As I mentioned in the blog from Day 7, St. Peter’s Basilica is becoming something of a home parish for us this week, since we were there yesterday, today, and Wednesday. Today, it was the center of our lives.
We awoke at 6:00am on Monday morning, and left the apartment by 6:35am. We walked the 15-minute distance to the Vatican in silence (likely because the boys were still half-asleep). We arrived at a mostly empty Vatican at 7:00, so Fr. Hill could celebrate a personal Mass for us on one of St. Peter’s many side altars. The church, quiet except for a handful of priests (and one bishop) saying masses at side altars, was breathtakingly beautiful at this time of morning.
Fr. Hill entered the sacristy, where an altar boy helped him vest and prepare, and then Fr. Hill took us to the altar containing the body of Pope St. Leo the Great (one of only two popes to carry the “Great” moniker; some hope JPII will be the third). Above the altar is a magnificent marble sculpture of St. Leo confronting Attila the Hun at the gates of Rome, convincing him to not sack the city. Fr. Hill chose the altar due to a special devotion to Leo and his significant work in the early church (mid 400’s). Fr. Hill’s parents, in town to meet the group, joined us as well.
As we celebrated Mass in the awe-inspiring space, passer-by’s-either tourists or worshippers-stopped at our altar to join the sacrifice of the Mass.
After a quick breakfast down the street from the Vatican, we proceeded to the Vatican Museums, which house the Sistine Chapel, the Apostolic Palace, and over 70,000 works of art. Fr. Hill arranged for us to take a Vatican-sponsored tour, entitled “Faith and Art.” Our tour guide was Sister Emmanuele, a British religious who had an amazingly impressive grasp of historical, theological and artistic knowledge. More importantly, she radiated a beautiful love of the Lord and the Church that was apparent in every word she spoke. Despite leading us on tour for more than three hours (her second of the day), her warm disposition and cheery humor never wavered for a moment. Sister Emmanuele turned her tour commentary into equal parts academic lesson, spiritual direction, theological reflection, and cultural commentary. Passing a statue of Narcissus, she cited a recent psychological study that suggested taking more than six selfies a day could be a sign of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This did little to stop other tourists in our group from taking selfies later in the tour.
The overall theme for the tour, if it had to be distilled down to a phrase, was the love story between God and his creation; Sister emphasized this theme over and over, and used the Sistine Chapel (which strictly forbids photographs) as the greatest demonstration of this theme. We received a nearly 30-minute interpretation of the Chapel before we entered (assisted with a giant touch screen), so we could appreciate the work in its entirety. Other highlights of the tour included the Raphael Rooms, Michelangelo’s Pieta, the tomb of St. John Paul II, and Bernini’s baldachino above the main altar/tomb of St. Peter.
We headed to the apartment to recover from our magnificent, but long morning, and took a power nap to recharge. The evening was filled out with a trip to the severely overcrowded Trevi Fountain, where the young men were eager to throw in one coin (guaranteeing their return to Rome) but seemed hesitant about throwing in two or three (guaranteeing falling in love and marriage, respectively). After some free time and wandering in Piazza Navona, we enjoyed another outdoor dinner, this time at a place Fr. Hill used to frequent when he lived in Rome. Although he was a faithful patron 15 years ago, the owner recognized him and welcomed him back with open arms.
Our night ended with gelato (the boys are now schooled on how you avoid gelato places with large decorative mounds of gelato over the containers that look appealing, and go for the places where they have to remove a lid and reach down to scoop it), and we took a leisurely stroll through the nightime beauties of Rome.
Thanks again for reading; our entry about our day trip to Assisi today will likely be posted tomorrow morning, our time.
SLUH Ignatian Pilgrimage 2019 