The Holy Land, part 3

Well, as I mentioned at the end of my last post, on

Friday

we woke up very early and were out the door by about 6, I believe. Why so early? We went to a 6:45 am mass in the Holy Sepulchre, up on Calvary, in the chapel right next to the site of the crucifixion. Definitely worth getting up early for. It was a beautiful mass--in Latin, and mostly sung. I think knowing a little bit of Italian has helped my Latin skills, because I could actually get the gist of the readings (well...at least the Gospel, as always). Continuing on my theme on the Eucharist from the other day, during mass I was reflecting on how the Eucharist contains the entirety of the Passion. It's a sacrifice, the re-presentation of Christ giving up His life on the cross (about 20 feet away), but it's also the Resurrection. It's our glorious, risen, triumphant Lord! All of that...all of that in that humble piece of bread.

After mass, we were going to go down into the tomb (because we didn't have time on Monday), so we went and got in line. Almost immediately, though, someone came through saying it was closing for a few hours so they could clean the floor. So we ended up with some extra waiting time, which actually fit quite well into our mini celebration of the Triduum that day. Can't skip out on the vigil of Holy Saturday--we literally got to keep watch by the tomb. And I'm really glad we did, it was a very fruitful time of prayer. We prayed a rosary and a Divine Mercy Chaplet together. The Divine Mercy Chaplet was especially good. One time I heard someone describe the DMC as an opportunity for us to call down God's mercy into the world, to cover all our failings and shortcomings. That phrase has always stuck with me, and I was reminded of it again especially during this time. Calling down God's mercy--we were soaking in it, at its source. The blood and water flow from the cross to the rest of the world. It was another powerful experience of being aware of the presence of grace.

So I started out thinking mostly about the cross, and sacrifice, but then sometime during those few hours my focus started shifting more towards the Resurrection. I read the Scripture accounts of it, thought about the women coming to the tomb, thought about Peter and John's footrace (I love how John's subtle competitiveness comes out), and Easter songs even started running through my head.

When they opened the line back up, we were very near the front, so didn't have to wait long at all before we got to go into the actual little room with the rock slab (it was cool to think that that's where the Shroud was, too, since I got to see that last April). We could only stay there a few moments...but as it should be, right? The apostles didn't stay long either, before the angel told them to get out of there and spread the good news. And that is my commission also, especially now that I have seen with my own eyes the empty tomb. He is risen indeed! Alleluia.

After that, let's see...we ate lunch (pita, hummus, falafel, etc), and then went to the church of St. Anne, which also includes the birthplace of Mary. I of course prayed for you there, Mom!


A statue of St. Anne and Mary that was in the church

Right outside that church are the healing pools where people would come and get in the water when it swirled up and all that. AND, that church is the start of the Via Dolorosa, aka the way of the cross. So we walked and prayed the stations of the cross. Those are one of the things that are less-than-historical...there's no record of them until the Crusades, and the route has changed a few times since then. But it was good to have a place to be reminded of the events, and they did happen in Jerusalem.

After that, we had a little free time to walk around. A few of us climbed up a tower at a Lutheran church, for another sweet view of the city.


Here's where Jesus played basketball.


Oh, and here's the Holy Sepulchre--the largest dome is built over the tomb.

We then went to Vespers at an Armenian Orthodox church. St. James is buried in that church. (Most of him. The rest is in Spain, at Santiago de Compostela, where the Pope was over the weekend! His head is in one place and his body is in the other, but I can't remember which is which).


The church also has cool secret passages built in. I'm definitely putting those in any churches I might design in the future.

Anyway, that made me think that St. James, and all the other apostles and saints who are venerated by both the Catholics and the Orthodox, are the best ones to ask for prayers for unification of the Churches--I'm sure they want it. And they know real Truth, so they'll help lead us to it. (Similarly, whenever I see a Protestant Church dedicated to St. Paul or some other saint, I first wonder how they feel about it, and then know that they're praying for that church to come to a fuller Truth, and it's kind of nice to know it's under such good care...anyway). An Armenian Orthodox man met with us after Vespers and told us a little bit about how much the Armenian Church suffered during 20th century persecutions, and how the number of Christians in general in the Holy Land is dwindling. He said they have hope, though...hope that the West will not abandon them, that Europe and the U.S. will come to their aid. That was quite convicting. I don't know enough about foreign policy to know what all we're doing about those things, but I bet it's not enough in the eyes of the people over there.

After a rather sobering end to the afternoon, we headed back for our last evening at Tantur. They cooked a special meal for us, which was delicious--especially the apple pie. A nice American touch, to ease the transition back, maybe? :-)

Saturday

We got to sleep in a little on Saturday morning, and then headed back to Bethlehem for lunch in a nice family owned restaurant. Home made fresh pita bread=the best we had on the whole trip, I think. A young Palenstinian lady came to talk with us while we were eating. She told us a little more about the political situation, and how hard it is for Palestinians to get permits to come to Israel (she doesn't have one). Also, fun fact: her family owns and runs a brewery in Palestine that accounts for 20% of the national economy.

