Father Dave's Journal

posted: Saturday, March 4th, 2000

Our arrival in Rome was unexciting except for our guide Eileen. Boisterous and chipper, she got us through the airport and into the bus quickly. As we sped along, she introduced us to our new driver, Sergio. We made a pit stop at a small restaurant and store where we all bought our first italian items. Mostly snacks and drinks for the night. We stayed at the Hotel Aurelia, a monastery that was converted into a hotel for pilgrims. It had the look and feel of the seminary dorms back in my college days.

There was a nice little lounge and bar downstairs connected to the dining room. After dumping all of our stuff in our rooms, some of us decided to take a walk since there was a hopping intersection just down the way. There was a McDonald's on the corner. To my knowledge no one dared even stop there. Our group walked down the street, the wrong way of course and ended up in a residential neighborhood. We marveled at the small size of the cars. We stopped an older lady walking her dog and asked her of she could direct us to a small pizzaria in the neighborhood. Unfortuntely her Italian and our English didn't quite gel and we left with no answers. The group decided to head back in the direction we had just come from and it was then that we discovered some eating places. We stopped at one nice little spot that had curtains on the windows and beautiful woodwork inside. There we ordered pizza and wine. When in Rome........ The salad bar had a unique quality. The sneeze shield was set up in such a way that it could be raised or lowered by a conveyor system.

After a delicious pizza dinner, we paid the bill and once again found ourselves on the street walking back to the Aurelia. After a good nights rest, we got ourselves ready to head off to Assisi to see the birthplace of St. Francis and the Franciscan Order. It was partly cloudy and somwhat dark when we left and over the three hour trip we were treated to a great
view of the Italian countryside. Little towns which reflect the rich italian history great churches perched on rocky hillsides surrounded by stone houses.

We arrived at Asissi and immediately went to the church in the lower town that houses the little chapel of the Portziuncola. It is called the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels.This small chapel and surrounding land was given to Francis and his friars by the Benedictines of Monte Subasio when they had been driven out of Rivotorto. The tour bus could not park outside the church so we were let out and the bus parked some distance away. We spent a good hour in the church in prayer and silent reverence. Then the bus picked us up and we began the climb to the city of Asissi on the hill which overlooks the lower city.

To enter Asissi is to turn back the clock. The walled city is pretty much intact with stone buildings and several churches filling the inner sanctum. We used an escalator ( yes, an escalator, a recent addition for those who are out of shape ) in order to enter the city gate. We walked along narrow city streets which allows the visitor's mind to wander and wonder how it must have felt to be Francis back in his day. The streets are lined with restaurants, shops, and inns. We made our way through the city stopping to look at the Basilica of St. Clare and the Piazza del Commune. This walking tour led us right to the Basilica of St. Francis where we toured for almost an hour. The frescoes of Giotto and other artists of the time decorate every nook and cranny of this magnificent church. The tomb of St. Francis is also in the lower church and we were able to visit that as well. We gathered in the monastery next to the Basilica for a 4:00 mass. The chapel used to be guestrooms for visiting dignitaries. The stark walls and simple furniture was in keeping with the simplistic ways of Francis and his followers. After mass we returned to the bus and on the way were treated to some absolutely breathtaking views of the italian countryside and the stunning displays fo sunrays breaking through the storm clouds. We boarded the bus and headed home for dinner and sleep.

The next morning we rose, had breakfast and mae our way to the Vatican for mass in the crypt which housed the tombs of the previous popes. I had to first report to the sacristy for vesting and final instructions on protocol for saying mass in the Vatican. I could not believe the set up. You have to remember that at any given time you could have a number of masses going on inside St. Peter's. Walking into that sacristy was like walking into the headquarters of a strategic army installation. The priest is immediately assigned a server who vests him, assigns him a chalice, paten, and lectionary/sacramentary of their specific language. The server then ushers the priest to the chapel assigned to him and the mass then begins. The mass was held in a small chapel dedicated to Mary, the patron of all mothers. It was a beautiful mass that had singing, quiet time, and Lidwina Mergen debuting as a wine distributer. After mass, we were to meet out in front of the Vatican in order to get a good spot for the Pope's Sunday address which was to begin at 12:15. The Pope would be speaking from his apartment window. I had been telling some of the ladies about the gift shop in the Vatican that was run by some of the sisters. Of course, we learned that being it was Sunday the gift store was closed so we would have to wait until Monday to get what we needed. So we walked around and spent some time inside this mammoth chruch until it was time for the Pope's address. About 11:45 a group of us gathered in the plaza to get a good view of the pontiff. As the minutes passed more members of our group began to surface as well as a few thousand more. At 12:10, a velvet red banner was hung from the Pope's window and at 12:15 he emerged to give us his words and his blessing. Most of the talk was in italian, so we had no clue what he was saying, yet he did manage to say the word Chicago and there is just no way to translate that into Italian.

After the address we reconvened outside the pillared plaza and headed to a hotel a block away where we had lunch and potty break. Then we boarded the bus with our tour guide Eileen, our new city guide for the day Laura, and our bus driver Sergio.
We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the city of Rome, visiting the major basilicas : The Basilica of St. John Lateran which is the the italian seat that the Pope commands since St. Peter's is in the Vatican and that is a seperate country. This basilica is adorned with huge statues of all the apostles. We then moved on to The basilica of St. Mary Maggiore.This church houses a large urn under the altar which is said to contain original pieces of the manger that Jesus was laid in after his birth in Bethlehem. It also has a very ornate gold ceiling. From this church we stopped at the church of St. Peter outside the walls. Here we saw the chains which were put on Peter's hands before his execution and the famous statue of Moses with horns coming out of his head. The artist Michelangelo mistranslated the scriptures and instead of rays or beams of light read it to be horns. We also stopped in front of the Colliseum for a break and while waiting for our bus, Vivian Thompson and Margie Patterson were tempted to buy ice cream from a local vender. Much to their dismay, the bus arrived and they were told not to bring it onboard. Well, they snuck it on by using the back door of the bus and keeping a low profile until the goodies were eaten. I can tell you that since neither of them confessed that infraction to me in the confines of the confessional. No seal of confession on this one.

From the colliseum we dropped our guide Laura off at the hotel which was our initial starting point and we headed back to the hotel. We got back to the Aurelio pretty early so a number of the groups decided to strike out on their own, while others opted for naps before dinner. I also held a service in the hotel chapel for anyone who wanted to have their souveniers blessed. Then I headed back to the Vatican for some private prayer and personal time in the great church of St. Peter's. I got back and went to dinner with the group. After dinner a number of us gathered in the connecting bar for some beer and good conversation. Well, it wasn't to long before Betty Kluesner pulled out her deck of cards and had a group of the pilgrims in a hot game of Euchre. The rest of us sat around and stared to sing songs. We soon had the whole place doing any and every song we could think of. What an absolutely wonderful time for our group.
I even stopped along the way to try some authentic italian pizza.