Rome and Assisi Pilgrimage (10 Days), Part 1, Rome

Photo credit to Sarah H.

Since this pilgrimage took place over such a long period of time, 1 of 2 things may happen in this post: either it will be really long, or I'll only be highlighting main events of the day...probably a little of both.  Haha.

But let me start by saying how wonderful this experience was!!  It was such a great opportunity to visit so many holy places.  Granted, we saw so much that sometimes you didn't have much of a chance to take it all in, but looking back on all the things we got to see, it's amazing.  Wow.

Our first night in Rome was great.  We got into Rome from Florence in the late afternoon, found the hotel, and got checked in.  It felt so good to be back with the community from Gaming with familiar faces all over the hotel and great things to look forward to.  We began our pilgrimage, appropriately, with Mass at Santa Galla Church, a simple, more modern-in-design, church; but a beautiful church regardless.  The altar there was over 1000 years old, though the church is only a few hundred years old.  The original Santa Galla Church was destroyed in a fire some time ago.  One of our friars here, Fr. Matt, was our celebrant, and his homily started us off on the right foot for a pilgrimage: Pilgrimage is not about "me and God," it's about "us and God."  We're supposed to help each other come closer to the Lord and grow in holiness.  In light of that, he had us place our hands on the shoulders of those on either side of us and pray for them.
After dinner, I joined some friends to go out and explore the city a little.  We took the metro out the Coliseum, and, when I say "to the Coliseum," I mean, literally, as soon as you walk out of the train station, there's the Coliseum.

Photo credit: Ashley D.

The inside of the Coliseum...as seen from outside the gates in front of the doors. Heh heh.

We walked to the Piazza del Popolo, and then basically just wandered all over.  

I had my first gelato, too.  :) It was very good, but gelato's to come would prove it mediocre. ;) Heh heh.  Still, it drew out of me numerous Despicable Me minion impersonations, since their word for ice cream is "gela-DOH!" Then we found the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain.  :) All in all, a successful evening.  What was funny about it was that some in our group were looking for the Italian night life...we didn't really see any. Haha!  But it ensued in several of us girls singing "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid: "I wanna be where the people are/ I wanna see, wanna see 'em dancing..." You get the picture. 

Photo credit to Sarah H.  (Don't mind us. Just holding up the Pantheon.) 

The next morning, Sunday morning, we had Mass at the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls.  It was a beautiful church!  It's more on the outer part of Rome, so it's very peaceful out there.  I think this may have been my favorite among the 4 major basilicas of Rome (St. Peter's, St. Paul's Outside the Walls, Mary Major, and St. John Lateran's).  It's simple, yet beautiful.  :)  St. Paul is also a favorite saint of mine, so it was really cool to be in the church where his tomb is.

St. Paul's Tomb.

Mass was in Italian, but I was able to follow pretty well, and they gave us English translations of the readings and the Gospel, so I was grateful for that.  Oo! And before Mass, we got to look around, so I went down to the area where St. Paul's tomb is, and there are also chains there that held his hands at one point when he was a prisoner.  I let my Bible rest above the tomb of this great apostle.  What a blessing! 

After Mass, we took the Metro to St. Peter's Square for a general audience and the Angelus with Pope Francis!  It was raining, so the weather wasn't the greatest, but we all had raincoats and umbrellas, so we stayed dry.  We were all very excited to see the Vicar of Christ.  :) 

The window from which the Pope would speak. 

Papa Francesco!!!!! We all freaked out. :) 

After getting through security, we went into St. Peter's Basilica itself.  I got to look around for 45 minutes before we actually got a tour with seminarians from the NAC here in Rome. It was nice because I got a good look at much of what was in there; but I was grateful for the tours, which let me know what everything stood for or was. :) 

The Pieta!  It's behind bullet-proof glass because someone made an attack on it some time ago; but even so, it is so beautiful.  

Blessed John Paul XXIII, soon to be canonized. He's incorrupt!