After lunch, we headed back to Jerusalem one last time, to the church of the Holy Sepulchre yet again. This time we were meeting with Fr. Fergus, a Franciscan who's basically in charge of the Catholic part of the Holy Sepulchre (different religions have "custody" of different parts. The Greek Orthodox have the tomb, for instance, which is why the mass we went to on Friday wasn't there). Fr. Fergus was awesome. He showed us around to some parts of the church we normally wouldn't be able to go to, like a place where some of the rock is exposed that's part of the same hill the tomb is carved out of, and we actually got to touch it! He also kept emphasizing again and again that "it's the Resurrection"--don't get caught up in the politics of everything, remember why we really came. The Resurrection, the most important event is human history, happened here. He also said that in a way it's good that things are so crowded and crazy, that fires and earthquakes have damaged the structure of the tomb so it's not very pretty (true), because we're not supposed to want to stay there. We're supposed to leave, to go out and bring this all home with us. It was a perfect thing to hear on our last afternoon.

And then we did head out...our flight was later that night from Tel-Aviv. We flew back through Atlanta and finally arrived back in South Bend at about 11 am on Sunday.

I'm so thankful that I got to go on this trip--it was incredible and so grace-filled, in ways that I'm still realizing. Baruch Hashem! (Hebrew for, Praise His Name)!

The Holy Land, part 2

Picking up where I left off from the last post...

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went back into Jerusalem. We went first to the Ecole Biblique, a Dominican run French school for Biblical studies. Pre-requisite: proficiency in French, Hebrew, and Greek, and they only give out doctorates. Looks like I have a little ways to go before that becomes a post-grad option...anyway, another really cool thing about the Ecole is that it's located at the place where St. Stephen was martyred. There's a really beautiful church there. We went there to meet Fr. Gregory, a Dominican, who then showed us around for the day.


Here's the exterior, and the courtyard where the stoning happened.


And a portion of the way awesome interior.

We walked from the Ecole to the Mount of Olives, and then up it, which was quite a hike! For orientation: the Temple Mount is between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. So from west to east, it goes: Jerusalem, Temple Mount, Kidron Valley, Mount of Olives, and then the town of Bethany is on the east side of the Mount of Olives (that's where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, and where Jesus would stay when he came to Jerusalem for feasts and things. During those times he hiked regularly up and down the Mount of Olives. What a stud).

So anyway, there are quite a few things to see on the Mount of Olives. We started at the top, at the mosque of the Ascension. Yep, it's a mosque. But they very graciously let Christians celebrate mass there a few times a year.

Next we saw the site of the Pater Nostre, aka the Our Father. That's supposedly the place where Jesus gave the Our Father to his disciples. However, I was a little confused about that because I thought it was during, or right after, the Sermon on the Mount, which happened in Galilee. But anyway, the area was really cool. It was essentially a big courtyard surrounded by walls that had large tile plaques with the Our Father written in every language you could think of. There was also a small area to go down and see the rocks that were the actual spot where Jesus prayed the prayer.


Laura, Chris, and I all studied in Rome at the same time last year, so naturally we had to pose with the Italian version.

Continuing down the hill, we came next to the church of Dominus Flavit, which means, the Lord wept. When Jesus came to Jerusalem for His passion, He sent the disciples ahead while He stayed on the Mount of Olives. He looked out over Jerusalem and wept for it, for the sins of its people. The view from this spot does lend itself very well to contemplation of the city. It was quite moving for me to sit in that same place and also look out over Jerusalem. I found myself wondering what Jesus would think of it now. (Actually my immediate thought was, "he's still weeping", because of all the struggle and controversy and suffering). But there's something different about Jerusalem now than there was back then. The Dome of the Rock is the most noticeable feature of the skyline, and is a symbol of that tension and discord in the city. But at a closer look, tucked behind and almost hidden, the dome of the Holy Sepulchre is visible too, and that changes everything. It's the hidden hope of the city and of the world; a promise that weeping will not last forever. Like I said, it was really beautiful to look with the Lord for a few moments.


Here's the view that I saw...

The next stop was the garden of Gethsemane. There's a church built over the rock that Jesus prayed on. It was really powerful to be there also, just to be there and keep vigil with Him. Unfortunately we couldn't do that for very long, because the church closed for siesta (or riposta, or whatever the Hebrew word for it is...) shortly after we got there.

The last place we visited on the Mount of Olives was the tomb of Mary. What? Tomb of Mary? Wasn't she assumed? You might be thinking...and actually, it reminded me of the first day of my Mariology class sophomore year. My professor gave us a little quiz just to see what we already knew, and one of the questions was, where is the tomb of Mary located? I thought it was trick question:-) Anyway, in the course of that class I learned about the theory of the Dormition of Mary, that she chose to die because she wouldn't want to escape something that her son had gone through. That class pretty much convinced me of that theory, actually. (But the Church doesn't say for sure one way or the other). And while we were at the tomb, I think we were all subscribing to it.


This is the valley south of Jerusalem--the name translates to the Valley of the Cheesemakers. I thought that was hilarious, and if you've seen Life of Brian you'll know why. It gives a whole new meaning to it, in fact.

