From the moment I first set foot into Vatican City, the smallest state in the world, I realized I was tracing the footsteps of St. Peter, a man who spent his life travelling and learning from Jesus Christ Himself. For me, separating our modern day and the time when Jesus and the apostles walked the Earth was suddenly erased. This took me back to the early days when Christianity first came to life.

Inside St. Peter’s Basilica, I found myself staring in awe at an ancient bronze statue of St. Peter, whose right toes have been almost completely worn away by those who kiss, touch and rub his foot as a form of devotion. At that moment, I felt as if the stories of Jesus and the apostles had come to life right before my eyes.

Seeing the actual site of St. Peter’s tomb, it was impossible to deny that St. Peter walked this Earth. If St. Peter had once been alive, then the stories of him with Jesus and the other apostles had to be true. This affirmation instantly ended whatever doubts I had regarding my faith. I wholeheartedly opened myself to the sacred truth of the existence of God.

I knew then that this experience was a life-defining moment for me because it made my faith stronger and led me to a closer relationship with God in my daily life. I promised myself I’d stick to a conscientious attitude in observing religious obligations and I now devote more personal time to prayer.

Spiritually, the experience of being in such a holy place was such that I have never felt His presence more intimately than I did while inside St. Peter’s Basilica, arguably one of the most sacred sites of all Christianity.

In his letter “Concerning Pilgrimage to the Places Linked to the History of Salvation,” Pope John Paul II wrote, “To go in a spirit of prayer from one place to another, from one city to another, in the area marked especially by God’s intervention, helps us not only to live our life as a journey but also gives us a vivid sense of God who has gone before us… who has become our travelling companion.”  

We should lead our daily lives with a conscious awareness that God is always with us on our earthly journey.

(Serednicki, 16, is a Grade 11 student at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School in Mississauga, Ont.)