Peaceful Awakenings

Greetings Everyone!

On Thursday we, as a class, headed out to Hunedoara to visit Densus Church, Hunedoara Castle and the Prislop Monastery for our Romanian History and Culture class. As part of the day Chelsea and I were asked to give a presentations on Densus Church and Hunedoara Castle. I gave my presentation on Densus Church and felt so blessed once we climbed out of the van and actually saw the structure of what I was presenting on.

The day continued and we visited the Monastery. It was so beautiful that mere words cannot begin to describe how physically beautiful the monastery was. While we were there we entered an Orthodox chapel. Once inside I immediately noticed the bare walls (usually all walls in an Orthodox church are ornately painted with icons and scenes), this made me a little sad. A sweet older nun explained to us in Romanian that the chapel had

(The chapel in the left of the picure & all of the girls at the entrance to the monastery).

been burned and rebuilt but they cannot find anyone to repaint the inside. As I was looking around the church I felt a sense of peace for the first time began to understand and earn a respect for the Orthodox faith. The dedication of this one nun to her faith and her spirit of goodwill to us visitors blew me away.

As I was coming to this realization I looked around the church and saw up at the front on a small table a vase of white roses (my favorite flower). For some reason this moved me and I began to tear up. Something within me changed and I felt a sense of peace throughout the rest of the visit at the monastery and even now as I sit writing this two days later. I don't know what changed within me but I know that Romania has been challenging me and changing me in many ways that I can't even begin to understand. I can only thank Northwestern for this amazing program and hope that other students like myself will somehow experience in their lifetime an amazing and peaceful awakening.

In Christ,

Hollyann