In Rome, there are lots of churches, art, and saints. While in Rome, we have the opportunity to pray in these churches before great art and saints. I had managed to visit a few of them, but nowhere near all of them.
Just before Christmas, some brothers organized a Church-a-thon. I participated but lacked the time to organize it. We prayed in 25 different churches over 10 hours walking 20km between them.
A Church-a-thon is similar to any other “a-thon,” we needed to raise money. Our accounts here were pretty empty. We need to buy food, heating, and some things to prepare for ordinations. We asked for donations per church. $5 per church is about what I eat each month and $15 per church is about what a new cassock would cost (mine is starting to go at the seams). In the end we got a little over $1,200 per church or $30,000 total.
I want to thank those who supported us. I kept a note with those who sponsored me and remembered them at every Church.
What an adventure! I got to see a few relics I had wanted to but had yet to find the time to see them. For example I had never seen St. Peter’s chains or St Agnes’s skull until the Church-a-thon. It was also a great grace to spend so much time in prayer before the Eucharist. Once I even got lost went the group went on without telling me – I ended up doing a quick visit in a 26th church looking for them.
http://churchathon.org has information on this Church-a-thon (click on twitter to see the log of the event), on the one planned for Lent, and the possibility to sponsor us now that it’s over. I have about $75 per church and would love it if you could all sponsor me and bump me over $100 per church.
