On Monday, we had another ridiculously early breakfast,
than Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, in front of the Chair of St. Peter.
In a
way, it was awesome that we were having Mass there, but at the same time, it
felt kinda…off. Like it didn’t quite fit. I got that feeling from most of the
Mass’s we went to over the week, because, I dunno, those churches were built inspired by the Latin Mass, and so the
Novus Ordo Mass felt a little awkward in them. Maybe it was some of the
terribly ugly second altars built (seriously, WHY?!), but it did feel a bit
unnatural.
After Mass, we went on a walking tour with Dr. Carreno, who
is Columbian, and very jolly. From what I can recall, we saw Castel Sant’
Angelo, the Bridge of the Angels, St. Phillip Neri, Sancta Maria Sopra Minvera
(where I saw some Asian tourists taking selfies of themselves with the tomb of
St. Catherine of Siena right behind them…odd), the Pantheon (I remembered it
bigger), the church where the original Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon is (this
was my favorite church – it was smaller and felt like a homey parish church),
the church of St. Clemente III, and some other places that I can’t remember.
We had some free time for lunch, after which Krista and I
had a Scavi tour.
We thought we had to meet right outside of St. Peter’s, on
the steps (like we did for the tour on Sunday), and because we were running
late, we cut.
Again.
Then we found out that we were supposed to meet at a different left colonnade (meaning we
didn’t need to cut the line) and then chilled out there before the tour.
So the current St. Peter’s Basilica is built on top of
Constantine’s St. Peter’s Basilica, which in turn, was built on top of a pagan cemetery
(with some Christians). The Roman’s had this thing, where instead of completely
demolishing buildings, they would just level them out, then build on top.
Some archeologists did some excavations about 50 years ago,
looking for the bones of St. Peter (which they think they found), and also
found the old pagan mausoleum, so the Scavi tour is basically a tour of that
mausoleum.
We got to see the oldest “picture” of Jesus – three mosaics
of Him, represented on a chariot of fire (replacing Apollo), as a shepherd, and
then another mosaic which was partially destroyed. Those were actually really
cool and my favorite part of the tour, but honestly, I was really distracted
the entire time because I had to go to the bathroom.
When we finished, we/I made it a priority to get to a
bathroom, then we wandered around (I don’t remember where) until dinner.
After dinner, there was an optional praise and worship
thing with seminarians from the North American college of Seminarians (or
something along the lines of that), but Krista and I both opted out of that.
People told me later how awesome it was and how loud the drums were, and I just
“smiled and waved.”
Tuesday, we had Mass at St. Cosmas and Damian in the Forum.
St. Cosmas and Damian is the motherhouse of the Franciscan TOR’s, and has had
Mass said every
day consecutively since the 4th century (I think).
It was a smaller church, but very interesting. It had some really old mosaics,
then some side altars with varying styles. It was pretty interesting, and
afterwards, one of the priests there showed us their reliquary, where they had
a TON of relics stashed, including the arms of several saints.
There was more interesting history about the church, but I
missed out on most of it, because I was out cold during the homily. This was a
recurring theme throughout the pilgrimage – I don’t know why breakfast always
had to be so dang early!
Afterwards, another tour of “Ancient Rome/Early Christian
Church” – in my group, led by Dr. Carreno again, ending with the Coliseum. I
don’t remember much, but we stopped at one church that supposedly holds the
pillar Christ was scourged upon.
It was actually quite small, and if Christ was chained to
it, He would have had to crouch down in a really humiliating primal position.
It was pretty amazing.
In the same church, there was a large red stone on one
portion of the mosaic floor that covered up the opening to a well, where way
back, some noble Roman ladies had secretly buried the bones of martyrs.
After, we had lunch with Dr. Carreno, Sr. John Paul (who is
ridiculously smiley, has a hilariously loud laugh, and makes the most ridiculously
facial expressions) and then two other girls.