Anyway, after seeing all those things, we booked it through the city back to near the Holy Sepulchre, so that we could meet with the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Theophilus. Beforehand, we also talked to a Greek Orthodox archbishop. This is when we heard, as I mentioned at the beginning of the first post, that "this is the place" where God chose to reveal Himself in history. He also told us that a pilgrimage has two purposes: to increase knowledge and to increase sanctification. Pretty awesome. Our audience with the patriarch was quite interesting. Like Fr. Lazarus, he told us some things he thought were wrong with the Catholic Church. Some of what he had to say, though, showed a misunderstanding of what the Church really believes. That's kind of disheartening, to know that the leader of the Orthodox Church doesn't truly understand Catholicism--because then how can we ever have a reunion? But after he said all these things, he also gave us keychains and posters, so I guess it turned out alright:-)

We ate a very late lunch after that, and then...I think I mispoke in my last post. I described going to the Syrian Church with the Upper Room on Monday, but I think it actually happened on Tuesday...I think we went there after eating that late lunch. Everything that I said before still applies, so just copy-paste it in your head to right now...:-) And I apologize.

Anyway, after that it was back to Tantur to eat, discuss, pray, hang out, and sleep.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we headed up north to Galilee. On the way, we drove through Jericho and stopped in the Judean desert, which is the one that Jesus went into to pray for 40 days and 40 nights, and where the devil tempted Him.


Some of those heights might have been the ones where Jesus stood!

Also on the way, we went to the top of Mt. Tabor, which is where the Transfiguration happened. The church up there is Franciscan, so nice and Western-looking.


The late-afternoon lighting was gorgeous.

I think my favorite part of the church layout was that immediately off to either side when you walk in the door are 2 chapels, one dedicated to Elijah and one to Moses. A nice touch. I really like the Transfiguration. I often tend to focus on seeing the Lord in everyday life, and sanctifying the ordinary, etc, so it's good to be reminded of His outright majesty and glory. We usually see Him veiled and hidden, even in the Eucharist, but someday we will see Him face to face. And since it was up on a mountain, the view from near the church was pretty awesome. Also awesome was the fact that there was an Italian cafe up there, in the giftshop. It reminded me of the cafe on top of St. Peters:-) It was dusk by the time we were ready to come down the mountain (but come down we must--no tents for us), and we decided to walk the path down instead of waiting for the shuttle.

We then had a short bus ride to our hotel in Tiberius, which happened to overlook the Sea of Galilee. We ate dinner close to it, too, and then hopped a fence to go down and wade in it. There is so much holiness connected to that water, and I felt it all while we were there. That's the water that Peter fished in, Jesus walked on, the storms were calmed on, Peter recklessly jumped in, etc...SO many awesome stories. I loved it so much, in fact, that I woke up quite early on

Thursday

to watch the sun rise over the water.



It struck that that's the SAME SUN that Jesus saw rising over it also. The water's not exactly the same, different molecules and all that, but the sun is the exact same one. I then went back and hopped the fence again and went swimming. I didn't stay long, because we had the opportunity to go to mass that morning before breakfast. The place where we were staying was run by a French Catholic group, and there was a priest there. That was a great blessing. I find I really do miss daily mass when I can't go. So, mass, breakfast, and then we left for the sightseeing of the day.

We visited several churches in the morning--the Church of the Beatitudes, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, and the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter (when post-Resurrection Jesus ate with the disciples by the sea and then commissioned Peter to "feed my sheep").


Looking out from where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.

My reflections at those churches, the last two in particular, centered mostly on the Eucharist. In the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes, it seemed perfect that there's a tabernacle there now--Jesus continues to provide for us, feeding us with Himself. And then at the Primacy of St. Peter Church, "feed my lambs" took on a Eucharistic meaning that I had never really thought about before (and I can't take total credit--it was pointed out to me by a friend). But anyway, I am one of those sheep that gets fed by Peter (and any priest), when they consecrate the Eucharist. I find that as my love for the Eucharist grows, my love and gratitude for the priesthood deepens also, and this experience inspired some of both.

From there we walked to Capernaum, which is not a functioning town anymore, but more of an archaelogical site. The remains of Peter's mother in law's house and the synagogue where Jesus occasionally preached (such as giving the Bread of Life discourse) are the main things to visit.


The dark stones on the bottom are from the synagogue of Jesus' time.

Next, we drove to Nazareth. On the way, we stopped to wade in the Jordan River. We read from the Bible about Jesus being baptized in the Jordan while we were standing in it--another experience of very tangible grace.



When we got to Nazareth, we ate lunch, then saw the Orthodox church of the Annunciation, and then the Catholic church of the Annunciation. The Orthodox church had a beautiful interior, with gorgeous icons and intricately carved wood detailing. The Catholic church had...interesting architecture. Not my favorite. But the importance of the event totally trumped how the church looked. Fiats and Angeluses (Angeli?) abounded:-) There was also a smaller church close by that commemorated the site of St. Joseph's workshop.

We finally headed back to Tantur for the usual evening routine, being sure to go to bed early, because we got up extremely early the next morning. But that is a story for the next installment...

