On the Ground with TBP Evangelization in Rome!

Grace Longo of Philadelphia managed TBP's Jubilee evangelization efforts for the month of July, including during the great Jubilee of Youth, which brought over a million youth to Rome from around the world. Headquartered at the Centro San Lorenzo, Grace engaged in one-on-one faith conversations and street evangelization, leading so many to the beauty of truth and the truth of beauty. In her own words, here's Grace's story of her time in Rome ... 

Grace (2nd to the right) with Ashley and several other friends of TBP!

It is hard to put into words what my time in Rome doing evangelization for TBP was like, but this is my attempt to try and give a glimpse into a day in the life.

I was truly honored and overjoyed to be given the opportunity to come to Rome to intern with the Truth & Beauty Project, in partnership and collaboration with the Centro San Lorenzo, which Saint Pope John Paul II has named “the home for youth in the heart of the Church.”

I came to Rome in early July, not fully knowing what to expect, but excited and anticipating that the Lord was going to do big things. Let’s just say, He blessed my time there more than I could’ve asked for or imagined. 

I could go on and on about countless experiences I had in Rome that further ignited the fire within me and the passion I have for what the Truth & Beauty Project is doing, what our mission is, and how important and vital it is for the Church right now. I believe that beauty will save the world, and leading one another to encounter beauty, truth, and goodness, will lead us to be the most alive, most authentic, most free versions of ourselves that we can possibly be. 

One of the most special blessings was getting to spend quality time with John & Ashley. Just to be in their presence and to witness their love for each other and their love for other people really impacted me greatly. They love intentionally and humbly, and I am grateful to know them both.

I loved the missionaries from the Shalom community, whom I served alongside. There was a great love and community between all of us that made every day feel so special. Every day of evangelization at the Centro looked different, and that was a beautiful part about it. You never know who you’re going to encounter or where the Lord is going to take the day. The city of Rome surprised me every single day, and I loved it.

The mission of evangelization of the Truth & Beauty Project is truly for a time such as this. We are so desperate for beauty and longing for the truth, and only God, the one who created us l, can lead us to that truth. What a gift and an honor that He uses us to help lead others to that truth, beauty, and goodness.

One of the most beautiful things in this life is an encounter with another soul. Whether it is an encounter through suffering, through joy, maybe just a smile, eye contact, laughter, tears, all of it. It is all so beautiful. We have the priceless opportunity to be Jesus‘s eyes and ears and hands and feet to one another through an encounter. He facilitated so many of these encounters in Rome that I will never forget. My favorite way of beauty is in the beauty of curiosity. It is the beauty of being curious about one another, thus widening our perspective, challenging our pre-conceived judgements of others and our ways of thinking, learning to become very very small in a very big world, being stopped in our tracks and truly in awe of the people we encounter. 

I was blessed to have many of these heavenly moments and conversations during my time in Rome, and some of the most powerful were during the Jubilee of Youth that took place in July. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience. The city was truly alive with the love of Jesus. I was meeting people, especially young people, from all over the world, who were hungry and excited and on fire for God and for our Catholic faith. One of the gifts of being at the Centro San Lorenzo was that the Centro is a home base, a meeting point for pilgrims and young people from all over the world. It was so incredible to see how different groups from all different countries worshiped and prayed, and expressed their faith. 

I was able to welcome and host groups from the United States who spoke English, and yet I was also able to be a part of welcoming groups even when there was a clear language barrier. What I found was that there was so much love present between all of us. What so clearly united us was our love for God, and that made the language barrier feel a lot smaller, and we still were able to deeply connect.

We all have so much to learn from each other, so much to learn about the world. That can either be overwhelming and daunting, or incredibly invigorating and exciting. I can’t even count the number of times I said to myself as I was walking down the street smiling after a day at the centro, saying to myself “I just love people so much, life is so so beautiful. People are so precious, I just can’t get over it.” I must have said that in my head, or out loud, or in my journal hundreds of times, because that was what was truly spilling out of me after encounters with people. That’s all I could think. My heart was overwhelmed, in the best kind of way.

I just kept finding myself thinking, “wow, how incredible is it that I am sitting across from this wonderful person from the other side of the world and we are connecting on a level of so much depth. How are we even here together? How does this happen? How on earth would we ever have been able to meet? This is amazing.” It’s only God, nothing is coincidence. It is all divine appointments, and I am convinced of that more and more and more. That is part of what is so wonderful about Rome, you meet people that come from all different walks of life, that come to find Home. We all come to the heart of the Church, so though we are far away from our physical homes, there is a sense that we are a family, and that we are home there with each other, and with the Lord.

God has been so good, and His people are so good. We all need Him, and need each other more than we can ever realize.

From the cappuccino I looked forward to each morning, to conversations with the waiters at a restaurant, to the majesty of the churches, the art, and the architecture, to the radiant smile of a religious sister, to the incredible encounters with people from all over the world, all I can say is that there is just truly beauty everywhere, in everyone, if we can have eyes to see.

Like I said before, I believe beauty will save the world, but first, can we let it save us, individually? Let us allow God who is beauty to first save our own desperate hearts, so we can then share that overflow with the world. He longs for intimacy with each and every one of us.

Grace's family has been friends with Christopher West, Founder of the TOB Institute, for many years. It was such a fun encounter for them to meet up at the Center in Rome!

Saint Peter‘s, the Vatican, and all the Magnificat beauty that Rome touched my heart and impacted me profoundly. I was able to learn from John and Ashley, and from others who I met, about some of the depth in the details and the grandeur of everything I was seeing, that I never would’ve known if they hadn’t explained it to me in the way that they did. I talked a lot with a good friend I made during my time there about how spoken words really bring to life our encounter with beauty. Sometimes a place like Saint Peter‘s or other places of overwhelming beauty in a city like Rome, can leave us with a lot of questions, or at least leave me with a lot of questions, and can often times feel like too much to understand or to take in. But then, when someone who is a humble teacher who has an excitement about life, and a great love for Lord explains to you and teaches you in words about the beauty that you are beholding, all of a sudden it becomes real to you. All of a sudden you are truly experiencing it, taking it in, absorbing it, not just simply looking blindly at beautiful things and not understanding the meaning behind them. 

To say that I am excited to come back to Rome to continue with such an extraordinary mission is an understatement. I am overflowing with gratitude. I'll be back on September 17 until the end of the Jubilee year. 

Let us ask for the grace to be childlike, to be filled to the brim with wonder and awe. Let us humbly allow beauty to surprise us, amaze us, challenge us, interrupt us, invigorate us, move us, change us, and stop us in our tracks.