We sat in this park, which was previously some sort of
palace for Nero – he burned down part of Rome just so he could build it. Lunch
was short but relaxing – we had a little entertainment provided by this lady “walking”
her small, super fluffy and super energetic dog.
The dog was absolutely nuts, pouncing all over the place,
alternately scaring the flocks of pigeons and in turn, being scared by the
flocks of pigeons.
After lunch, we parted ways, and again, we wandered around.
Krista and I actually planned on going to the hotel early and napping before
supper, because we were so dang tired, but we decided to stop at the Circus
Massimus for a little bit, as it was one stop before our hotel.
We ended up spending a bit over two hours there, talking,
watching this guy play with his adorable little brother (or his son?), and then
stopping in Sancta Maria in Cosmedin, which didn’t strike me much as a church.
It looked like it was made for Byzantine Mass, the way certain parts were
sectioned off.
On Wednesday, we got up ridiculously early to get good
seats for the papal audience. It was raining and pretty dreary. After waiting
two hours outside the square, they opened up the gates, and that’s when people
went a little crazy. It was like I wasn’t even moving of my own accord – the
people from behind me were what moved me. Some other students apparently got
elbowed by some crazy old Italian ladies, and were quite disconcerted with the
entire thing. I actually didn’t mind/didn’t pay attention – I got separated from
Krista, then put some headphones on and listened to Irish drinking music, which
made all the hustle and bustle almost make sense. At least it made it less
annoying. Plus, I didn’t get elbowed…that I know of.
Once we got into the square, the FUS students quickly
grabbed some sections for the good seats (though a good section got confused
and sectioned off the wrong seats).
There we waited in the drizzle for another two hours, listening
to Argentinian music, until Pope Francis appeared, took about 20 minutes to
make his rounds in the Popemobile (in which everyone went absolutely CRAZY
whenever he got close to them) then he walked up to the stand, sat, and
everyone calmed down.
The next two hours were spent reading the papal address and
the Gospel reading for the day in at least six different languages.
After the English part, I basically dozed off for the rest
of the audience.
After all the readings, everyone said the Our Father in
Latin (whoaaa….it’s like, there was one language which made it possible for us
to pray together, making it kind of…universal…hm, fancy that!), ending the
audience.
Krista wasn’t feeling good, so she headed back off to the
hotel, and I spent the rest of the day with Christine, Jessica, Mari and
Chiara.
Christine and Jessica are more soft spoken girls, who usually wear long
skirts and generally quite calm people. Mari and Chiara are “louder”, super
funny, and make the funniest faces at each other whenever they’re talking. It’s
really quite entertaining just to watch their faces when they talk.
We walked around, and I forget most of the places we walked
to, but I remember that we accidentally walked into a large market place with
the annoying hawkers, where some of the girls picked up some things (like
scarves). Then we still had some time to kill before Mass in the evening, but
we couldn’t get into the Holy Stairs (real close to St. John Lateran, where
Mass was to be offered) because it was having it’s siesta.
That’s actually something you have to keep account of in
Italy, and Europe in general. A lot of churches and stores close down for a
couple hours mid-afternoon for a siesta, which can be inconvenient if you’re a
tourist, but if I was a resident, I would love it.
So we spent the next hour and a half in St. John Lateran –
I think Chiara and Mari wandered around the church most of the time, but
Jessica, Christine and I sat in a chapel blocked off for prayer.
Lest you think I spent that time well polishing my halo, I
actually spent most of the time snoozing in preparation for Mass (I was able to
stay awake for the homily!)
Then we did the Holy Stairs and then returned for Mass.
After Mass, dinner, then another Holy Hour in Santa Galla,
with maybe one or two praise and worship songs, which was a lot nicer.
We left early (surprise.) the next morning for Assisi,
where I spent the few hours on the bus in a blissful nap (except for one part
where this guy sitting behind me had music BLASTING out of his earphones, and
yet somehow, was managing to sleep amidst all the racket)
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