The Holy Land, part I

Well, it's been awhile since I've blogged about anything...to quickly summarize what's been going on since then, summer was relaxing, and the new school year has been good too. There you go:-) Now on to the reason I'm writing--I have something a little more exciting to write about again! Over fall break, (the week before last), I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with 9 of my classmates from my Theology class, plus my professor and his wife. It was an incredible trip on many different levels. It was just fun to travel again (I even broke out the ol' framed backpack), it was an opportunity to get to know some of my classmates better that I didn't know very well before, it put us in contact with the complex political situation over there, as well as the possibly even more complex dynamics between all the religious groups with a presence in the Holy Land, and finally (and most importantly), it was a pilgrimage to the important places in Jesus' life, to the places He actually lived (and moved and had his being). In fact, we realized afterwards that we visited 18 of the 20 sites of the mysteries of the rosary, and one that we missed doesn't count because the coronation of Mary happened in Heaven, and that unfortunately wasn't on the itinerary (unless you count mass).
The overall spiritual impact this trip had on me is probably best summed up by these words, which were told to us by one of the Greek orthodox archbishops in Jerusalem: "the Incarnation happened at a specific time and place. And this is the place." He also said that a pilgrimage has two main purposes--to grow in knowledge and sanctification. I hope I did both during the week.
We packed quite a lot into our short amount of time. I'll go through day by day and hope I can remember everything...

Friday
We left South Bend in the afternoon and took an overnight flight to Tel Aviv (through Atlanta). Having pulled an all-nighter the night before, I had no trouble sleeping through the entire thing. It was actually really enjoyable. With the time difference, we got to Israel in the evening on

Saturday
We were staying at a place called Tantur, which is an ecumenical institute owned by Notre Dame. We ate breakfast and dinner there every day. Dinner was in fact the first thing we did after we arrived, then had a short orientation and went to bed.

Sunday
Tantur is located about midway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, on the Israel side of the wall. On Sunday, we walked down the Bethlehem for the day (through the checkpoint). We started by going to mass at a Melkite Church. I really liked the church itself. For some reason when I think eastern Catholic I think of dark, uninviting spaces, but this church was light, open, and very welcoming.


The Church wasn't crooked, just my camera...

The whole service was sung. I was surprised at my inability to follow along. When I go to Roman rite masses, even if they're in a language I don't know I can at least tell what part of the mass we're on, but here I wasn't even sure about that. Anyway, after mass we ate lunch at the church, with another big tour group from France, and then headed off to the Church of the Nativity. That, of course, is the church built over the spot where the cave was that Jesus was born in. Once you go in the Church you can go down underneath to that cave, and venerate the stones where he was laid. The line was very long, so at first we were afraid we wouldn't make it in the time we had, but after convincing one of the guards to let us in a back way, we did. It's difficult to describe what it felt like to be in all those places (this being the first of many of the week), where you can say what you're doing and almost not believe yourself. It's surreal--but at the same time, very real--that's what's so awesome about it. Because of the crowds, once you get to the actual spot you can never stay there very long. There's only time for a few thoughts, a few prayers (and I kind of felt a certain pressure to make sure I made them good ones...but didn't always), but having the memory is huge. The experiences can be brought to mind and reflected on later, and in fact I will probably be doing that for the rest of my life. But anyway, back to the Church of the Nativity. I prayed especially for my family while I was there, because what better place than where the Holy Family started? We also started what became typical of the other sites we visited--reading the Bible stories that took place there while we were there. So awesome.


Here's the spot where Jesus was born, where Mary and Joseph were too, where the shepherds came, etc...

And believe it or not, that wasn't all we did on Sunday--we also took a taxi ride out into the desert, to a monastery called San Saba (or Marsaba). It's a Greek Orthodox monastery, the only one left functioning out of the hundreds that used to be in that desert. One of the monks happens to be from California, and he is kind enough to come talk to English speaking groups that visit. Hearing what he had to say was really interesting. He explained some about the Greek Orthodox Church, and the things they emphasize (communion with God through the heart, not the head, for instance) and also...told us some things they think are wrong about the Catholic Church. I knew they think we split off and all, but hearing it was still kind of surprising and strange.


There it is...blending in with the desert

After that, we made it back to Tantur in time for dinner, and then had our nightly discussion/debriefing of the day. Those were a good chance to discuss lingering questions or just things that had been brought to mind over the course of the day. It was always good to hear what had affected everyone else, and share some experiences with each other.

Monday (only Monday? I've already written so much!)
On Monday we went into Jerusalem for the first time (by bus, not walking). We went first to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.


The exterior is not particularly impressive, but...

There are several ridiculously important things to see in there--Calvary, so the site of the nailing to the cross and of the crucifixion, right next to each other, the tomb, the anointing slab, and the spot where St. Helen found the True Cross...those are the main ones. We didn't have time to visit all of them on Monday. We did go up to Calvary (literally up--there's a flight of stairs to the right immediately when you walk in the door). We spent a while there. I remember feeling overwhelmed with gratitude, and the line from St. Paul, "we proclaim Christ crucified" kept running through my head.


Here's the site of the crucifixion--you can duck underneath that altar and venerate the rock. Also, you can't really tell, but there's a beautiful image of Our Lady of Sorrows off to the side.

