Major Prayers!

I was at Saint Mary Major's Basilica yesterday evening. I joined parishioners from Our Lady of the Atonement Parish for evensong in the Eucharistic Chapel. Atonement Parish is one of our Anglican Usage churches in San Antonio, Texas. The service was beautiful, with the choir of the Atonement Academy singing. Cardinal Law presided, joined by Archbishop Myers and Bishop Vann, who had invited me to the vespers service at dinner the evening before.

I chatted with some of the members of the choir afterwards, and hope to meet up with them again during their pilgrimage here to Rome. It's significant to see signs of hope even as the Anglican Church in the U.S. and England continues to splinter. All too often redivision is the Protestant solution to conflict, but growing numbers are coming home to the universal Church. Anglicans face a challenge in overcoming centuries of anti-Roman Catholicism--but witnesses to courage continue to emerge.

Chilling News

Well, one major goal accomplished. Since arrival one primary objective has been to identify and locate Rome's finest gelaterias. Last night was a major step forward with four of us enjoying some of the best ice cream ever at the Frigidarium. Cinnamon ice cream, chocolate with orange liquor, and custard--topped with whipped cream.

Launch

This weekend is orientation for the new school year. We have 23 new men in the house, of whom 7 of us have been studying Italian here for the last three weeks.

Friday night we came together for Vespers followed by a barbecue out in the garden.













Citronella candles filled the patio




While beer was served, in Italy even a barbecue requires red wine . . .




















Father William from County Cork supplied us after dinner with Irish Coffee . . .










We believe there's coffee in there somewhere-



We set off early this morning for a Mass in the crypt of Saint Peter's.










New Men hitting the plaza



Our Mass was in the Hungarian Chapel.










Monsignor Kelly presided in the Mass of Saints Peter and Paul


We then had a tour of the Gianiculum--the seminarians' residence just up the hill from Saint Peter's--opened with an American breakfast including pancakes and bacon!

Topics this afternoon back at the house covered the basics--including how to register for classes!

Gianiculum Trek

There are benefits to being new in town. I was invited to go up to the seminary yesterday to help with homily review. Obviously, no one around here has had to endure my homilies yet . . .

It was a lot of fun. The second year men were trying out their first runs at preaching. They were well prepared, and all were working from Luke's parable of the Prodigal Son: it certainly doesn't hurt to hear several reflections on that! Neat turns of phrase, too, like, 'it should actually be called the Prodigal Father, because he's the one who's reckless in mercy . . . '

Afterwards stayed for their holy hour and vespers, and then joined our two Sacramento seminarians for dinner--it was great to see them! When Father Chris gets here, that will make four of us . . . well, I think--my specialty is homilies, not math.

Embassy Sweet

We, the seven new men of the house (soon to be joined by a dozen more, who haven't been studying Italian here) were invited to dinner at the U.S. Ambassador's yesterday. Joining us were the ordinands of the Gianiculum, U.S. seminarians who are preparing to be ordained to the diaconate at St. Peter's at the beginning of October, as well as the faculty of the Gianiculum. Half a dozen armed guards allowed us in at the gate, where we were then greeted by Ambassador Francis Rooney and his wife, Kathleen. The dinner was billed as an informal barbecue, which meant that only about a dozen uniformed personnel brought us champagne on silver trays and offered us grilled mini-lamb chops with the hot dogs and grilled steak, served on requisite blue plates accompanied by red plastic silverware and white napkins embossed with the U.S. Seal.

We had taken the taxi over, but walked back through the Trastevere district to return to our residence, about a 45 minute journey concluding by the Vittorio Emmanuele monument.

From the Homefront

Father Jovito has returned to Redding!

Good news from the Northern Reaches--Father Jovito was able to have his visa woes resolved and celebrated the Sunday Mass yesterday at Our Lady of Mercy, after the newly ordained Father Chris Frasier had filled in during his absence. Father Chris Frasier will be returning here to Rome in October to finish his license.

Collazione

This last week I celebrated the 7:00 am Mass for our 5 Polish sisters who take care of our community. Mass is in Italian, as the men here don't speak Polish, and the sisters don't speak English.

My homilies were brief.

Saturday after Mass the sisters invited me to join them for breakfast, and we talked about the origins of their order, after they had asked where I was from. Their community was founded in the 1800's by a Capuchin who founded more than a dozen other congregations as well! Quite prolific. Their charism is service--all over the globe, as their houses include South Africa, Rwanda, Eastern Europe and the remote United States.

A sixth sister had joined us that morning, and she will be completing her postgraduate studies while living with her community here.

Exultation of the Cross

Happy Feast Day!

This is from Saint Augustine:

O God, from whom to be turned is to fall,

to whom to be turned is to rise,

and with whom to stand is to abide for ever;

grant us in all our duties your help,

in all our perplexities your guidance,

in all our dangers your protection,

and in all our sorrows your peace,

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen.

Seen on a Napkin

Veritas Vos Liberabit:
And the Truth Shall Set You Free.
In Vino Veritas:
In Wine there is Truth.
Ergo, Vino Vos Liberabit:
Therefore, Wine Will Set You Free!

What the Blazes?

Visit the Pilgrim to see photos of the large fire near my home in Northern California. Luckily, the fire has burnt a trail between itself and us that it would have to leap over to get back to our area, so we're looking pretty safe. There's also more technical information and some photos from the Forest Service here.

