Day 6- "My knees hurt SO bad!"

Once again, another VERY early morning. This time was more worth it than any other day... we had Mass in the Clementine Chapel in St. Peter's. This is kind of a big deal. The Clementine Chapel is the closest place to the remains of St. Peter, besides within the Scavi itself. So we had Mass with the remains of the first pope, directly beneath the Papal altar in the biggest church in Christendom. The thought is still overwhelming to me.

We had 5 priests: Fr. Kyle as the celebrant, with Fr. Frank and 3 priests from the NAC concelebrating. It was a simple Mass in a small chapel, but the realization of where we were was humbling. Here we were, celebrating the Eucharist before the tomb of the first pope, the leader of the Apostles, beneath the primary Papal altar in St. Peter’s Basilica. We were pretty much in one of the holiest places in the world, besides perhaps the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. As you can tell, this was one of the peak moments of my trip.

The Clementine Chapel

Fr Kyle and Fr Frank, along with 3 other friends of theirs, offer the Holy Sacrifice of Mass before the tomb of St. Peter.

Listening intently to the words of the Eucharistic Prayer, in one of the holiest places on Earth. Truly moving.

"All glory and honor is Yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever."

All the gold leaf in the ceiling is from America. Heckyes!

Nick pauses for a brief moment of prayer before the tomb of Pope Pius the 12th, who commissioned the archaeological dig to find St. Peter's remains.

Actually, it was kind of funny… we bumped a bishop out of the chapel! What happened was this: we hurried to the basilica to make it in time. After meeting the Padres upstairs, we were ushered down a tiny staircase behind one of the chapels in the transept of the basilica. That dumped us out in the hall right behind the Clementine Chapel. There was a French priest and nun who were taking a little longer to finish Mass than scheduled. As we were waiting for them, a bishop passes us and waits with his altar server on the other side of the doorway. As the two French folks walked out, Frs. Frank and Kyle practically flew into the chapel, to make sure we got it. We began Mass and the bishop disappeared. No big deal. Haha!

After Mass, we walked around in St. Peter’s a bit more. Still couldn’t pray in front of John Paul II’s tomb, but that’s life. The Padres decided to go to a café for some coffee, while us younger guys went to climb up to the cupola of St. Peter’s. There was no line at all, which was great.

A striking image of the sunlight shining into St. Peter's.

David climbing up to the roof of the basilica.

5 Euro later, we were on our way up the stairs. SO many stairs. I believe there are 520ish in all. The first place you stop is the bottom of the interior of the dome, on a walkway just above the words that encircle it. For reference, looking across the dome, there was a guy dusting the handrail or something. The letters were taller than he was. This dome is absolutely massive.

The outside of the Sistine chapel, as seen from the roof of San Pietro.

Inside the duomo. I can't explain how huge this space is....windows up top are probably 10 feet tall.

You see the guy on the catwalk, above the words "ET TIBI"? Yeah... this dome is MASSIVE.

Looking up, I got a slight feeling of vertigo as I realized how enormous the space was. There’s nothing between you and the edge of the walkway, save a waist-high metal railing and a 8-foot high mesh fence. Plenty to keep anyone from falling over the edge, but it also doesn’t block your view at all. Remember how big the altar canopy is? We were ABOVE it by a solid 30 feet. Incredible.

Looking down into the basilica. I about died.

That stained glass window is probably about 100 feet in the air, for reference.

Also, from an engineering standpoint: the dome and the rest of the basilica are an incredible feat of architecture and structural design. It’s all made of stone, so it must be incredibly heavy. The fact that it even stands is astounding. It made my inner civil engineer cry with awe.

From that point, we entered another set of stairs that spiraled around and up the dome. Eventually, the degree to which you have to tilt yourself gets to be too much, so you start with switchbacks up the steeper parts of the dome. I was trying VERY hard not to think about just how high up we were from the floor.

Continuing the climb up inside the 2 walls of the dome.

