Dearest loved ones back home,
Greetings from Athens! This is Natalie here, your OECTA trip escort reporting from our amazing hotel in Athens. We are roughly 35 hours into the tour and already it seems that we have spent weeks together.
As we travel with the theme of Love and St. Paul in our hearts, please find below 1 Corinthians which was the starting point for this course when we met in May. Please read this to properly to get to the heart of our journey.
Upon arrival in Athens yesterday we boarded our bus and went directly to the Acropolis. Our knowledgeable guide Irini did a great job starting our tour with discussing 'Paul The Apostle' as the Greeks refer to him and started the tour right at Mars Hill (Areopagus) where St.Paul delivered a sermon so many years ago. Here below, you can see Urszula Cybulko leading the program's first prayer and liturgy on the very same ground as St.Paul spoke.
From here we climbed up to the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon. It was a beautiful breezy day in Athens and though the temperature was over 30, it felt like a wonderful spring day. Following the Acropolis we enjoyed lunch in Plaka and returned to our hotel. Some of us swam while others retreated to their rooms. After day one, it was definitely obvious that the group was going to be a cohesive group founded on faith and respect.
This morning (Saturday) we enjoyed was is most likely the best breakfast in Europe (shaved hash browns with feta and parsley on top was an option) From breakfast the class enjoyed a liturgy (below) and we departed straight for Corinth.
It was interesting to travel to Corinth as a group as no one except for our tour guide had travelled there before, making the new experienced a shared one amongst us all. Our new guide (Alexandra) was once again extremely knowledgeable about the city and it's importance in St. Paul's life. As we drove to the city she was discussing a Corinth Canal, which connects the Aegean Sea with the Saronic Gulf. As we stopped the bus and walked to the bridge we were all blown away by this canal! Beautiful in it's simplicity, depth and colour this canal was like no other. After taking our photos we carried on to Corinth.
We stopped at the Church of St. Paul (below) and continued on to the museum where Alexandra delivered today's class in the shade, under the lone olive tree in the middle of the agora. It was an incredible moment in time for us.
Following this visit we carried on to a pottery store famous in Corinth for 3 generations then continued on to have a beautiful lunch on the opposite side of the canal. Before and after dinner we had a small ice breaker and we took turns discussing what our favourite moments have been to date as well as what we are looking forward. I believe it was Laura K. who said the profound words of 'In the history of our faith, in the now of our faith' which we have been experiencing without vocalizing. I believe this phrase has been adopted by the group and will serve to be our moto until the end of the tour.
In a few hours we will be picked up again by our bus and taken to the Plaka district to enjoy dinner and a Greek show.
Enjoy some extra pictures from our trip! There will most likely be no post until our arrival in Rhodes which will be on Monday.
Greetings from Athens! This is Natalie here, your OECTA trip escort reporting from our amazing hotel in Athens. We are roughly 35 hours into the tour and already it seems that we have spent weeks together.
As we travel with the theme of Love and St. Paul in our hearts, please find below 1 Corinthians which was the starting point for this course when we met in May. Please read this to properly to get to the heart of our journey.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues,they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
From here we climbed up to the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon. It was a beautiful breezy day in Athens and though the temperature was over 30, it felt like a wonderful spring day. Following the Acropolis we enjoyed lunch in Plaka and returned to our hotel. Some of us swam while others retreated to their rooms. After day one, it was definitely obvious that the group was going to be a cohesive group founded on faith and respect.
This morning (Saturday) we enjoyed was is most likely the best breakfast in Europe (shaved hash browns with feta and parsley on top was an option) From breakfast the class enjoyed a liturgy (below) and we departed straight for Corinth.
It was interesting to travel to Corinth as a group as no one except for our tour guide had travelled there before, making the new experienced a shared one amongst us all. Our new guide (Alexandra) was once again extremely knowledgeable about the city and it's importance in St. Paul's life. As we drove to the city she was discussing a Corinth Canal, which connects the Aegean Sea with the Saronic Gulf. As we stopped the bus and walked to the bridge we were all blown away by this canal! Beautiful in it's simplicity, depth and colour this canal was like no other. After taking our photos we carried on to Corinth.
We stopped at the Church of St. Paul (below) and continued on to the museum where Alexandra delivered today's class in the shade, under the lone olive tree in the middle of the agora. It was an incredible moment in time for us.
Following this visit we carried on to a pottery store famous in Corinth for 3 generations then continued on to have a beautiful lunch on the opposite side of the canal. Before and after dinner we had a small ice breaker and we took turns discussing what our favourite moments have been to date as well as what we are looking forward. I believe it was Laura K. who said the profound words of 'In the history of our faith, in the now of our faith' which we have been experiencing without vocalizing. I believe this phrase has been adopted by the group and will serve to be our moto until the end of the tour.
In a few hours we will be picked up again by our bus and taken to the Plaka district to enjoy dinner and a Greek show.
Enjoy some extra pictures from our trip! There will most likely be no post until our arrival in Rhodes which will be on Monday.
Sending everyone my love from Athens
xo,
Natalie
What a great overview Natalie!
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