Day #52: Rome, Day 5

Lent commenced in Rome for us, beginning with a 7 am Mass a few of us students decided to go to at St. Peter's Basilica, followed by a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI, some free time during which I had the opportunity to visit the center of Opus Dei, which is also the resting place of its founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, followed by a visit to the Church of the Holy Stairs, where St. Helen brought the stairs on which Pontius Pilate condemned Christ to death. I also paid a visit to the Church containing several of the relics of the Passion of Christ, and finished the day with a visit to the Church of St.s Cosmos and Damian, which is the home base for the TOR Friars.
My roommate Marianne and I left with Joey Walsh a little before 6:30 am in the morning to go to 7 AM Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. There are several Masses said at the various altars around the basilica. We went to a Low Mass in front of the altar where is buried Pope St. Gregory the Great, for whom Gregorian chant is named, not because he invented it but because he was the one who organized the chants, which ones go for which days and such. For the Ash Wednesday Low Mass, you receive your ashes before Mass begins. There were a few other students who came to Mass here at this altar as well - among them my friends Brian and Hannah. After Mass we meandered about the basilica, admiring its general splendor in our meditations and prayers. A Mass began at the altar beneath the Holy Spirit window. They played O Sacred Head Surrounded on the organ accompanied by the choir for the distribution of the ashes. I didn't recognize it at first, then I remembered it from J.S. Bach's beautiful St. Matthew Passion, which we were quizzed on last semester.

Ash Wednesday, Rome

Our audience with the pope was at 10:30, but we got in line around 9:30-ish because the audience hall fills up so quickly. My seat was about halfway up the hall, much better than the last time I was in Rome when I saw John Paul II. We had to wait a long while. But to see our beloved Papa was such a joy, and to hear his Lenten message on Ash Wednesday was such a blessing, too! He addressed each group in their own language, and waved his hand in acknowledge to each group as they cheered. There was a German brass band there that played for him. Behind me was a group of Americans on pilgrimage.
After the audience, we had some free time. All I wanted at this point really was food, so we stopped at a pizza shop. Along the way to the metro we ran into a couple people who were on their way to visit the center of Opus Dei, where St. Josemaria Escriva is buried. They invited us to come along, so my group joined up with them. It was rather spontaneous, but I had a headache, was mildly interested, and being more of a follower anyway, went with it. This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the day. The center is located in what looks like an office or apartment building, so it completely took me by surprise. Inside though it was lovely. The chapel was gorgeous! It was obviously very new, but it was built in the style of an old Roman church, with a mosaic on the apse, a canopy over the altar, which was raised up. St. Josemaria Escriva's tomb was beneath the altar. There were choir stalls on either side of the nave, where we sat and prayed. The tour guide showed us a statue of the blessed Virgin sculpted in the Spanish tradition. She is depicted as in the Assumption, but before she is assumed, so she looks dead, or asleep. She was dressed in beautiful silvery white dress. The Opus Dei center had a set of papal robes worn by John Paul II, soon to be a "relic" I suppose once he is beatified. Josemaria's successor as head of Opus Dei is also buried here.

St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei

We could only spend a half hour here before we had to be at the Church of the Holy Stairs for when the church first opened. The Church contains the set of marble stairs on which Pontius Pilate condemned Christ to death. There are places on the marble where His Precious Blood miraculously stained the marble. Many years later St. Helen brought the steps to Rome. I had climbed these steps on my last pilgrimage to Rome in 2003. It is the custom that one climb the steps on one's knees. I had a whole new appreciation for climbing the steps this time, which has been true in general of my whole European experience. I prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy as I went up the steps. It was even more meaningful with it being Ash Wednesday.
When I finished in the Church of the Holy Stairs, I went to the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. (They say it's in Jerusalem because they took some dirt from the Holy Land to put somewhere in the church).  I was particularly happy to see this church because the last time I was in Rome, it had been on our itinerary but since they were remodeling the shrine of the relics, we were unable to see them. We did get to see the inside of the church itself though, which bears on the apse the story of the Holy Cross from  the death of Christ to its journey to Rome. The Church contains a thorn from the crown of thorns, the finger of St. Thomas, a relic of the sign that was placed above Christ's head - written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, a nail from the Crucifixion, and a reliquary containing fragments from the cave of Bethlehem, the holy Sepulchre, and the column from the Scourging. This church was also very meaningful because of the coincidence of our visit with the day of Ash Wednesday. It was as if we were walking the path of the Cross with Christ.

St. Cosmos and Damian, center of the TORs

Joey Walsh and I finished in the church and we made our way to St.s Cosmos and Damian. Mass had already started, and we knew we were going to be dreadfully late, but we had gone to Mass at St. Peter's this morning, so we weren't in any hurry. I also had a dreadful headache, so I didn't want to go any faster than necessary. We were able to find the church, after one wrong turn and Joey wandering into another church. We met Craig outside, sitting on the ground waiting for Mass to end, so we waited outside with him. When Mass was over we got to look around the church very briefly, than we went back to the hotel for our last dinner in Rome. The next morning we were leaving for Assisi! Beautiful Assisi!

Day #51 : ROME, Day 4

Today was a "General Over-view of Rome" Tour, which took us from Our Lady of the Angels and Martyrs to the Church of St. Agnes, followed by an adventure to St. Cecilia's Basilica, and concluding with St. John Lateran, thus completing our visit to all four majors basilicas.