You can see the hallway start to curve.

This is what it looks like, if you look upward.

At the top of the dome, in the cupola, the view was breathtaking. You can see the entire city of Rome even better than from the roof of the NAC or the Generalate. It was beautiful. We spent a good long time up there, taking pictures of each other, the city, and inside the walls of the Vatican. This trumped the US Capitol dome by a long shot.

View from atop the duomo.

Part of the Papal Gardens

Papal train station!

It's like a little oasis in the middle of a jam-packed city.

You can see over to the Vatican Museum.

Ah, the breathtaking view of the piazza...

We then made the trek back down the main roof of St. Peter’s and stopped in the gift shop, which was sizeable. We all bought some good Catholic swag and helped support the sisters who run the shop.

20-ft tall statues of Jesus and the Apostles, which line the top of the facade of the basilica

View of the duomo, as well as the nuns' rooftop gift shop

Back downstairs, we met up with the Padres and headed down the road to have lunch with the Pallottine Missionary Sisters. When we arrived at their Generalate, which is tucked into a nice quiet street between their hotel and an apartment building, we were greeted by sisters from Germany, Poland, and even the US! They were all very nice and gave us a short tour of the house.

We got to see their chapel, which was kind of atrocious at first glance. But after an in-depth artistic explanation of the space from Sister Patrice, who is from DC, I think we all developed an appreciation for it. It’s all very right-angled, very ‘50s. The tabernacle is kind of hidden behind a huge iron cross that seems to be exploding. Sister explained that it’s actually meant to represent the crown of thorns, because the architect was very moved by the Lord’s Passion. The tabernacle is all glass, set into the back wall (with a window behind it to let light in). It’s behind a door made of a big clear crystal rock, which is meant to represent the Eucharist. This crystal rock thing is in other places in the chapel, as well. There is also use of blue and red, which are a nod to the blood and water which spilled from Christ’s side (and also, by coincidence, the colors of the image of the Lord’s Divine Mercy).

We headed downstairs to a meeting room, where we had light refreshments with a bunch of the sisters. They were all so cute and friendly; very holy women who were genuinely interested in what we were doing in our lives, how we liked Rome, and all that. They also told us some stories about their missionary work in Poland, Rwanda, and other places around the world. There are apparently about 2,400 Pallottine sisters worldwide, so they have a very large and influential network of women spreading the Gospel and helping people who need it most.

Once it was time for lunch, we made our way next door to their hotel, part of which is also the house for their other order of sisters. We had a delicious lunch of fish (because it was Friday, naturally), roasted vegetables, salad, and ice cream. We sat with the sisters interspersed between our tables and had a great time chatting with them about their work.

After lunch, we said our goodbyes and thank-yous and headed out for more sightseeing. The first stop was Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major). This is one of the 4 patriarchal basilicas of Rome, the titular churches of the Pope (since he’s still a cardinal, but the head cardinal), along with St. Peter’s and 2 others that we’ll get to later. This basilica is apparently the first church to be dedicated to the Blessed Mother. As the story goes, Mary appeared Pope Liberius and told him to build her a church, on a place where it had snowed (it was August). He is said to have found snow on the hill where the basilica currently stands. This story is where we get the Marian title, Our Lady of the Snows.

The facade of Santa Maria Maggiore

The baptistry, which is apparently a pretty celebrated piece of architecture. I like the big Jesus on top of the baptismal font, myself.

An absolutely beautiful and intricate church...

The coolest thing about this church is under the altar. As you walk up the nave of the church toward the altar, you notice that there’s another level below the main floor, in front of the altar (similar to the Confessio in St. Peter’s). This area houses a large reliquary with a piece of the manger, which held Jesus when he was born. That was a really powerful relic to pray in front of, for sure. I mean, it’s believed to have held God incarnate immediately following His human birth. Kind of a big deal…

Matt and David praying in front of the Manger

View of the altar and the Pope's chair

There are also some beautiful frescoes and a really intricate ceiling. The frescoes depict Jesus and the Blessed Mother. There’s also a great painting of the Assumption, and what I dubbed the “Talk to the Hand” Mary statue. :-D

That be the Nativity. Beautiful, priceless paintings abound in Roma.