Roman Holiday

Today's my 30th birthday!

I went to Saint Peter's this morning to celebrate a birthday Mass.










On my walk to the basilica




Priests can celebrate private Masses at one of the side altars early in the morning before the crowds show up.













I was assigned this alter with a mosaic of the Transfiguration




When you arrive you go to the sacristy and you are assigned a server who assists you--my server, Stefan, was from Malta!

I stayed afterwards to pray morning prayer in the Eucharistic Chapel, and was able to go to confession, so I hit all the bases!

Walking back I spotted this fountain on the avenue in front of the basilica:













Apparently dragons here are water-breathing, rather than fire . . .




My route home took me past a beautiful church that I stepped into. By coincidence, on my 30th birthday I had stepped into a church dedicated to my patron saint, Anthony of Padua.










St. Anthony of Portugal Church



The church is for the Portuguese community, so they clarify his country of origin, rather than mentioning the Italian city that absconded with the credit.

My mom pointed out to me in an email that I celebrated my 10th birthday in China, my 20th birthday in Guatemala, and now my 30th is in Italy! We're off to a good start!

It's Her Birthday!

Yesterday I presided at our 7:15 Mass here at the house as we celebrated Mary's birthday. The Gospel was Matthew's genealogy, and it reminds us how much joy God brings to us through seemingly small things, like the birth of a new life.

In the evening my classmates took me out to dinner to celebrate the vigil of my 30th birthday. We enjoyed an excellent meal outdoors, and then walked down through the forum to the Colosseum, as all of the streets of Rome were closed off for Notte Bianca, an end-of-summer celebration with tons of music, shows, and events. We saw the mayor out in the streets--everybody was out walking, and would be most of the night. One of my classmates realized that actually the whole shebang was for Mary's and my birthdays . . .

Ad Moltos Annos!

Wednesday evening the seminarians of the North American College came by for an introduction to the house. Our superior Monsignor Francis Kelly gave them a brief history of our house, noting that it is built on the site of the Roman Sentinals: firefighters and other peacekeepers of the city. The building was a Dominican convent built in the 1600's--even older than Interstate 5. Napoleon closed it, and in 1859 the building was given to the US Bishops by Pio Nono, Pope Pius IX.

We gave them tours of the building, and somehow the men in my group were a little skeptical to hear we had the oldest wireless network in the city of Rome, installed in 1860. We prayed solemn vespers in our primary chapel, and following the sumptuous dinner Cardinal George of Chicago gave a few words to all of us, speaking of our important role in forming a bridge between America and the rest of the world.

That's the Ticket

Our house has the office where U.S. pilgrims come to get passes for the Wednesday Papal Audience, which was providential Tuesday afternoon. Bethany came by with her husband and 10 month baby boy--I hadn't seen her in like 12 years! It was great to catch up with her and get the news on her brother whom I'd gone to school with and travelled Europe with: good times--

Another great link: I just added a link on the right to the Catholic News Agency, which is a great source for updates--

I've added a new link to the right with my classmate Fr. Tim's blog--he's got some great photos of the house here and good stories from the last few days . . .

Casa Bella

My new home in Rome is quite peaceful . . .













The interior courtyard.


The statue is of Mary--the house was given to us by Pope Pius IX, who defined Mary's Immaculate Conception. There's another statue of her as well in the grotto with an older Italian phrase, 'Aiutatici', similar in form to the old English, 'thou'.

Siena Strikes Back

Shots from travelling to Siena.











Yay, I'm riding the bus!
















Face of the Cathedral













Inside the Baptistry












The Central Square. Siena's famous horse race had been held here about a week earlier.

Shoot!

I've got photo capacity again now that I'm back in Rome!










The Cathedral in Florence













The Arno River at Night












This Pieta was on the patio at my place in Florence












The Jewish Synagogue in Florence

a Roma

My month in Florence finished yesterday. I had breakfast with my host family and lunch with friends and took an afternoon train (hour and a half) into Roma Termini. I didn't realize when I got on the train that we had seat assignments, so I was cramming my overstuffed carryon into an overhead bin on a full car, while a woman looked anxiously on, people lining up behind us on both sides, and when I finished she asked, "Do you have seat 73?" Which of course I didn't, so I had to extract my carryon again and squeeze past half a dozen other luggaged passengers . . . in the wrong direction, so then I had to turn around and make my way down to the next car (luckily I was only one car off) and find my seat, where happily there was much more overhead room.

I slept most of the way into Rome, as I had on the way in a month earlier, so there may be some of the most beautiful scenery in the world between Rome and Florence, but I wouldn't know.

Breaking news: meals here at my new home are excellent. We had spaghetti alla carbonara for Pranzo (lunch) today, and it was outstanding . . . the meal of course being served in a large, frescoed banquet room . . .

Galleria degli Uffizi

UNESCO lists Italy as having 60% of the world's great art . . . and it locates half of that in Florence.

We saw the lion's share of that Friday when several of us went to the Uffizi Gallery. Wow. The Who's Who of Rennaisance painters is on the walls, which makes for a vivid afternoon. It was a lot of fun noting the differences and developments, and getting to know an artist's particular style. While I'd been to the Accademy and San Marco's years before on my first visit to Florence, I don't think I made it to the Uffizi that time, so it was a real immersion.

Also a good way to wrap up my month in Tuscany . . .