St. Rita of Cascia, pray for us!

The tour began with The Church of Our Lady of Angels and Martyrs. This church was originally a Roman bath which Michelangelo redesigned into a church. Outside the church is an interesting fountain : it has a bunch of classically sculpted nymphs around it, which in the day it was made caused quite a scandal to some people. Inside the church was one of the most beautiful statues of St. Rita of Cascia, my confirmation saint, that I have ever seen. Across from her was St. Anthony of Padua, also a very beautiful statue. At the front of the church was a small exhibit about Galileo, claiming to combine religion and science. On the right side of the transept there was a small hole near the top of the wall where a small beam of light came through, which helped to track the moon so as to determine the date of Easter. There was a really cool looking organ on the left side of the transept! I wanted it for my living room some day - and yes, my living room is going to be gi-normous some day.

A super cool organ!

Our Lady of Angels and Martyrs was followed by one of the greatest highlights of the day: the church containing Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila. This sculpture is taken from a scene in St. Teresa's book, The Interior Castle, where she describes an angel coming and piercing her heart with an arrow, where she experienced a tremendous pain and joy, she was so near to union with God in her mysticism. Bernini's depiction of this scene is breathtaking. As a Baroque sculpture, the piece is full of movement and emotion. There are no straight lines, everything is flowing and active. There are rays of golden light in addition to the natural lighting from a hidden window pouring down upon the angel and the saint. St. Teresa is totally limp, from her feet to her hands to the expression of face, surrendering herself completely in her ecstasy. It was a wondrous sight to view this piece in person, and more were to come.

Bernini's St. Teresa of Avila

We stopped at the Church of S. Andrea Delle Fratte Santuario Madonna Del Miracolo, where Our Lady had appeared to a Jewish man after he had begun to ask for her intercession, causing him to convert to Christianity. I believe St. Maximilian Kolbe may have had a connection with this church as well - he may have said his first Mass here - but don't quote me on that.
One more church we visited today was extremely interesting, albeit somewhat gruesome. This church was a Capuchin Franciscan Bone yard Church. An entire cemetery was moved here at one point, and since they didn't have enough room to bury all of the remains, the bones were used to decorate the church. There are many theories about how this decoration came into being - several theories involved the Capuchins hiding a psychotic, twisted prisoner or soldier from the French Revolution who in his free time decided to take these bones and decorate the interior of the church. However, a more plausible theory that our tour guide presented was that the Capuchins decorated the church with the bones in order to tell their visitors Memento More, "Remember your death." This friary was built on a very wealthy street in Rome, so it served as a stern reminder for their materialistic neighbors. The church was a sharp reminder in preparation for Ash Wednesday's "Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return." Inside was also a painting of the Resurrection of Lazarus, which brought to my mind one of my favorite scenes in Crime and Punishment where Sonya reads this Gospel passage to Raskolnikov, symbolizing the life that comes through Christ, through divine Love, Mercy, and Forgiveness.

The boneyard Church

We then walked to the Trevi Fountain, which was near the hotel my sister, father, and I stayed in when we were in Rome for our previous pilgrimage. It was nice to see the square again! I found the gelato shop where I think we bought gelato one time the last time we were there. There was a little church on the corner of the square which I couldn't recall if we had gone to see or not the last time we were here, so  a couple of us went to check it out. This was another little blessing unlooked for, that God sent to me as a small token of His love. The church was originally a Roman Catholic Church but it had been converted into a Byzantine Church with an iconostasis. There was a recording playing of the Greek hymn we sing at the Byzantine liturgy, the Akethyst hymn, a Marian devotion lead by a couple Franciscan students back on main campus. To give you a general idea of the beauty of Byzantine chant, check out this video: Vespers of Good Friday at the Monastery of Chevetogne. This is a Benedictine monastery in Belgium that is bi-ritual, meaning that they are part of both the Roman and the Byzantine rite of the Catholic Church. It was a beautiful moment to come into the church, to kneel and pray there for a few moments and experience the beauty of the chant and the icons before us. It definitely was encouraging to me as I am seriously considering going to the Byzantine liturgy for the Easter Triduum this semester.

