Monkey's Stanley in Belgium

These pictures come from my journey a few weeks ago with Stanley and a few friends of mine to Antwerp, Belgium.  As you can see, it was a bit cold, and snowing lightly.  After a few Belgium waffles and something warm to drink, Stanley decided that he wanted to take a bike ride, as you can see in the first photo.

 

That quickly got too cold, so we headed to the famous, 500-year old "Cathedral of Our Lady," which has the highest spire (403 ft. tall) in the "low countries" of Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg (shown in the next two photos).  

After celebrating Mass there, we decided to find a restaurant for supper.  Stanley was quick to point out that he was hungry for some thin-sliced pork, so I spotted a restaurant that looked to me would fit his choice (the last two photos)...unfortunately, I don't think he liked it when I made him pose with the restaurant's chef!  

He said something about the chef sticking his nose up at Stanley...so we decided to eat elsewhere.

After our time in Antwerp, we made a short trip by train to the town of Louvain, Belgium, to visit the tomb of St. Damien de Veuster.  These last two photos show a photo of Damien, and the chapel where his tomb is.

Damien was born in Belgium in 1840, and grew up to be a Catholic priest who in 1873 volunteered to be sent to help the people who caught the deadly disease of leprosy, or Hansen's disease, on the island of Molokai, Hawaii.  Because it was a very painful disease if you caught it, no one wanted to go and help the people that had the disease.  But Damien saw and loved Jesus  in each person that suffered on that island, and so he volunteered to go, knowing that he would probably eventually die of leprosy himself.  And so, after living with and helping the people of Molokai for 16 years, Damien also died of leprosy in 1889

Stanley and I spent a long time praying at Damien's tomb, asking Damien in heaven to help us, and pray for us that we too would have his courage to sacrifice ourselves for those who suffer.