Ash Wednesday

I've never started Lent quite like this.  Up at 0530 and on the bus for 0615... from here on in I will try to walk as a pilgrim, but PNAC provided a bus so that everyone could attend Mass this morning at the first Station Church, St Sabina.  This morning, before the sun was up, we were winding our way down to St. Sabina to begin the 'Itinerary of Conversion'.   There were over 300 priests and seminarians along with all the faithful who wished to hear Mass in English and receive the mark of Ashes in hope of making a good Lent in preparation for celebrating the Paschal mystery, Triduum and Easter.

This Basilica is larger than you might imagine.  I entered in silence, vested in alb and purple stole along with about 100 priests, and sat in the 'choir' on the wooden benches, which you can just see a hint of in the center of the photo below.  The altar in the background is built over the tomb of the martyrs who died here in the first years of the Faith.

Sometime early in the 4th century Christians in Rome started a pilgrimage during Lent, led by the Pope, which went from church to church in the city to celebrate Mass where the Martyrs were buried. Visiting the tombs of the martyrs, praying and celebrating the Lord's Supper was an ancient practice of the early church and it is why, eventually, church buildings sprang up on those sacred sites.

The Basilica of St. Sabina was built between 422 and 441 AD, rose up as a sign of hope out of the ruins of the invasion of the Visigoths on Aventine Hill.  The columns that you see date to that time.

Again, you can just see a few of the wooden benches of the choir where I sat this morning.

"Remember that you are dust," said the priest to me this morning in that ancient site made holy by the martyrdom and prayers of one thousand six hundred years and more, "and to dust you shall return."

It made my fleeting life seem like a mere moment in time.

"Thou turnest man back to the dust, and sayest, "Turn back, O children of men!"
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
Thou dost sweep men away; they are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
For we are consumed by thy anger; by thy wrath we are overwhelmed.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance."

The Pilgrimage has begun... pray for me.

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At about 0930 I heard the voice of the Pope being projected over the loud speakers in St Peter's which is not far from where I am staying.  I turned on my heel and made for the sound of his voice... which seemed like it would be relatively easy.  Not so.   I won't try to describe the convoluted way which eventually led me into the large open space in front of St. Peter's, but I did find my way there.  I passed through security and came up to the back of the crowd of about 30,000 people - a sea of humanity.  The crowd off to my right was cheering and all eyes were turned in that direction.  I discovered that the Pope was coming through the crowd in his little car and, consistent with his style, came to the back of the crowd just as I walked up.  I stood within 15 feet of the holy Father and followed the car across the back of the crowd and stopped when he stopped to greet the crippled, the children, and others.  

All this, and its still not even lunch time.  I have my class in Moral Theology in 10 min...