This mosaic copy of Raphael's "The Transfiguration" is particularly an interesting piece.  It's actually two scenes depicted in one.  At the top is Jesus, transfigured on the mountain before Peter, James, and John, with Moses and Elijah on either side of Him.  The lower half of the picture is the scene in the Gospel (I think Matthew's Gospel, specifically) immediately following the Transfiguration: the curing of the boy possessed by a demon.  The boy is on the righthand side of the picture.  Behind him are his parents, ushering the child toward the apostles and seeking healing.  Peter is the figure on the left, sitting and looking through the book of the law to see what they should do.  The figure on the left in red pointing towards Christ is particularly important to the picture, as is the woman in pink and blue, who represents the Church.  She is looking forward, but she doesn't seem to be looking at anything or anyone in particular.  The man in red gives the answer: what makes the image come together is bringing Christ down from the higher part of the picture (down from the mountain) and into the scene, in the midst of the apostles and the people.  Jesus is the answer: He brings the healing.  

After our tour of St. Peter's, we were free to explore until dinnertime at the hotel.  I took this time to go and find a renowned gelateria with some friends: The Old Bridge.  It's very close to St. Peter's Square, and you get 2-3 scoops of delicious gelato for an awesome deal.  If you're in Rome, definitely look for this place.  

Rome sweet home.  Welcome home, Catholic Church. ;) :)

My second gelato experience: From right to left, the flavors are chocolate, biscotti, and caramel.  This was my favorite cone of gelato of the whole trip. SO GOOD!!!!

After eating yummy gelato, we wandered around some of the souvenir shops surrounding St. Peter's and enjoyed the evening largely in leisure.  We went back to the hotel for dinner, and were blessed to finish the day with a Holy Hour in Eucharistic Adoration. 

The next morning, we returned to St. Peter's Basilica.  We would have Mass there at the St. Joseph altar that morning.  Beforehand we had some time to spare, though, so I joined a few people in climbing the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica!  

This is the view from the cupola of the altar where we would have Mass.  Everyone below looked tiny!  

I definitely thought that climbing to the top of St. Peter's was easier than climbing to the top of St. Stephen's in Vienna.  Perhaps because you don't keep going around and around and around in little circles spiraling up to the top.  It wasn't necessarily easy, nevertheless.  But doing it with friends makes the climb fun, and the view was totally worth it.  

We had about ten minutes to get down from the top and get to Mass; then we found a gift shop on the roof of St. Peter's Basilica.  Who's going to pass that up?  Not us.  We made some quick purchases, and then, with less than five minutes to spare, we ran down the stairs of the cupola and made it just in time for the beginning of Mass.  :) Mass was wonderful!  All the readings of the week were very much related to the spirit of pilgrimage, service, and prayer.  

The altar of St. Joseph in St. Peter's Basilica.  Prayed for you, Dad!

The altar at the spot where we believe that St. Peter was martyred.  St. Peter, pray for us!

Talk about amazing!  I knew I wanted to try getting a better picture of this image, and the sunlight was shining on it just like this, with Jesus illuminated by the golden rays of the sun.  

Following Mass, we took to the streets to split into our separate tour groups and see more of the Eternal City.

Castel San Angelo!!  That's St. Michael up there. :) Okay, a statue of him. But yeah. COOL!  The story of the statue goes that during a time of plague, the Pope prayed for deliverance, and he saw a vision of St. Michael atop this castle sheathing his sword, signifying the end of the plague.  A gold and silver statue of St. Michael was then commissioned to commemorate the answer to the prayer of the Holy Father.  It was processed to the spot.  The original statue is now stowed in a museum, and this copper replica took its place. 

 Across from Castel San Angelo, there is a bridge with statues of angels all along the sides.  These angels all hold an object from the Lord's Passion in their hands, and they are so beautiful!

This angel holds the lance.

This one holds the spear with the sponge of wine at the end.

From the Castle, we made our way towards St. Philip Neri's Church, where the saint is buried and where he presided during his lifetime as a parish priest.  

 

 

We proceeded down the Via de St. Augustine to the Church of St. Augustine, where St. Monica is buried!  This was very special to me since a family member went home to Jesus on St. Monica's feast day. 

St. Rita is in many of the churches in Rome. :) Prayed for you, Em!

Prayed for Mary at this altar. (Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart on either side! :))

I lit a candle at the tomb of St. Monica. This one's for Patti's family. 

We got separated from our original tour group and had to jump in with another, so I don't know the name of this next church, but it was very beautiful!  