The next stop on our tour was the Jesuit Church of St. Francis of Xavier, which I think we may have visited on our pilgrimage to Rome in 2003. I couldn't remember for sure though, as our stay in the church was very brief and only really to admire the ceiling, which was painted to look curved but is actually flat. However, I believe that St. Aloysius Gonzaga and St. John Berchmann were buried here.
Right down the street from the Jesuit Church was the Pantheon, built in 120 AD (yay for Art Appreciation!). Near this place was supposedly one of the best gelato places in Rome, so Joey Walsh, Nathan Maurer, Marianne and I went to check it out. I must say, it was pretty darn good! We ran into an American family in the gelato shop, too. It's odd how when you are in a foreign country there is this sudden kinship you feel with people who speak your language. A similar instance happened on the train to Siena when we ran into a couple American students from Michigan studying in Salzburg.
We then made our way to the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where St. Catherine of Siena is buried, as is Blessed Fra Angelico, the patron saint of artists. The church also houses Michelangelo's sculpture of the Resurrected Christ, and Lippi's Carafa Chapel, which houses a series of his frescos. We could only stay in the church for a very short time, so I had very little time to revel in the beauty of the church, but I did appreciate this one a great deal. AND I did get to pray before the body of St. Catherine, an opportunity for which I was very glad.
Another unexpected gift of the day which God blessed me with was the viewing of Caravaggio's The Calling of St. Matthew, one of three of his paintings found in the Contarelli Chapel in the church  San Luigi dei Francesi. The more I study this painting the more I fall in love with it - why I was drawn to it I wasn't quite sure at first, but I think it has to do with the general theme of the semester, of being aware of God's presence in every living creature, in man, nature, in the art and the holy places we visit. Not only the subject material of this painting but the artist Caravaggio I later learned has a lot of interesting connections which I find very intriguing. But all of this deserves its own blog post so I won't go into more detail now.
We then went to the Church of St. Augustine, where lies the remains of St. Monica. There was a side altar to St. Rita there as well, since she also was an Augustinian nun. I had forgotten how often she pops up around Rome! This church also housed one of Caravaggio's paintings, depicting the Madonna and Child being venerated by a peasant couple. There was a beautiful statue of the Madonna and Child in this church as well, which many people have received healings and miracles from venerating. She is known as Our Lady of Childbirth and was carved by Josquin Sansovino.
The last stop on our list was the square outside of the Church of St. Agnes. The Square contains a Bernini fountain called The Four Rivers. Inside the church is contained some of the relics of St. Agnes, and it may have been built over where she was martyred. I was glad to have had the opportunity to pray at the church of my big sister from household, Teresa. This signified the end of our formal tour, and now.

St. Cecilia's Basilica

One part of our journey was over, another was about to begin! I had spoken with a few girls about attempting to find St. Cecilia's Basilica. Originally the girls had wished to go to the Catacombs where we believed that St. Cecilia was buried. I had wanted to go to the basilica since I had seen the catacombs where she was buried the last time I was in Rome, but I was flexible. However, we realized that the catacombs would be closed by the time we reached that part of Rome, so we decided to go to the basilica instead. With the help of another girl in our group, she and I read the map and lead our mini-pilgrimage to the Colosseum, across the bridge and into the neighborhood of the basilica -we found it with very little trouble, praise the Lord! I can't tell you how happy I was to see the little square where the little Roman church was tucked away. We arrived just in time for Afternoon Prayer, so we were able to pray it with the sisters - yet another unexpected blessing from God.

The sisters preparing for afternoon prayer

There was a young man standing by himself in the church towards the front. My friend Regina and I decided that he was a young man from one of my favorite books, Black As Night, a modern retelling of the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In one of the opening scenes, the hero Arthur Denniston is seated in this very basilica meditating on the statue of St. Cecilia. Although this fellow looked European, not American - but he was the best we could do. It was beautiful to look upon her statue. You see, St. Cecilia was the first incorrupt saint, and when they excavated her body there was a sculptor there who sculpted her form as he saw it when they first opened the tomb. Her sleek, white form is draped in snow white robes, her hands proclaim the three persons in one God, there is a cut in her neck where the executioner had attempted to sever her head from her body without success. Thus, she died in agony, in her own blood, while still preaching and singing to the Lord. This was a major highlight of my pilgrimage to Rome, as I have longed to look upon her statue since I first read the scene from Black as Night, since I first became a serious musician. I was able to get a replica of the statue for myself - this was the main souvenir I wanted from Rome, and this was the only place I had seen one the entire pilgrimage, so I'm glad I was able to find one.

The statue of St. Cecilia

The painting. St. Cecilia with lilies, which are being presented by an angel if you look closely. The angel is behind the chant, which you can see faintly at the top. I wasn't able to fit all of it into the picture, but this is close.

Our Arthur Denniston, a.k.a. "Bear"

The organ!!!

There was a painting of Cecilia with the chant for her feast day incorporated into it. It was located in a little side chapel, so I sight read the chant through the grate. :-) There was a little organ there as well to which I touched my rosary from Siena. Beneath her basilica were the remains of her house. It cost only 5 euro to go underneath, so my fellow pilgrims and I decided to go. In addition to her house there is a beautiful chapel underneath the basilica which contains the crypt where she, her husband, and her brother-in-law are actually buried - we didn't realize this until later when students who had gone to the catacombs told us that she was no longer buried there. So we got to see her basilica and venerate her tomb, both! God was guiding us the entire time to her tomb! We had already been glad we had gone to the basilica rather than the tomb, but the basilica ended up being twice as worth its experience anyway!

The crypt where St. Cecilia is buried

We spent our time getting to St. John Lateran's basilica, so Mass was over by the time we reached the basilica, but we still were able to look around. In the left side of the transept above the altar there is the remains of the table from the Last Supper. Housed above the altar in the baldacchino are the heads of St.s Peter and Paul. Along the nave of the church are huge statues of the Apostles and St. Paul. Above these statues are scenes from Scripture, one side has Old Testament scenes, and the other side has New Testament scenes. The scenes correspond to each other though, which is the cool part, so Brian gave Hannah and I a little tour of the scenes, giving us all the connections and explaining the significance of each scene. It was awesome! I love being Catholic! It really made me want to take Principles of Biblical Studies with Dr. Bergsma. I just might do that...

St. John Lateran's, the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome

The interior

The table from the Last Supper is housed above the tabernacle

St. Dominic with our Lady and the pope who was around when the Dominicans were founded!!! (I found him first and I showed it to Brian. He gave me a hug afterwards.)