This would be the Coronation of Mary.... "Regina coeli, laetare, alleluia!"

I called this the "Talk to the Hand" Mary. haha!

View of the entire front of the basilica

Next stop was a church that houses the original Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon. I liked that a lot because OLPH parish is close to where I live, and it’s an icon that I really like. (So I shelled out a few Euro and got a nice miniature version.) Above the altar is a cool fresco that has an image of Jesus similar to what we refer to as “Buff and Angry Jesus” in the National Shrine back home. Lots of fun.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

See? Looks a lot like "Buff and Angry Jesus", but less angry.

"Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us!"

After that was San Giovanni in Laterano (St. John in the Lateran). Lateran is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, so it’s where the Pope performs a lot of his duties as the Roman bishop, such as the annual diocesan Chrism Mass. Since it houses the papal throne (Cathedra Romana, hence the name “cathedral”), it’s literally THE highest ranking church in the world. It’s the only one in the world with the title Archbasilica, and is thus more important even than St. Peter’s.

The facade of the Lateran Basilica

Foreshadowing of Pope William Dale Masters III? I think so!

Jesus and his homeboys

Yet another gorgeous and intricate and HUGE basilica

A lovely baldacchino over the high altar

Jesus is lowered from the Cross

Yet again, God is "shedding some light on the situation".

My boy, St. Andrew

Where have you seen an organ like this? Nowhere... that's why Rome is so great :-D

Again, Jesus and his posse. They're kind of a big deal.

That's it, the chair of power, the Cathedra Romana.

The high altar

The Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Jesus is right in there!

Talk about a tabernacle... wow!

That's Jesus. If you haven't met him yet, take the time to. He's the man.

I really liked this shot, St. Peter looking out from behind the high altar of his successor's seat of power. Kind of a striking image, if you ask me.

My favorite feature of this basilica, while a morbid one, was the big statues of the 12 Apostles, depicting their means of martyrdom. So Sts. Peter and Andrew had crosses, St. Bartholomew was holding his skin (ew!), and so on. It’s a beautiful church, with an intricate ceiling and gorgeous mosaics of Christ and the Apostles. The baldacchino (altar canopy) is also really cool looking. From the altar to the back of the cathedral is mostly original; the rest of the church was mostly rebuilt after some fires.

Just across the street is another “kind of a big deal” place: The Scala Sancta (Holy Steps). These are the steps from Pontius Pilate’s praetorium, which Christ climbed on His way to trial. They were where He was condemned to death, and they’re now in Rome for pilgrims to visit.

Since they have such a sorrowful connotation, pilgrims are only allowed to climb the steps on their knees. This is considered an act of penance and, I believe, there is a plenary indulgence associated with this. It’s flanked by 2 sets of regular steps for those not climbing the Scala Sancta. The steps all lead up to the Sanctum Sanctorum (Holy of Holies), which was the personal chapel of the Popes before the Papacy moved to the Vatican. It’s a beautiful little chapel, with some really impressive frescoes and lots of gilded adornments.

Chris making his way up the Scala Sancta.

After heading back to the house to quickly recuperate, we hopped back on the bus and went a good way out of the center of Rome to meet Fr. Al, a close friend of Vince’s. Fr Al is a Trinitarian and used to teach at DeMatha before being assigned to work in Rome. He’s still working with students, though. No surprise there.

We had a great time at dinner with Fr. Al. Plenty of wine, lots of laughter, and REALLY good pizza. A bunch of us had Pizza Carbonara, which is t he pizza version of the pasta we had the other night. DELICIOSO!

So, another wonderful day in Roma. Tomorrow: taking it easy, visiting St. John Outside the Walls, and maybe a few other fun things along the way.