My Roman Adventure

My dear friends,


I beg your indulgence for not having updated my blog for nearly two weeks; I was extremely busy in Rome and upon returning to Notre Dame, I had to rush to finish up my Senior Thesis that was due yesterday on the Feast of the Annunciation --- and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us...anyone?
hmmm, anyways here we go with a super long, as a detailed as possible, run through of my fabulous week in Rome with Dom. Giovanni (as I shall refer to him)


(note, this may be changed a few times as I recall more details from my wonderful Roman week)


Sunday
Nothing too special...
Flew from O'Hare to Munich, left the airport in Munich to have a good German beer, got on my next plane to Rome. Arrived in Rome to take a cab to Santa Maria in Via Lata to catch a rather late Sunday Mass. From there, I made my way over to the Domus Internationalis Paulus Sextus where Dom. Giovanni resides  and where I stayed as a guest for the week. Dom. Giovanni was in London that night so I left on my own to roam around Rome and instantly fell in love with the Eternal City; who would have thought that my, having no Italian blood in me, I would fit in so well in Rome...I must be a Roman at heart but we all knew that.


Monday
I got up early to pray Mattins and Lauds with Dom. Giovanni and then made my way over the Tiber to San Pietro, stopping in the Castel San'Angelo on the way...after a Cappuccino of course. At this point, I will warn my readers that I took no pictures; I didn't even take a camera. Miss Gabriella agreed with me that I should not see Rome through a camera lens.
Anywho, St. Peter's was amazing...for a Baroque Church. Words cannot describe the joy in my soul walking up the road into the Square of St. Peter. Oh the Glory of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. 
I kissed the statue of St. Peter, venerated the numerous saints, venerated the tomb of JPII and the other Popes in the Papal tombs, and hundreds of other awesome things. 
THEN, I WENT ON A SCAVI TOUR AND SAW, WITH MY OWN EYES, THE BONES OF ST. PETER AND I PRAYED THE CREDO QUICKLY SINCE THE TOUR GUIDE SEEMED TO NOT THINK THIS WAS SPECIAL...She was more interested in the pagan tombs and I had to beg her to stop so I could at least say a quick prayer.
From there I meant to go on the Cupola and get a view of the Eternal City and the Vatican Musuem but I kinda forgot.
From there, I made my way back to the Casa to meet Dom. Giovanni, stopping into every Church on the way including the Pantheon (of which I was not a huge fan), Santa Maria sopra Minerva which had this great image: The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas over the Heretics...Its a Fresco by Filippino Lippi in the Carafa Chapel, showing the great Dominican theologian Thomas Aquinas confounding heretics while two boys (the future popes Leo and Clement VII) look on



Upon meeting up with Dom. Giovanni, he offered a private TLM for me and we chanted Vespers (what else would we do?)
We met with two Old Collegians for Dinner near the English College.




Tuesday
I got up to pray Mattins and chant Lauds and Prime with Dom. Giovanni before heading to Sant'Anastasia for the Stational Liturgy, one of the first parishes in Ancient Rome. I walked with Dom. Giovanni to the Greg where he had classes in Canon Law and I went on my way to explore the city. Some of the Churches I saw this day included the Gesu and San'Ignazio. I then met up with Gabriella for lunch who then took me to a few Churches including Santa Cecilia in Trastevere with a gorgeous baldacchino and Santa Sabina where St. Thomas Aquinas actually lived during some of the early years of his Priesthood. We also visited Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, the FSSP parish in Rome:



We continued up the Aventine Hill to the Knights of Malta headquarters with a fantastic view through their keyhole:



I then met up with Dom. Giovanni and he celebrated Mass for in San Sebastiano fuori le mura, my confirmation saint. 



We then walked all the way back to the Casa, stopping in every Church along the way (that we could) including a Basilica built on the very spot where St. John was plunged into boiling oil and emerged unscathed: San Giovanni a Porta Latina. We then had another glorious dinner.


Wednesday
The Stational Church was the beautiful Santa Maria Maggiore. Dom. Giovanni and I went through our know regular morning ritual of offices and chants. I then went to San Andrea delle Valle. Today was also the day, each year, where in the Palazzo Massimo in Rome, special Masses are said in remembrance of a miracle of St. Philip Neri, whereby he revived Prince Paul Massimo. This miracle occurred on this day, March 16th, in 1583. I had the great privilege of going to a Missa Cantata with Cardinal Burke!!!!!! What follows is a set of awesome pics from the Mass and beautiful chapel in the Palazzo. The Mass was aided by the Institute of Christ the King:








I couldn't have been happier than at this very moment!!


I met up with Dom. Giovanni and we made our way over to Santa Maria Maggiore with Fr. Mark the Aussie. Dom. Giovanni offered Mass for me once again and it was awesome. I thought this church, on its own, was absolutely stunning (except for the stained glass in the back)...of course the Crib of Our Lord kinda helps ;)


At this moment, my memory escapes me as to what I did the rest of that evening but I remember walking through the rain with two priests and going to countless beautiful Churches that included San Pietro in Vincoli where Peter's Chains are kept:

the only issue here was that, while in the Church praying our Creed, the Church had some sacred music in the background. The next song was Handel and when the three of us realized it was the Great 'A-word' from Handel's Messiah, we ran out while covering our ears.