St. Francis with St. John Lateran's behind him.  If you look at it at the right angle, St. Francis can be seen holding up St. John Lateran's. The Pope saw St. Francis in a dream holding up this cathedral and he knew that St. Francis would save the Church from corruption.

Thus was the conclusion of our fourth day in Rome, and what a beautiful day it had been! This was my favorite day of the Rome pilgrimage, hands down.

Day #50: ROME, Day 3

My friend Colin praying in front of the Arch of Constantine

For our third day in Rome, we had a tour of Ancient Rome in the morning, some free time during which I went on the Scavi Tour, which takes you beneath St. Peter's Basilica to see the original tomb of St. Peter and the remains of an ancient cemetery over which St. Peter's was built according to the orders of Emperor Constantine, and to complete the day we had Mass at St. Paul's Outside the Wall's.

For our tour of Ancient Rome, we began with the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Roman Forum, then made our way to St. Clement's, this ancient church which has been the site of three churches, each built on the top of the other. We could go under the church where excavations have been done to see the original structure of the first and second churches. Both of these churches were discovered by Dominican archaeologists, so there was a little side altar to the Dominicans. The actual church currently standing (above ground, anyway) was a Roman church. It was neat to see how it was built, with the altar and the choir stalls completely separate from the faithful, on a walled platform reached by a gate. There was a canopy over the altar. There were two ambos, one facing out and the other facing towards the priest. The first was for the epistle and the second was for the Gospel. The apse was decorated with a beautiful mosaic. One of the people depicted in the mosaic had a square behind his head instead of a halo - this indicated that he was still alive when the apse was made.

The chains of St. Peter

We then made our way to the Church of Peter In Chains, which houses the chains of St. Peter, just as the title indicates (amazing, huh? ;-) ). This church also contains the tomb built by Michelangelo and commissioned by Pope Julius II. This tomb includes the famous statue of Moses. Apparently when Michelangelo finished carving the statue, he brought his hammer down on Moses' knee and told him to speak, he was so pleased with his work.

The Moses of Michelangelo

Our next destination was St. Mary Major's Basilica, which I remembered from my last visit to Rome. The church was built there after a miraculous snow fall in the middle of August at the spot where our Blessed Lady desired that a church be built in her honor. She had announced this desire in a dream to the pope and to the donors of the basilica. St. Mary Major's is one of the four major basilicas in Rome: St. Peter's Basilica, St. Paul's Outside the Walls, St. Mary Major's and St. John Lateran. St. Mary Major's Basilica is a Roman church and contains somewhere within its walls (nobody knows where) the remains of St. Jerome, which is my grandfather's patron and my younger brother's middle name. Also located here are the remains of St. Matthew.  I didn't remember seeing the manger of the Infant Jesus there, which is housed in a crypt beneath the main altar, so I was glad to return and see that. Fr. Thomas, a Franciscan friar who teaches at Cambridge, came and gave a lecture on our Rome and Assisi pilgrimage. During the lecture he spoke of the contradictions of Rome and St. Francis, and among them he spoke of St. Mary Major's: how a couple pieces of worm-eaten wood are enshrined in a beautiful gold container: a paradox. He told us not to wonder whether or not this was the real wood upon which the divine infant was laid. It doesn't matter. It is the manger. He also spoke of the ceiling of the church, which is gilt with gold from the Indians of South America enslaved by the Spaniards. This gold was purchased at the price of blood, and yet it adorns a church. Another paradox. Rome itself is a paradox, full of noise, congested streets, dirty, smelly, yet it is the heart of the Catholic Church. Peace and unity amidst chaos.

Wood from the Manger of the Infant Jesus

A statue of Our Lady from St. Mary Major's

The tour finished with the Basilica of St. Prassede, which houses a piece of the column to which Christ was tied during the scourging. This was another site I was familiar with from my previous visit. It was good to see it again and to pray before the pillar. Part of the church which I had not seen before that I did appreciate this time around was a Dominican side chapel with an image of Our Lady of the Rosary, handing the rosary to St.s Dominic and Catherine.

The Dominican side chapel

At the conclusion of the tour, I went back to St. Peter's Square for another tour: the Scavi Tour. The Scavi Tour took us beneath St. Peter's Basilica. You see, St. Peter's was originally built outside of Rome over a Roman cemetery - during the ancient Roman Empire, the dead (rich and poor, noble and common) were all buried outside of the city. St. Peter's grave was among the dead. When Constantine came into power he wished to build a basilica above his tomb, and so he filled in the gaps between the mausoleums and the tombs to make it level, made a special place for St. Peter's tomb, and built St. Peter's over it. The tour took us down underneath to see some of the pagan tombs and the tomb of St. Peter's. There were also a private chapel underneath near St. Peter's grave. Apparently Fr. Corapi said his first Mass in this chapel.
Then it was onward to St. Paul's Outside the Walls for Mass, yet another site I had visited during my pilgrimage in 2003. This church, like St. Mary Major's, is built in the Roman style. It houses the tomb of St. Paul and St. Paul's chains. This church was subject to several disasters over the years, so what we say today although it maintains the original design is not the original material. For example, there was an explosion at one point which destroyed all of the windows, so the Egyptians donated alabaster to the church for the windows - a translucent material that allows light partially into the church. I had noticed something odd about the windows when I had first walked in, so it was fascinating to learn that tidbit of history about them. Another cool fact was that the two side altars were made of a precious green stone donated from Russia. These altars were lovely! This church has around the perimeter above the columns portraits of all of the popes that have ever been. It is said that when all of the portraits are filled, the world will end. ;-) Pope Benedict XVI's portrait is up there now - he wasn't there the last time I was here. :-)