The Pantheon: Now Our Lady of the Martyrs Church! 

 Next we visited the Church where St. Catherine of Siena is buried.  This church was gorgeous!

 There's a beautiful statue of Mary and the Child Jesus.  I prayed for you here, Mom!

Michelangelo's The Resurrected Christ. 

St. Catherine of Siena! Prayed for my sisters here. 

Since it was Fat Tuesday, who doesn't want more gelato?  So this was experience number 3! Chocolate, strawberry, and white chocolate. Yum!

   

"Ooo! Gelato." 

My friends and I were going to go on a tour of the catacombs of St. Calisto that day; but we got on the right numbered bus but going in the wrong direction.  So we called up our fearless leader to ask what we should do and he told us just to go take the Vatican Museum tour and we could take the Catacombs tour tomorrow (since groups went to one the first day and another the second).  Here are a few glimpses at some of the treasure in the museum.  There is so much artwork in here that if you spent 10 seconds looking at each piece you would be in the museum for decades!!  So we only saw a small fraction of it ourselves; but it was amazing!  And we finished with the Sistine Chapel, which was wonderful (Prayed for my brothers there)!  But even before going into the Sistine Chapel, we sat out on the front lawn to the chapel for a while because our guide wanted to tell us about the artwork on the ceiling but couldn't do so inside because he wasn't allowed to talk.  I caught about half of it because it was an absolutely glorious day and I sat down on the curb and laid back in the grass for a while just enjoying the warmth and the sunshine and the fresh air.  The Sistine Chapel was incredible, too.  There is so much symbolism in the paintings of Michelangelo.  The ceiling and the mural behind the altar are remarkable, and there is so much theology within them.  What stood out most to me about the altarpiece was that the color of Mary's mantle flows out to the rest of the painting, coloring the sky, which is symbolic of how she is the Mediatrix of all graces.  The eye is drawn to her. :)

After the museum tour, dinner was on our own if we wanted to go to the NAC that night to have some Praise and Worship with the seminarians and priests.  So, I suggested we should go to a pizza place that a friend had suggested to me: Habemus Pizza. Yummy!  And then....more gelato from Old Bridge! ;) Heeheehee!
Praise and Worship that night was really wonderful.  Beforehand, we got a short tour of the NAC.  The seminarian took us up numerous flights of stairs, and, before we went through a door at the top, told us to look down until we came to the stairs at the end of the walkway. From the breeze, I knew we must be outside on the roof.  When I looked up, oh my gosh!! We could see almost the whole city of Rome lit up!  Saint Peter's was behind us, and the rest of the city all around.  It was gorgeous.  But even more beautiful was the experience of prayer and praise that we had later before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Penance.  God is so good!

The next morning, we had Mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Holy Father's parish church.  In the upper section of the "tent" over the altar they have the heads of Sts. Peter and Paul.
St. John Lateran's is named for both John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.

St. John the Evangelist! One of my favorite saints. 

That's Pope Francis' chair, by the way. 

Up there, behind the gold depiction of the last supper, there is a plank from the table upon which the Eucharist was instituted at the Last Supper before Our Lord's Passion.  

John Lateran's from the front. 

I'll explain the significance of this a bit later. But just remember, that's St. Francis holding up his hands. 

After Mass, we walked to Mary Major Basilica.  :) I really liked this basilica.  It's so beautiful!  Our tour guide told us a lot of cool things about the basilica and about Mary, too, which I found awesome.  One of these random tidbits was about how the angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary is a reference back to the book of Judges when the angel appears to Gideon and asks him to be the leader of the Lord's army.  Mary is a warrior!  She is a warrior in the order of grace. :) 

Inside the basilica...

The altar to St. Jerome, who is buried in Mary Major.  I prayed for two special people from my family associated with this name here. 

This is wood from the manger that held Jesus, the Word Incarnate, on the first Christmas!! 

 This is an altar to St. Anne.  :)  Guess who I prayed for?

The next church we visited was a Franciscan church, but I don't know its name unfortunately.  

The tomb of the Apostles Sts. Philip and James.

This was a tomb of a martyr from the time of the Diocletain persecution of the Christians in Rome.  