After that, we went briefly down into the cave where St. Helen found the Cross. References to her are everywhere in Jerusalem--churches and chapels named after her, etc...I guess she was pretty important. It also kept reminding me of Rome, because a lot of the things she brought back from the Holy Land ended up there, so I've seen them from the other end. Now I got to see where they came from! Finally, one last thing we saw in the Holy Sepulcher on Monday (we went there several times, so it will keep coming up): there's a spot underneath the site of the crucifixion where you can go in and see the rock of Golgatha, and see how in a certain part there's a definite crack running through the rock...a crack from an earthquake. THE earthquake. So cool. (And fun fact: that chapel is called the chapel of Adam, because of the belief that Adam and Eve were buried underneath the spot of the crucifixion, so when Jesus' blood dripped down it hit them first, and they were then saved. No historical truth to that, but an interesting theological idea).

After all that, it was time for lunch. We went to a rooftop restaurant with a great view of the city, and ate lots of pita and falafel and hummas and schawerma.


Here's the view from the roof--the shiny gold dome is the Dome of the Rock (and no, there's no Mary on top)



The shadows were kind of funky, but anyway, here are most of the girls! From left to right: Katie, Kaitlyn, Lauren, me, Laura, Theresa, and Laura.

Then, we walked through the city and ended up by the Temple Mount. We couldn't actually go up onto it, because it was unexpectedly closed, but just being at the base was awesome anyway.


This is the view approaching from the west

And, of course, the Wailing Wall is there, so we were able to be part of that tradition of leaving prayer intentions in the wall. It was kind of interesting to think about the Temple, the role it had in the past and the role it could possibly have in the future. Obviously it was incredibly important in the Old Testament, and Jesus spent a lot of time there. (And, sacred architecture in the Catholic Church has roots in the design of the Temple. Since it's described in the Bible, we take cues from that--can't argue with Divine Inspiration). But now--now, as Catholics, we don't really need the Temple anymore. We aren't waiting and hoping for a 3rd Temple to be built like the Jews are (they have a menorah ready and everything. Seriously).


Yep, there it is, just waiting...

I was particularly reminded here, though, of the image of heaven as the New Jerusalem, and I think Jesus is the New Temple in that case (hope that's right...and not heresy, haha). The Temple was holy because the presence of God dwelt there. Now the presence of God is present to us in the person of Jesus Christ. And all of this is further complicated by the fact that this spot became important for the Muslims, too, because supposedly it's where Muhammed ascended into Heaven to converse with God. So now the Dome of the Rock is built there, and dominates the Jerusalem skyline.

In the late afternoon, we went to vespers at a Syrian Orthodox Church. It was all sung by 3 (priests? monks? not sure what to call them...). Afterwards, a very sweet lady talked to us about some of the miracles she's witnessed in that church, and also sang the Our Father for us in Aramaic, the language Jesus would have prayed it in. That church also happened to be the site of the Orthodox Upper Room, of Last Supper and Pentecost fame. I say "Orthodox" because there's also a Latin Upper Room, in a different location...so that made it a little strange. It might have been the place, but not for sure, but it did have to happen somewhere, and if not there then somewhere close by. There's also an icon of Our Lady in the church that was supposedly painted by St. Luke.

When we finished praying in the Church it was time to head back to Tantur on the bus. We finished the day with our typical evening--dinner, discussion, prayer (I forgot to mention before--we prayed Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours altogether every night, I really enjoyed that), fellowship, and bed.

Well, this is definitely going to have to come in installments...and this is a good place for the end of part I. So, to be continued!

Il mio ultimo giorno di Roma

This post is a bit overdue, seeing as how my last day in Rome was about two weeks ago. But I think I'll write about it anyway.

I started the day by going for a run along the river. I stopped in a church along the way, the church of Divine Mercy. I had gone to mass there a few weeks ago, but stood outside, and I wanted to actually go in the church. It's right by St. Peter's, so I saw that along my run, too. Time #1 of seeing St. Peter's that day.

For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, I cleaned up my desk and did a little last minute packing. I took a break to go sit by the Pantheon for a while and soak in some sun and some Rome, and also Pino made us a ton of pasta for lunch.

At 3, I went to mass at S. Maria Sopra Minerva. It was the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, and she's buried in that church. Most of her, anyway...her head is in Siena. But anyway, that mass was organized by the Angelicum, and so in English! That meant that my last Italian mass had been the day before, but even so, this was a really good last mass. St. Catherine is a doctor of the Church and one of the patron saints of Italy. She had a great love for the Church in general, and wasn't shy about telling the Pope when to straighten out, like that he needed to go back and live in Rome again. It seemed fitting to celebrate her feast on my last day in Italy. After mass, I got to pray right next to her tomb, and I asked for her prayers that I could keep loving the Church just as much as she did, even when I was back in America...because of course it's the same Church.

After mass, I got to spend some time with my friend Christopher. I went with him to buy an Italian breviary from a nearby store, and then we walked to Old Bridge, one of our favorite gelato places. It's up by the Vatican...so time #2 of seeing St. Peter's. And actually, on my way back, I saw something I'd never seen in Rome before--St. Peter's Square was full of cars! It looked like a parking lot. There were several tour buses, and people walking around in suits and ties, too. Never quite figured that one out...