The apse of St. Paul's Outside the Walls

St. Paul's at sunset

The apse was one of my favorite parts this time around - a beautiful mosaic. Another favorite part was the front of the church at sunset. I happened to be outside just at the opportune moment and Sister Joan Paul beckoned me to come see the facade bathed in the golden light. So beautiful! Beneath the giant statue of St. Paul were the words Praedicatori Veritas, Doctori Gentium: Preacher of the Truth, Teacher of the Gentiles. St. Paul and St. Peter were all over that church, which made Joey Walsh very happy as St. Peter is one of his patrons. We celebrated Mass at the basilica and had time to look around. There was a Mass being celebrated in a side chapel soon afterwards - there were little boys with beautiful surplices and cassocks, and the priest was saying the Mass ad orientum - facing the altar vs. the people. It looked very beautiful to my eyes. Later as we wandered through the church a group of Benedictine monks came and took their places at the choir stalls around the sanctuary to chant the Divine Office. Hannah was with me when they began; I was glad to have someone with whom to share my appreciation for their chant - a small musical gift from God for the day. It was neat to have prayed at the tombs and seen the chains of two of the greatest pillars of the foundation of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, St. Peter and St. Paul, both in the same day. One certainly feels a new sense of respect and devotion towards these saints as you visit where their remains rest and reflect on their sacrifices for Christ and Mother Church.

Days #48-49: ROME!

Saturday:
Saturday afternoon we arrived in Rome from Siena, just in time for Mass at the church of the Sisters of Reparation of the Sacred Heart, which was right down the street from our hotel, the Hotel of Marcus Aurelius. It was a good thing we arrived in time as, since our music ministry group leaders were late, I had to lead music for Mass with Elizabeth, which was a blessing. The Church was new, and pretty modern in style, but it was nice to have it right down the street. We had a holy hour there every evening during our Rome pilgrimage, which was a beautiful opportunity for prayer and reflection amidst our intense schedule. Saturday evening my roommate Marianne and I invited a couple friends up to the room to watch Batman Begins. I've only seen it once, so it was interesting to watch it a second time, and to philosophically evaluate various points from the movie and its sequel with Joey Walsh and Marianne.
Sunday:

St. Peter's Square again! 

Sunday morning we had Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. The Mass was a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin said by a bishop or a cardinal. The ordinaries and the propers were all chanted with an organ accompaniment. They had a small choir and they used the organ. They used the Pater Cuncta Mass ordinaries, which we learned last semester for the monthly Extraordinary Form Masses on main campus back in Steubenville. Fortunately I happened to have my Parish Book of Chant with me in my backpack so I could follow along with the prayers of the Mass and the ordinaries. They also sang Credo IV, which I vaguely remembered from my Chant class, and I fell in love with it all over again. It's a beautiful setting, I must say - although all of them are... ;-) I LOVE CHANT! The organ accompaniment was wonderful, too. There were two organs, one on either side of the back of the nave at the altar beneath the famous stained glass window of the Holy Spirit. After Mass I met an old friend from my summer working at Catholic Familyland, a Christendom student by the name of Megan Speer, who is studying for a semester in Rome. She goes to daily Mass at the basilica, so she was able to give us the information so we could go to Mass at the basilica one morning while we were here in Rome. Our schedule didn't permit us to go to Mass there until Wednesday, but it was definitely a must-do.
After Mass we said the Angelus in the square with the Holy Father, Pope Benedict. I got to see my Papa! I have now had the opportunity to see two of our popes in person, John Paul II and now Benedict XVI. He greeted the various people in the square according to their language, and the Franciscan students cheered quite loudly when he greeted the English speaking people from America.
Our afternoon was spent touring the Basilica with some of the seminarians from the North American College. It was wonderful seeing St. Peter's again, walking through the square, wandering through the massive church, learning about the architecture and the symbolism of the basilica. (For those of you who didn't know, I had the opportunity to visit Rome and Assisi on a pilgrimage for the Beatification of Mother Tersa). The two central pillars of the church are from the original St. Peter's which was a Roman basilica which was replaced by the Baroque/Renaissance church stands today. The obelisk in the center of the square, originally from Egypt, is from the Roman amphitheater where St. Peter was martyred. The statues on the inside are all built larger than they appear so that they will look life-size to us, when they're actually probably 3x the size they look to our size, as is the lettering around the top of the walls of the basilica. The cupola (the dome) is massive, you can fit the Statue of Liberty or a rocket inside of it. I loved seeing the Pieta again. We learned in Art Appreciation that the statue of Mary if you stood her up next to Jesus, she is actually much taller than Jesus, which is what Michelangelo intended as in real life if a woman held a full grown man in her lap, she would be "crushed" by the size and weight of the man. But Mary's size is hidden by the large folds in her robes. So Michelangelo knew where to make it lifelike and where to make adjustments so that the art still looked beautiful. Genius! Another exciting highlight was the altar where they are going to be placing John Paul II's tomb after the Beatification. They will be moving the tomb of Bl. Innocent (III?) to another altar in the church, and place John Paul at an altar near the side altar of the Pieta.