The next church we visited was the Chiesa del Gesu (Church of Jesus), an Ignatian/Jesuit church.  This church contains a relic of the Virgin Mary: a piece of her veil!  There are many other relics in the church as well, but since we only had a little time, I didn't see what all of it was. They also have the preserved arm of St. Francis Xavier, who baptized several thousand people in a single day as a missionary.  

But by far, my favorite part about this church was this crucifix, which was in a side chapel of the church.  Such a beautiful depiction of the loving sacrifice that Jesus made for our salvation.  

A piece of the Virgin Mary's veil.  

St. Anne

St. Francis Xavier's arm.

We passed by "the Wedding Cake" next.  The real name of the monument escapes me right now, but most people know it as the Wedding Cake.  I liked the angels with the chariots on the top.  But other than that, I find churches more impressive and interesting.

We saw the Roman ruins next.  It was incredible to see these remains of ancient civilization.  A friend of mine remarked, when we stumbled upon these ruins on our first night in Rome, that these buildings and stairs are older than our country.  It's quite mind-blowing.  

And, of course, we saw the Coliseum.  

After our tour, three friends and myself had the unique opportunity to go with our tour guide to a reliquary in Rome run by the Passionist Fathers.  There, by making a donation, we received first class relics of Sts. Maria Goretti, Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Gemma Galgani, Paul of the Cross, and the first Passionist bishop, Vincent.  We hurried back to the metro after that, and grabbed some pastries from a bakery as our lunch as we hurried back to the hotel to catch the catacombs tour.  

The walk towards the catacombs was splendid!  It was so wonderful to see and enjoy the Roman countryside.  There were green meadows and trees and it smelled fresh.  :) It made my day!  For part of this journey, though I'm not sure which, we were walking along the Appian Way, which the ancient Roman armies would march along when they returned from battle.  

And, as we go, what do we see but a herd of sheep and lambs! The lambs were all bleating. It was adorable!  

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the catacombs, but it was remarkable to be down there.  We saw one area where numerous bishops were buried, as well as many Christian symbols and paintings on the walls.  We also saw the place where St. Cecelia originally had been buried.  There are places in the catacombs where Masses can be said, as well, which I think would be awesome to experience.  The chapel on the grounds is also home to the tomb of St. Tarcisius, the patron saint of children who are making their first communion.  

Just before we left, something caught my eye.  I remember my dad brought back a statue from Rome of a shepherd with a lamb on his shoulders for my Grandma.  I really liked the statue, and had seen copies of it in other souvenir shops, but I didn't know if there was an original that these were based off of.  

Well...I found it! 

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Chiesa Domino Quo Vadis.  During the time of the Early Church, St. Peter fled Rome at the urging of his companions in order that he would not be put to death.  On the way, he met our Lord, and asked him: "Domino, quo vadis?" ("Lord, where are you going?")  Jesus replied, "I am going to Rome to be crucified."  Peter, understanding what was being asked of him, turned around and went back to Rome.  Shortly after, he was martyred.  The church is built on the spot where the Lord appeared, and contains, as tradition holds (not Tradition, but tradition), they have the stone on which Jesus stood when He appeared.  

This church is also where St. Sebastian is buried.  

The actual tomb is above the statue.

After the tour, we walked back to our hotel.  I took a quick gelato trip with some friends, and then we finished the evening in great company, theological discussions, and, wait for it, ...with Tirimisu for dessert.

The next morning we were up at 5 a.m. to get to the Metro station by 5:30 for the first train.  Why?  Because we were going to the Papal Audience for Ash Wednesday!!!  The night before, we were told that while our group usually gets only the standing room section, this time we were in the seated area right up near the front!  Literally like 20 yards from the Holy Father!  Needless to say, we were excited.  :D  In order to get up front, though, various students among us decided to go as early as they could so some of us could be the first ones through the security gates and save seats for Franciscan University.  

From 6:30 until 8 a.m, we waited in line to get through security.  From 8 until noon, we waited for Pope Francis to arrive in the square.  We erupted when he came in!  I couldn't really see him when he did come in (short people problems), but I caught glimpses of him here and there, and watched the big T.V. Screens.  

PAPA!!!!