Anyway, after that I went to dinner with a bunch of the archies at one of our favorite restaurants. We all got our favorite kinds of pasta (lots of "favorites" happened that day). After dinner, we ended up walking back to Old Bridge (I didn't get anything this time around), and sat in St. Peter's for awhile. Time #3 for the day. I think that was a record:-)

By that time, it was about 11 pm. We spent awhile just walking around the city, and stopped in a couple of our favorite Irish pubs. I went back to the hotel and took a short nap, and got up in time to walk to the Campidoglio to watch the sun rise over the Forum. It was beautiful! And the through struck me that that same scene has been happening for thousands of years, literally. And it will continue to, each and every morning, even when I'm not there to see it. I guess it's comforting to know that Rome isn't going anywhere. Someday, if I get the chance to go back, it'll be there. But I didn't want to spend too much time already wishing I were coming back, and instead tried to just be thankful for all the time I've already had.


Arrivederci, Roma!

After sunrise, we had one last cappuccino, got on the bus, and went to the airport...and about 20 hours of traveling later, I was home in St. Louis!

Best part of coming home: seeing my family right away, of course. Second best part: the sign my mom made for me that said "Benvenuto a Homa!"

I'm not done yet processing and reflecting on the year...perhaps I'll post more of my musings throughout the summer. For now, I'm actually getting ready to do a bit more traveling--I'm flying out to Colorado for a week to attend the Augustine Institute College Student Summit! Life goes on:-)

Pisa, Turin...and some last things

Last Thursday and Friday were final reviews. They went pretty well. After that, I had a theology paper to write, a history exam Tuesday, and a theology oral exam this morning. The way things were spaced meant we had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday free (except for writing and studying), so of course, the best use of my time was to travel one more time. This was a trip I had been planning on going on probably since about last year at this time, or whenever I found out that the Shroud of Turin was going to be on display April and May of this year. That's where we went--Turin! And we stopped in Pisa on the way.

Pisa was cool--one of those places I felt like I should see if I lived in Italy for a year. Of course everyone knows what the main attraction is. And even though I knew coming in, it's still a shock to see that tower for the first time. It's really leaning. More than I expected, I think.

We only spent about 3 hours in Pisa, but that was enough time to go in the cathedral and pray for a bit, look at the baptistery from the outside, browse the giftshop (they sell coffee cups, regular cups, and wine glasses that are leaning over, it's pretty funny), take touristy photos, enjoy the beautiful sunshine, climb up the tower, and make it back to the train.


This shows the lean pretty well.


It feels sturdy up there, even though you can definitely tell sometimes you're walking uphill and sometimes downhill...


We had to:-)

From there, we headed up to Turin, aka Torino. You might recognize the Italian name from when the Olympics were there in '06. I remember they always flashed that across the screen and it took me awhile to realize that was the same thing as Turin. Anyway, we got in around 9:30. It was just my roommate Katie (a different Katie than the one I traveled with all of Christmas break) and I at this point. Matthew had come with us to Pisa but then gone back to Rome. Through an unfortunate series of last minute events, we got to Turin without a place to stay for the night. That was a bit unsettling, but luckily we were able to find a fairly cheap hotel not too far away from the duomo.

We woke up early on Monday morning, because our appointment to see the Shroud was at 8 am. Before you go in to see the actual thing, they show you a video that highlights the markings on the Shroud and explains what each of them are. Then you file in to the church and in front of the Shroud. On the way, we passed the tomb of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. I was almost as excited about seeing that as I was about seeing the Shroud. He's one of my favorites, probably on about the same level as St. Josemaria Escriva. So to get to see both of them, in a span of about 2 weeks...unbelievable. And if you want to know more about Pier Giorgio, just ask me, I love talking about him:-)

Anyway, the Shroud itself was a little different than I expected, I guess. Mostly I was surprised by how clean it was. We couldn't stand in front of it very long, but from thinking about it then and throughout the rest of the day, I think one of the things that was most moving was thinking about all the other people that have been in the same Shroud's presence, starting with Mary. We don't have many relics of her...but she was there when Jesus was wrapped in that cloth. And the women saw it laying discarded in the tomb on Easter morning. And many popes and saints have made pilgrimages to see it over the years, including St. Charles Borromeo, who's been popping up in my life a lot recently...(for instance, I just learned that he wrote a document after the Council of Trent outlining how churches should be built to be theologically accurate, and that was the basis for church architecture until about the 1960s. That's pretty cool. He's one of my patron saints, so maybe he's been nudging me towards sacred architecture all along, haha).

We spent the rest of the day in Turin walking around, visiting other churches, including one where Pier Giorgio had his first reconciliation, and also going to a museum about the Shroud. I learned some interesting stuff. They explained about all the markings on it--there are two types, one that's blood stains, and one that's something else. The blood stains show through on both sides of the cloth, but the other kind doesn't show up on the reverse side. The blood is type AB, which matches the blood of all the Eucharistic miracles that have been tested. Also, using computer technology, they created a 3D hologram of exactly what the body looks like based on the markings. So I think I saw what Jesus looked like. And they never say specifically, This Is Real. But all the evidence sure points to it.