The Pieta by Michelangelo

Papa Ben!

After the tour we went through the tombs of the Popes. There was one new grave there since the last time I was in Rome, that of our beloved John Paul II. I spent a few moments before his tomb kneeling in silent prayer. I feel so blessed to have seen him at the Beatification of Mother Teresa, and to know have the opportunity to be here for his beatification in a few months. He has done so much for Mother Church in guarding and sanctifying her people, promoting the dignity of the human person through his teachings and his love for God and humanity. I prayed that he would bless our school and asked for his intercession for the Church in America as the new translation of the Roman Missal is promulgated this Advent.

Inside St. Peter's

The dome! (Cupola)

The Baldacchino by Bernini

The painting of St. Sebastian above the altar where John Paul II 's tomb will be moved

The altar and the current tomb of Bl. Innocent, soon to be the resting place of John Paul II

Sunday night we decided to try and go out to the Carnival - you see, the few days before Ash Wednesday there is a Carnival that goes on in Rome to celebrate the final days before prayer and fasting sets in. If any of you have seen the movie The Count of Monte Cristo, you'll know what I'm talking about. So my friends Joey, Nathan, Marianne, and I set out for the People's Square, the Piazza del Populo, at about 9:30 pm but the festivities were long over by the time we arrived, sadly. So we walked around the fountain and Marianne danced in the square (she used to be a dedicated ballet dancer), then we headed back. We did get to see the Trevi Fountain before going to the Square, which was near our hotel the last time I was in Rome. The Fountain is so gorgeous all lit up! We threw coins in for good measure to ensure that we came back to Rome, and this time I threw it with my left hand over my left shoulder as I was supposed to, and we got right up to the fountain so there was no chance of me missing the fountain. ;-) We ended up staying out later than we wanted though because the metro shut down at 9 pm for construction, which meant taking the bus, which meant waiting for an hour while trying to ignore the awkward Italian couple making out nearby. :-P We got to bed around 1:30 am, so all's well that ends well, but no more late nights in Rome for me. As sketch and packed as the metros can be, I'll take that any day to buses which seem to be a little less dependable, at least here in Rome.

Days #47-48: Siena, Italy

This past Monday night I returned from my ten-day break traveling around Italy. The school sponsored a trip to Rome and Assisi, and gave us a little bit of time before and after to do some traveling, so I went to Siena, Venice, and Padua as well. There is so much to say about all of these places, and so little time, so I will attempt to limit myself to just some of the highlights of the trip.

I went to Siena with my household sisters as our traditional household pilgrimage, as St. Catherine of Siena is one of our patron saints. Siena I must say is one of the most beautiful cities to which I have been over this entire semester. The winding cobblestone streets, the terra cotta brick buildings, the beautiful Tuscan countryside. The hostel we stayed at was next door to the house where she grew up and lived. The hostel was one of the nicest ones I have stayed in - albeit it was not cheap - but it was full of images of St. Catherine! It was as if we had fallen into her sweet embrace, she was leading us and guiding us through her earthly home. The hostel smelled like my paternal grandmother’s house - my grandmother died this past summer - this also gave it a very comforting feel. 

In her house we saw the cell where she had lived and prayed, a chapel which contained the crucifix that had given her the stigmata. The chapel was my favorite part. There was a little Italian Dominican sister doing a holy hour in the church when we arrived. As we were praying I caught her eye and she smiled at me. I cherished that smile. We also went to St. Dominic’s church where she would have gone to Mass and been exposed to the Dominican spirituality. There was a painting of her saying the Liturgy of the Hours with Christ walking next to her. There was also a side chapel where her head is venerated. The chapel was covered with beautiful frescos of her life, including one of Bl. Raymond of Capua, a Dominican and one of her confessors and close friends. We had a good day there as a household, had dinner together, exchanged stories, browsed the little shops, finished the night with Lord’s Day and leaving a voice mail for our sisters back in the U.S. The next day we spent the morning wandering the streets of Siena. We wanted to check out the cathedral but it didn’t open until later when we had to be heading to the bus to catch our train. That was a shame, as I had read that the cathedral has four organs and I would have appreciated seeing them here in Siena. But it wasn’t meant to be. We also returned to St. Dominic’s, where we met up with some other Franciscan students who had also gone to Bologna, the burial place of St. Dominic. I didn’t get to speak to them, but we prayed in front of the side chapel. I was glad for the chance to pray a rosary and pray Morning Prayer in the church, two distinctly Dominican prayers : St. Dominic promoted the praying of the Rosary, and St. Catherine was a devout prayer of the Divine Office. Later though, we met up in Rome and my friend Hannah, who was in the group who went to Bologna, came up to me. I had been praying my rosary next to her in St. Dominic’s. She said that she had felt like we had had an entire conversation even though we had not said a word to each other. We left later in the morning to make our way to Rome to join up with the rest of the school.

Day #36: Krakow, Wadowice, Poland

The Steel Cross, a memorial

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The church of Nowa Huta

Inside the church

The organ!

The Stations of the Cross

A play ground in Wadowice

The baptismal font

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the image where John Paul II was called to the priesthood

The choir

Pope cake!