Representatives from each language-speaking group came forward to announce the groups present at the audience.  We waited anxiously for the announcement of Students and Faculty from Franciscan University.  As soon as we heard it, we let loose loud shouts and cheers.  The announcer paused for us.  Afterwards, we teased that there must be a note in his book next to our group that says: "Pause for extended screaming."  Haha!  I'm pleased to say I caught our reaction on video.

After the audience, the Holy Father proceeded to meet and bless those in the audience who were in the wheelchair section.  One of them was the mother of one of the students here, and a second was a student.  They got to shake hands with the Vicar of Christ. :) He then blessed the marriages of those who were married in St. Peter's that day.  We waited the whole time, in hopes that maybe he would come our way.  After blessing the marriages, he got into the Pope-mobile and prepared to leave the square.  Before the Pope-mobile came out into the square, we decided to sing "Salve Regina" to him in Latin as loud as we could.  This was an amazing little moment: as he passed by us (I could see him this time!), he looked our way, smiled a big smile, and put a hand to his ear, beckoning for us to sing louder.  It was so great!  

In case you were wondering, the Pope rides a Mercedes. 

In our free time that followed, we went to find the Basilica of Saint Cecelia.  Find it we did, but it was closed. :(  It was very pretty from the outside, though. 

Our small group split up at this point.  Three friends and myself went to find the Santa Scala (The Holy Stairs), while the others went to find Santa Sabina's Church, where either the Dominicans or the Missionaries of Charity are.  

Thankfully, we found some other Franciscan students who showed us where the Santa Scala was.  This experience was beautiful.  

For anyone not familiar with the Santa Scala, this is the staircase that Jesus stood on when Pilate condemned him.  The stairs are covered with wood, but there are little openings at the base of each step where you can touch the stairs.  More importantly, there are windows to the spots on the stairs where Jesus' blood dripped onto the steps.  You may only ascend the stairs on your knees, and as you go it gets more and more difficult; but it is a unique experience to unite your sufferings and the difficulties of the ascent to those that Christ suffered in His Passion.  

We had to hurry to the Metro to get to the Church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian after that.  We thought we were probably already going to be late, so it was a little crazy.  We took the Metro to the Coliseum, and then I determined our direction according to the map.  As we went, we started to become doubtful as to whether we were going in the right direction, but then we saw one of the TOR sisters and the church right there!  And we weren't late to Mass! :)  This church is special to our school because it is the Mother House for the TOR Friars.  

What with Sts. Cosmas and Damian being the patron saints of the sciences, and the portrait of our Lady at the front of the Church, I couldn't think of a better place to pray for my sister the animal-lover. :) 

After Mass, we had more free time, so I traveled back to St. John Lateran's Plaza with some of my friends so that we could visit Santa Croce Gerusalleme.  I was very happy that we had the free time and that I had friends who wanted to go since it was going to be open.  My dad recommended that I go there, and I wanted to see why. :) To get there, we passed through a park across from John Lateran's, and behind the St. Francis statue I pointed out earlier in the post.  This statue, if you stand behind it at a specific spot, is seen to be holding up the church of St. John Lateran's.  This is meant to commemorate the dream of the Pope at the time of St. Francis, who dreamed that the Church was trembling and about to fall, and it was Francis who held it up.  

Santa Croce is present in Rome mostly thanks to St. Helen, who led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in order to bring the relics of Christ to Rome.  The Church holds some very special relics including the remnant of the Good Thief's Cross, a reliquary containing pieces of the Scourging Pillar and the Christmas Crib, the preserved finger of St. Thomas which he placed in the nail marks in Christ's hand and in His side, two thorns from the Crown of Thorns, one of the nails that held Jesus on the Cross, the INRI sign that was nailed above Christ crucified, and three relics of the True Cross.  You aren't allowed to take pictures of the reliquary, so I don't have any photos; but here is an image from the Web.  

 These are my pictures from the outside, and of the main altar.  :)

After that, we returned to our hotel in Rome for the last time.  The next morning, we would board the buses bright and early and head to Assisi.  This will be the content of my next post. :)  It probably won't be as long, since we had more down-time in Assisi and things were a little less crazy. 

Thank the Lord for the opportunity to see so many holy places in the Eternal City.  :) 

"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His mercy endures forever!"  

(Also, please keep us in your prayers as we take a pilgrimage to Poland. Thank you!)