We also visited Santa Maria della Vittoria where Bernini's famous statue of the Ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila:



We also stopped in Santa Maria di Loretto, San Marco (where tradition holds St. Mark wrote the majority, or all, of his Gospel), and San Alfonso di Liguori where the original icon of OL of Perpetual Help is:



Thursday
Dom Giovanni, one of his patrons being San Patrizio, insisted we go to San Patrizio for the big Mass in honor of St. Patrick organized by the Irish College; Cardinal Levada was the main celebrant. It was a newer church but the mosaic above the altar was gorgeous and the Mass was nice. Today was also the 150th year celebration of the unification of Italy (or the Fall of the Papal States :( ) and the Casa had a HUGE PRANZO that was soooooo delicious. Now that I think of it...I do miss the food...alot.


I ventured out on my own to San Paolo fuori le mura, stopping in as many Churches as possible and that Church was quite magnificent. I stayed for chanted vespers...IN LATIN!!!... and made my way to the L'Abbazia delle Tre Fontane, the spot where St. Paul's head was chopped off and his head bounced three times and fountains miraculously sprang out when it touched the ground.



Went out to dinner and had a grand ol' evening. 


Friday
Stational Church was Santi XII Apostoli. After Mass, I was able to go down and venerate the tombs of James Minor and Phillip. I then made my way over to the Colosseum where I dreamed about being a gladiator for a bit. Then I went down to the Roman Forum and among other really cool things, read (out-loud) Cicero's Speeches against Cataline (and apparently was filmed by a random group of Koreans). I then met up with Dom. Giovanni at the Lateran which was pretty amazing; the Cathedral of Rome and the whole world...wow!


We crossed the street and Prayed the Scala Sancta which are the steps that led up to the praetorium of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem, which Jesus Christ stood on during his Passion on his way to trial, brought to Rome by St. Helena.


We then went to the Basilica Sanctae Crucis in Hierusalem which houses the Passion relics!!!!!!!!!
Among these amazing relics were 1) a part of the Elogium or Titulus Crucis, 2) two thorns from the Crown placed on Our Lord's Sacred Head, 3) a piece of a nail that pierced Our Lord's Sacred Hand or Foot, 4) three pieces of the True Cross, 5) a fragment of the Good Thief's cross, 6) the finger of Doubting St. Thomas (that probably touched Our Lord's Most Sacred Heart), and 7) pieces of the Scouring Pillar, the Holy Sepulchre, and the crib of Our Lord.


On the way back to St. John Lateran, there was this huge statue of the great St. Francis holding up the walls of the Cathedral:



Today I also met with Fr. Flannery, SJ, at the Gregorian. For those of you that don't know, this meeting was the reasoning for my funding for the trip; I use a lot of his research in my Senior Thesis and he is a friend of the Center and my advisor. He really did help with my Thesis and and took me to the top of the Greg and showed me a fantastic view of the Eternal City. It was great to talk about Aristotle and Aquinas over an espresso with such a magnificent view. 


After my meeting with Fr. Flannery, Dom Giovanni and I headed to the last of the seven pilgrim Churches, the Basilica Papale di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, hitting a few Churches along the way. We venerated his tomb and left just as Mass was starting and this Franciscan processed out (the acolyte) wearing a beautiful lace-filled surplice...tantum ergo, more grace. (it looked a lot like my surplice of the 7-inch lace).


On the way back, we stopped in San Clemente which was one of my favorite Churches:



We then met up wtih Gabriella and the Gallican for fish and then had a very long discussion/argument over the superiority of Gothic over Baroque architecture...some just didn't want to see the truth but thats ok:

as some examples...anywho


Saturday
 Dom. Giovanni said Mass for me in St. Peters (the stational church of the day) on the body of St. Gregory of Nazianzus. We then booked it to the train station to catch a train to Assisi, only to arrive as the train was pulling out of the station. So we went to Sacred Heart Church and prayed Mattins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, and Sext.


Assisi was AMAZING...I loved it. Had a great Pranzo and then we made our way up the hill to the Church of St. Francis. The Frescos in there were to die for, my favorite being this one:

this is the best pic i could find but on the bottom, you have Holy St. Francis pleading before the Triune God for his brothers and other Franciscan brothers pulling brothers out of their tombs into Heaven by their cintures. I venerated St. Francis' tomb and habit. We went to Santa Chiara which houses the famous Cross of  San Damiano and venerated Saint Claire's body. We went to the Cathedral and saw the baptismal font where St. Francis was baptized and enjoyed the evening in Assisi. On the way back, Dom. Giovanni and I had the whole train car to ourselves so we naturally chanted out of Liber's for the two hours...it was nice.


Sunday
Private Mass in Santa Maria Maggiore on the altar in front of the Crib of Our Lord....it was amazing. His Reverence even gave a lil sermon to me. We went to St. Peter's for the Angelus and upon seeing the Pope, i teared up for the first time...I just couldn't believe my eyes.


I received my papal blessings which extends to family and friends (and readers...so if you got a warm, tingly feeling last Sunday, you know why ;) ), and visited a few more Churches in the Vatican State. We ate a huge pranzo that included delicious wine (as every meal did) and Trippa Romana...mmmmmm


We went back to the Casa to relax for the day and chant out of the liber, I boarded my plane and landed back in the States on Monday evening...a whole ten minutes before I had to report on duty (I am an RA in my dorm for those that didn't know that).


That is it for now...I am quite tired having had a rough week of thesis writing and completing...like I said, I will update this post a few more times as I recall more awesomeness from my Roman Adventure





God Bless friends...