More of the inside of the church where John Paul II was baptized

This morning we had Mass at the Wawel Cathedral. It was a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin, said by a little elderly Polish priest at the altar of St. Stanislaus. There was an organ accompaniment and they used the Missa de Angelis chant ordinaries and Credo III. I was glad to know them! Yay for the 4 pm Sunday Mass choir back on campus and knowing the Missa de Angelis! Thank you! At the end of the Mass the organist played an amazing fugue. I sat and prayed while I listened, the tones of the organ lifting up my words to God.
Another Mass started soon after ours was ended. Just before the second Mass began Sister Joan Paul came up to me and exclaimed, "Did you know Chopin is buried here! There is a Frederick Chopin here! Is that the Chopin?""Where?" I exclaimed. She pointed towards the left side of the church, but they were closing off that part of the Church for Mass, so I didn't get to see the grave itself. But I asked my friend Brian who is a Chopin fanatic what Chopin's first name was, since I couldn't remember, and he confirmed that it was Frederick. So, I can at least say that I was in the church where Chopin was buried, even if I didn't get to venerate his tomb. As we were getting ready to leave, the second Mass began and a beautiful choir filled the church with song. I think it was a classical piece. Brian, Hannah, and I closed our eyes and drank it in like a breath of fresh air from the Alps. .To hear such beauty was so refreshing! Alas, we couldn't stay as there were still a little more of Poland to be seen before we headed home.
My roommate, Marianne, myself, and Joey made our way back to the hotel to take an optional short bus trip to see Nowa Huta, the steel mill town built by the Communists, meant to be the ideal Communist city. The buildings there were gray and simple, just the way I would imagine a utilitarian society to build them. There were two churches we saw there: one church dedicated to the Sacred Heart was built on the site where a wooden cross had been erected by the Polish people of Nowa Huta. The wooden cross had begun rotting in the '60's, so an oak cross had replaced it, and this one stands there today. There was another metal cross erected on the other side of the church with John Paul II's name inscribed into it, put there in his honor, I think. We only got to briefly look inside the church, which was very small and very modern looking, so I don't think we missed much.
The next church was the one built using the stone given by Pope Paul VI to Bishop Karol Wojtyla for the erection of a church in Nowa Huta. This church was very modern as well, built to look like an ark, which is a symbol of the Church. Inside the church was really bizarre. There was no focal point, I felt. There was a giant crucifix with Christ's body stretched out towards the pews of the people, a very modern interpretation of the crucifix. The R.D. who gave us some info. about the church said she thought it symbolized Christ uniting Himself with the sufferings of the Polish people. The tabernacle looked like this big steel ball, which I can see why they might have that, it being a steel mill town and all, but I still don't like the idea. They DID have an organ, though, which I appreciated because the Divine Mercy Shrine did not have one. The Stations of the Cross I rather liked as well. They placed the Stations of the Cross amidst modern day Poland, so while Christ and Mary where in period dress, the people around them were in modern dress.
After Nowa Huta, we went back and picked up the rest of the students to go to Wadowice, the birthplace of John Paul II. Wadowice was a tiny Polish town. You could go to the house where he was born, which cost a bit of zloty, and you could go to the church where he was baptized, served, received his first Communion, and first felt called to the priesthood. This church was very beautiful! It had lots of side altars and was full of frescos, statues, and holy images. There was an image of our Lady of Perpetual Help in a side chapel. John Paul II said that one day when he was looking at the image, that was the first time he felt called to the priesthood. The ceiling was painted with Biblical scenes representing all of the encyclicals he had written. We saw the baptismal font where he was baptized. It had low reliefs of various scriptural scenes around it. There was a little children's choir there with a couple sisters rehearsing for Mass, so we got to hear their sweet voices sing as we admired the church's beauty.
I still had yet to taste pope cake, so when we finished in the church, Marianne and I went to get a piece of pope cake at a near by shop. Pope cake is a pastry that Karol Wojtyla and his classmates would get to celebrate the end of exams at school. John Paul II mentioned that it was his favorite dessert one time and from that point on it has been known as pope cake! I think for all those who are not going to be able to attend the beatification that on May 1st they should make pope cake in honor of our beloved Papa! I'm sure there's a recipe online somewhere. It's basically a pastry with layers of a cream like substance. It's very good!
This was more or less the conclusion of our Poland pilgrimage, and soon we were on our way back to Gaming. On the return trip, we did a lot of singing, movie quoting - Lord of the Rings came up a lot. Colin quoted Winston Churchill. We also watched Anastasia and/or made fun of its historical inaccuracies, and talked about literature. It was so good to get back to Gaming, though, and get to rest and get back into the swing of school again. Poland was certainly one of my favorite and most inspiring weekends. I feel like Poland is a diamond in the rough, often unspoken of, often unnoticed, but she has gone through many sufferings, and where there is great suffering, there is great love. I would love to return here someday.

Day #35: Poland, Krakow

Today we went on a tour of Krakow, went to Mass at the Dominican Church, and went to the Divine Mercy Shrine. Last night we went exploring around Krakow and got some Polish hot chocolate! So good! The whipped cream isn't sweet here in Europe. It was similar to the hot chocolate to that in Vienna, like drinking a melted chocolate bar.

Yum!

Part of Wawel Castle

This morning I learned that my friend Elisabeth Hofer was meeting her spiritual director, a Dominican sister, and going to Mass at the Dominican church here in Krakow. Elisabeth also mentioned something about Polish Dominican church. I immediately knew I had to try to find a way to get to this church for Mass. So at breakfast I enlisted Craig Brummer, one of the prethes, and Mark Daniel from our choir to come with me. We decided to go to the noon Mass after the morning tour of Krakow. 

