited, especially with how exhausted I will likely be. I have a few posts already lined up to share, so hopefully they will keep y’all interested and following ;)

Feel free to message me with questions! I can’t guarantee when I will be able to answer, but I can promise that I will answer!

Peace,
Sarah

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