We left in the late afternoon, and got back to Rome at about 9:30. Now I've been finishing up some last things...packing, visiting places I've always wanted to go, and some places for one last time...I leave on Friday. It's very bittersweet. More bitter at the moment. I'm very thankful for the time I've had here, and I guess it's time for a new part of my life to start. It might be a quieter section than this one, but those are necessary too. Like in a piece of music, it has different movements, and they have to be taken together to get the full effect of each of them. I was sad to leave the U.S. at the beginning of the year, but in retrospect I shouldn't have been quite as much, because I get to go back, and the 8 months doesn't seem so long after all. I'm sad now...and I don't know when, if ever, I'll return to Rome. I guess it just goes to show that I have a bad sense of timing, and the Lord knows much better than I when things should happen. His will is very clear in this case--I'm supposed to go back to America on Friday. His timing worked out at the beginning of the year, and I should trust that it's right this time (pun intended) too. Yesterday I was praying in the church of S. Luigi, one of those ones I've been meaning to go to for awhile, and I realized how fitting that was. I was able to ask St. Louis for some help in my transition back to St. Louis. And the thought struck me that I am not Italian. I am American (and so can you). That's where God has placed me. He brought me here to Rome this year as a beautiful gift and growing experience, but I can't stay here permanently. For one thing, I would need to learn the language a lot better:-)

People at home, don't think this means I'm not excited to see you! I am! But, like a line from a poem they gave us at the end of MSA says, "my heart now has two homes." Or in my case, maybe three or four. Anyway, I guess I'm just incredibly blessed. To have had so many amazing experiences this year, and to have such good things to come back to too. More processing and reflecting on this topic is definitely necessary.

Well before I get too nostalgic for Rome before I even leave...right now I'm going to head to St. Peter's to see the Pope again! One more Papal blessing will be nice:-) Pray for me this week!

Pilgrimage Day in Rome

Yesterday my friend Chris and I went on a pilgrimage...to see some sights in Rome! We started by going to the prelature church of Opus Dei in Rome, S. Maria della Pace (but not the one by Piazza Navona, this one is up just north of Villa Borghese).


The church (which is more like a chapel) is in this building...it took us a while to figure out where to go, as it doesn't exactly LOOK like a church.

Anyway, why there? Because S. Josemaria Escriva is buried there! He's one of my favorite saints, and has been pretty influential in my spiritual life in the past year...so it was HUGE to get to go pray by his tomb (actually, his casket is behind glass, under the altar in the church, so I don't know if "tomb" is really the right word, but I don't know what else to call it). I was actually just thinking a few days ago that at this time last year, I didn't know much about him at all, just that my brother Steve would often tell me about things he had written in one of his 3 books The Way, Furrow, or Forge. I borrowed The Way from him last summer, mostly because its compact pocket-size size was handy to carry around in my Totus Tuus bag, and somehow I ended up with both The Way and Furrow here in Rome, probably for the same reason (Steve, I promise I'll give them back when I get home! Possibly after I buy my own copies, ha...). His writings talk a lot about having a strong interior life while living and working in the world, and how sanctity can come through ordinary work. He gives pretty straightforward advice and doesn't really beat around the bush. His thoughts are organized into short points that are pretty easy to remember, so when one catches your heart you can keep it in mind all day. And he was so recent--he was practically living in the same world we are today. And he was able to be holy, and he's a saint...so why can't we too? Actually, he talks about that himself: "saints are not abnormal cases to be studied by a modernistic doctor. They were--they are--normal, with flesh like yours. And they conquered" (The Way #133). That seemed very real to me yesterday. He probably also wins the award of "only saint to talk about alarm clocks in relation to the spiritual life"...:-)

After praying there for awhile, and getting to go to mass there too, we walked to St. Peters and climbed up the dome! That's one of those things we always figured we'd do "at some point" throughout the year...and it's definitely time to start doing all of those things. And it was an awesome experience! One of the coolest parts is walking around the neck of the dome inside the church. You can see just how huge the letters of the inscriptions in the frieze are (6 ft. high), and looking down on the church from above gives a new perspective (literally) on how enormous it is. The baldacchino is waaay below you, whereas from the ground it seems to go up forever. So in between the ground and the dome, there is clearly quite a lot of space.


Looking down on the apse--that's the cathedra petri and dove window way down there.

And of course, being outside on the cupola was pretty cool too. There were some good views of the piazza below and the Vatican gardens behind.


A cool aerial shot taken by a creative English-speaking tourist.


Looking down the side of the dome.

You can also go out onto the roof of the church. You can get pretty close to the statues that line the top of the facade, and from up there they look kind of goofy. They're out of proportion so that they look right from below--my friend Evan described them as looking like Lego people.


They're also pretty big, as you can see with me as a scale figure.


Looking back at the dome.

Chris and I prayed Morning Prayer up there (even though it was 3:30--we decided we were just doing it on American time), and also got cappuccinos from the bar on the roof. Seriously. I mean, it's not actually in the church, so it's ok, right? Haha.


This is probably where the Pope goes after the Easter Vigil.

After those two very exciting events, we finished off the day in truly Roman style--pizza and gelato. It was a great day!

In other news, I turned 21 last week, and Pope Benedict turned 83 (on the same day)! Unfortunately, we didn't have a joint party. But my birthday has actually been elevated to quite the feast this year--we celebrated the vigil the night before by going to Hard Rock Cafe and eating cake, we went to an Irish pub for awhile the night of my actual birthday, and apparently there's a package for me on its way from St. Louis that should arrive somewhere near the end of the octave:-) Haha. But in all seriousness, it was great to get to celebrate with my friends here in Rome, and thanks to everyone at home for your thoughts and prayers!