More of Wawel Castle

Krakow is one of the greatest cities in Poland. It was the setting for the novel by Eric P. Kelly, The Trumpeter of Krakow, which is centered around the true story of the trumpeter in the tower of the Church of Our Lady Mary. According to the story, during the middle ages, the trumpeter was slain by an arrow from an enemy bow in the middle of warning the city of the enemy's arrival on his trumpet. He was in the middle of playing a note of the melody when he was slain by an arrow in his throat, so to this day the trumpeter of Krakow only plays the melody up to that note when he trumpets the hour, in honor of his predecessor.

The door to Wawel Cathedral. See the bones hanging on the left wall? Those are dragon bones!!! ;-)

Wawel Cathedral from a distance

The dragon by the river and Wawel Castle

Krakow is also the bishop's seat in Poland, or the seat of one of the bishops anyway. John Paul II lived here for several years, first with his father, studying at the university, then as a priest, and as bishop. The bishop's cathedral is called Wawel Cathedral and is part of the Wawel Castle, the royal castle. Our tour began with the Wawel Castle. By the castle walls bordering the river we could see the statue of a large dragon who ever so often would breath large tongues of fire. We saw a little bit of the castle's exterior, then we went inside the cathedral. The cathedral was the coronation site and the burial ground for many of the Polish royalty and saints. The chief saint for which the cathedral is named is St. Stanislaus, the first saint of Poland. They had tombs around the cathedral similar to that of King Elessar in the flash forward in The Two Towers, with the deceased's full body laid out on top as if asleep and arrayed in all his splendor. My favorite tomb was that of Queen St. Jadwiga, who was also a saint. She was so beautiful in her sleep of death - I wish I had had a drawing pad on me to sketch her. Josh and I both appreciated her tomb very much. It was intriguing to see the cathedral, since parts of it were familiar from watching the John Paul II movie on the bus, such as the big black crucifix donated by St. Jadwiga located at the back of the church. John Paul II is seen praying in front of the crucifix at one point in the movie. 

The park around Old Krakow

The Church of Our Lady Mary in Krakow's main square

After the cathedral we saw a little more of the castle, the university where Karol went to school until the Nazis came, the bishop's palace which was converted into a museum for John Paul II. We saw the window where he used to address the people of Krakow. We also saw the Franciscan church here in Krakow - we would see the Dominican one on our own time. There was also a church to St. Peter and Paul - apparently Krakow has a lot of churches, so many in fact that it is called the second Rome. Not because Krakow is that big, but I think the normal building to church ratio is similar perhaps. We finished in the main square of Krakow where the tour guide told us about St. Mary's and the trumpeter of Krakow. At the end of the tour I got to meet Elisabeth's friend the Polish Dominican sister. It turns out she studied at Franciscan so our TOR sisters knew her. 

The piano in honor of Chopin! (I'm not sure if it was Chopin's actual piano...

I saw this along the walls outside of Old Krakow as we were walking through the park to the Dominican church!

Craig, Mark Daniel and I went to Mass at the Dominican church after shopping a little at the mall. On the way to the mall we went through the park that surrounds the old city of Krakow : the moat that surrounded Krakow was filled in and converted into a park. In the park was what appeared to be a smashed piano in a glass case, with Chopin's music coming from a couple of speakers nearby. There were advertisements for a Chopin concert around the square. The piece they were playing was the same one Cameron Carpenter the American organist plays on the organ with unbelievable skill on the pedal board. Demonstration: Chopin on the Organ

Polish Dominicans saying afternoon prayer!

This was my favorite part of the Dominican church: The Good Shepherd carved on one of the confessionals.

Mass at the Dominican Church was lovely! We did get to hear them chant, though I wouldn't call it full-scale. I got to hear them play the organ, which was lovely. I think the organist may have played a Bach chorale prelude, or some Baroque composer anyway. I'm so glad I've taken music history! After Mass we got to explore the church and watch the Dominican friars say afternoon prayer! That was so cool! They bowed at the Glory Be! There was a shrine to St. Dominic up a flight of stairs. Near the main entrance were two side chapels to St. Catherine of Siena, one of her holding the child Jesus, the other of her receiving the stigmata. I prayed my household prayer in front of the latter chapel.

When we finished in the church we did some souvenir shopping, then boarded the bus for the Divine Mercy Shrine. When we got to the shrine, it felt like being back on main campus to look at the architecture of the shrine itself. The church looked like a space station. I heard a rumor that it was built to look like a cruise ship. Why one would build a church with that in mind is beyond me. But regardless, the actual chapel for the sisters was very beautiful and much more traditional. We went into the chapel to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The chaplet was prayed in Polish alternating with decades in English and French. After the chaplet I venerated the relics of St. Faustina, kept on a side altar in the church. There was perpetual adoration at the church so there were no photos allowed. We were given a talk on the life of St. Faustina and on devotion to the Divine Mercy by one of the sisters. After the talk we had a brief time to go make our purchases at the book store then we had Mass. 

The Divine Mercy Shrine

Inside the shrine

The Divine Mercy chapel for the convent. 

During the chaplet in the chapel, I kept getting musical ideas for a cantata or a song cycle for our Poland pilgrimage, centered around Psalms, Our Lady, and the Divine Mercy devotion. I hope to realize it one day!