Topic: Thank You Jesus Tour
Frankfurt: As I said before, saw the “cathedral” that has not been a cathedral since the 6th Century for some unknown reason to me. Below are some pictures I took.
Milan: Saw the cathedral in all its magnificence. Though not the cathedral in which St. Ambrose brought St. Augustine into the Church, it is built on top of the baptistery and where the cathedral once stood. Milan being the fashion capital of Italy, there is an impressive mall just off the Cathedral plaza with such stores as Prada. I just could not bring myself to by a pair of Prada shoes. I thought that my look a little to pretentious for me much less for a priest. :-) Another church we visited was on our walk to the cathedral. The view from the street into the church is of my favorite statue: the Pietá (a statue depicting the Blessed Mother hold the lifeless body of her son). It is a nice little church comparatively to other churches in Italy. The only other sight we visited besides different restaurants was a castle, of which I do not know the history. All I knew is that it had a different Pietá by Michelangelo.
Florence: We arrived here and did a little hotel shopping because we had not reserved a room. We ended up staying in a room at a Oblate convent that the sisters uses as a mini-hotel. The room was wonderful, because it was the only room we had the whole two weeks that had air conditioning; however, we didn’t really need it in Assisi. While here, we saw and concelebrated Mass is many different churches. I was even given the opportunity to pray a part of the Eucharistic prayer in Italian, but I respectfully declined because I knew I would butcher up the prayer beyond recognition. I would have to say the most impressive sight here was Michelangelo’s “David.” It is truly a masterpiece that I could have spent all day appreciating. The detail was so real that I expected the statue be alive, and mind you, this statue is 17 feet tall…the David is a Goliath of a statue. We also saw another of Michelangelo’s Pietás. Additionally, Florence is the resting place of well known people like Galileo and Dante, both of whose bones are entombed in a church.
Assisi: Home of one of my favorite saints…Saint Frances. The town has a very Franciscan beauty--simple yet striking. From what I was told by my travel buddy, my classmates had a pool whether I would survive the hilly terrain. Well I did, but still have yet to receive my winnings. We stayed down the street from the basilica which houses remains of St. Frances and of course made that our first stop. After seeing the lower and upper chapel as well as the crypt we made plans to concelebrate Mass later that day and Sunday--the Feast of John the Baptist. I was so content to be in the resting place of one of my heroes praying for his intercession. A funny thing happened in the crypt…I gave an offering for a candle that I was going to burn at the tomb of St. Frances; however, as I approached the altar in front of the tomb I saw a sign that read: “Please place your candle here as a symbol of your offering.” Behind the sign was a basket of unlit candles that I can only assume are returned to the offering area at the end of the night…that is so Franciscan. :-) Other sites in Assisi, aside from all the hills I fought up, included the church where St. Clare (a companion of St. Frances, who started the Poor Clare Sisters) died, and the place where St. Clare stood off would be attackers of the city. However, this last site was down “the hill of death.” When I conquered half way up and was about to pass out, I saw a sign from heaven which I called, “my scala sagrada” (sacred stairs). The thing that made these particular steps moved, alleluia! Listen to the angels sing, “Ah-ah,h; ah-ah,h.”
Rome: We finally make it to Rome on Monday for the last week of the tour and for some of the shopping we planned on doing. Fr. Michael and I walked into the North American College and found tickets for the Sts. Peter and Paul Mass at the Vatican with the Holy Father--the biggest feast day Mass in Rome and arguably in the Church. These tickets informed us that we were granted our request to distribute communion, which served only to excite us. This trip helped me to see the last few basilicas that I missed my first trip due to the Flu. We were able to see St. Mary Major (where the crib of Jesus is housed), Holy Cross (where pieces of the true cross are encased in glass), St. John Lateran (the church of the pope), and St. Paul outside the walls (of the city where the bones of St. Paul are entombed). To celebrate Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica Fr. Michael and I needed to go there and see what we needed to do. We were the only ones, who upon entering, did not immediately look around, but walked straight to the sacristy as if we were priest of the parish and we had seen the basilica a million times. Thinking about it now, it probably looked odd that these two guys did not seem amazed by the immensity of the whole thing. When we were waiting in the sacristy for chasubles to celebrate Mass we began to poach them in order to get on and I almost had to rip it off a little old monsignor as he entered the sacristy just to get one. Finally, at the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, I was on the third row of priests within an arm’s grab of His Holiness during the procession and was even on the front line around the altar during the Eucharistic Prayer. Both times I could have “bum-rushed” the pope before the Swiss Guards could have stopped me, but felt it would not be proper of a priest to do such an act during the sacrifice of the Mass. I also found out later that I was on international television distributing communion to the bishops. I have now experienced 5 seconds of my 15 minutes of fame. How ‘bout them apples to cap off the “Thank You Jesus Tour”?
