Setting sail from Piraseus and St. Paul Church

After our day visiting Athens and Corinth, we rode the bus to the port city of Piraeus, where we boarded our ship for a thre- day cruise through the Greek Isles. Before we left, we had Mass at St. Paul Church.

I volunteered to do the readings for the Mass, as it was the day of our friend Mick Kenny's funeral, October 26. Many of the readings for Mass during our trip are from Paul's letter to the Ephesians. This reading seemed to describe Mick.

Ephesians 4:1-6 

Brothers and sisters: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace, one Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

In his homily, Fr. Michael talked about how we often only have a conditional peace, a peace that is dependent on things going the way we desire, on God doing what we tell him to do. Boy, does this describe me. Can we be peaceful when things go wrong in small things and large? This is definitely an area for me to work on. 

Many of the exteriors of the churches in Greece were yellow and white.

After Mass, we made our way to the port in Piraeus, one of the busiest ports in Europe. There is a cattle car like experience moving a large group of people and their luggage from buses and parking lots to a cruise ship. But really it went pretty well. 

Here is our ship: the Olympia from Celestyal.

After we checked out our cute little cabins, we had a safety drill and went to our assigned life boat wearing a life jacket. 

I have never been on a cruise and am looking forward to the experience!