Now it's final project time...and also final two weeks in Rome time. So life will be pretty busy from here on out, trying to fit in all the work and all the fun and sightseeing that still have to be done!

Assisi

Yesterday several other archies and I took a day-trip to Assisi! One of the seminarians from the NAC helped organized it. Assisi is a beautiful, fairly typical Italian hill town, famous, of course, for Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi. We had beautiful weather all day, too, which made it even better. And the first thing I thought when I got there was "I immediately recognize why St. Francis saw the presence of God so clearly in nature", because the geography around Assisi is breathtaking--green fields and mountains.

Anyway, we hopped on a train early in the morning, and got to Assisi in time for mass at the Basilica of S. Francesco at 11. We all went to mass together, and then sort of split up and people went off to do different things and explore the city. I stayed in the church for awhile and prayed by St. Francis' tomb. And what would a blog post about a pilgrimage like this be without a description of some of the things I reflected on while I was there? :-)

So, I was thinking about how the Franciscans and Dominicans are kind of complimentary orders, and the simplification I've heard before is "Dominicans are the head, and Franciscans are the heart" of the Church. Usually I'm more drawn to the Dominicans; to the intellectual side of faith and an emphasis on Truth. But I realized yesterday that St. Francis certainly didn't have any less Truth than St. Dominic. He appealed to people's hearts, but with true Charity, not just emotions. And it worked, and is still working, as evidenced by the massive amounts of pilgrims who come to Assisi to see him. And I think St. Francis was such an effective witness because he was charismatic and he appealed to people--but then he had something of substance to offer once they were drawn in. And that was his radical casting off of the world and embracement of poverty. His life really DID witness the Gospel, like that overused quote that's attributed to him, "Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words." (Lately when I've heard people use that quote that to make a point, the point is usually--words are necessary! Switching around the cliche a little, haha.)

Anyway, after eating lunch and gelato with a few of the archies, I spent the afternoon...visiting more churches, of course. I think my favorite was one called S. Damiano. It was a short walk outside the city, and built on the spot where St. Francis wrote the Canticle of Creatures and heard the Lord speaking to him from a crucifix. Later, St. Clare had her convent there, too. They've moved the original crucifix to the Basilica of S. Chiara, so there's a replacement there now...but it was still pretty incredible to be sitting in a church in the spot where part of St. Francis' conversion happened. I love the story of his conversion, too, because it kind of involves architecture...

What St. Francis heard Jesus tell him was "go and rebuild my church, because it is in ruin". St. Francis took it literally, and went and raised money to restore the church of S. Damiano. He sold a bunch of his father's cloth, and gave the money to the priest at the church. When his father found out, he was a little upset, though, and that's when the big show-down between them occurred that ended with St. Francis taking off all his clothes as a symbol of renouncing his old life. He then put on a simple tunic, which I saw in a chapel of relics. (It also included the original rule of the Franciscans, a letter St. Francis had written, his breviary, his shoes, and piece of leather he pressed on his stigmata...it was incredible). So anyway, after St. Francis did this reconstruction project for S. Damiano, Jesus spoke to him again and said, basically, "Umm...I meant reform the people of my Church. Nice try." And then St. Francis started the Franciscans, and the rest is history. Or something like that:-)

That distinction between building the church and rebuilding the Church is one that's close to my heart. I've often pondered the same thing myself--I thought about it a lot when I strongly considered switching majors to Theology, for instance. But as of right now, I think I'm trying to do the second through the first, or at least along with doing the first. Seemingly sort of choosing the opposite as St. Francis...but hopefully not really. I'm certainly aware of the need for renewal in the Church, anyway. Especially right now, especially in America. Nuns supporting Obama's health care, "Catholic" reporters calling for the Church to stop suppressing women...yikes, yikes, yikes. Jesus, your Church is in ruin again. But it's so beautiful how the Lord always raises up holy men and women in times of need to BE that renewal. People like St. Francis, back in the Middle Ages (if he's not a patron of New Evangelization, he should be), and people like St. Faustina and the devotion of Divine Mercy now, which is celebrated especially today--Divine Mercy Sunday! As a side note, this morning I went to a special mass at a church dedicated to Divine Mercy here, and I thought it was really cool that one day I could celebrate a saint who's been around for over 500 years, and the next celebrate a saint who was canonized 10 years ago. The Church is still alive! And the Holy Spirit is constantly working in her! And will continue to. And St. Francis' prayer, "Lord, make me an instrument...", was my prayer too.

After that, I visited S. Rufino, the cathedral of Assisi, which has the baptismal font where St. Francis and St. Clare were both baptized. Then I went to S. Chiara, where the body of St. Clare (aka S. Chiara, if you haven't made that connection) is kept, and also has that original crucifix that spoke to St. Francis. There's a kneeler in front of it with a prayer written in a bunch of languages, including English, that I think is maybe a prayer that St. Francis himself said in front of that cross. So...praying it in communion with him was pretty awesome. I said it in English, but also in Italian, since that's the language he would have been using. You know, just so that the words sounded familiar to the Lord:-)

Finally, last church: S. Maria degli Angeli, on the site where St. Francis died. The whole group visited that one together, and then got back on the train to Rome! It was a great day, followed by a good morning this morning, and overall a good end to the Octave of Easter.