At the TOP of the Catholic world.

Pilgrimage to Roman Station Church for Thursday in the Third week of Lent: St Lawrence in Lucina

On the way: spring has sprung in Rome - 30 feet of cascading lilacs in bloom:

From a different angle:

Below: St Lorenzo in Lucina

I am hoping that you remember St Lawrence from my description of the other church dedicated to him... he is the one that was 'grilled' alive as a martyr.  There are several churches dedicated to this saint.  He left quite an impression on the believers in Rome!  Today's church is one of several ancient churches in his honour.  Again, it looks pretty ordinary from the outside, but inside is as inspiring as ever.  When you see the pic of the main aisle in the nave above, you have to remember that there are usually 4 -6 side altars along each of the outside walls - beyond the pillars that you see. The painted crucifix that makes for the main altarpiece was incredible and drew my attention throughout the Mass.  It being a Friday in Lent, it was good to remember that our Lord was crucified on a Friday, and the altarpiece brought that home very powerfully.

My colleague Fr. James is looking at one of the side altars in the Church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina.

Below, I wanted to show you the pulpit, again, perched halfway up the wall and halfway into the nave where the faithful sit.  See the sounding board over top of the pulpit to direct the priest's voice down into the nave?

The Station Church is always early in the morning before breakfast... we don't 'break' the 'fast' until we have Mass.  There is always a communion fast for Catholics - minimum of one hour of fasting before Mass.  To get up, walk for 40- 50 min to get to the Church, have Mass, and walk back is a lot of energy spent early in the morning with no food... but that's just the way it is.

After breakfast, Fr. James and I decided to climb up into the top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. You probably can't tell that there are people up there in the zoomed-in picture I took this morning... can you find them?

If I didn't tell you ahead of time that there were people up there, and that I planned to climb up there myself, would you have thought to look for them?  I never imagined, ever, that the black ring around the top of the bluish dome (just at the base of the pillars) that that black ring is actually individual people looking back at the rest of us down below.  Waaaaay down below:

See the line that I am in... winding around from the right hand side of the picture?  40 min wait to get in. I'm not really that good at waiting in lines, or in traffic, at the bank, at the grocery store, etc.  40 minutes is all the more difficult right now because I get more relief from the sciatica when I am walking, much more than when I am standing still.  Climbing stairs counts as walking:

It starts off easy enough.  There are 550 steps, approximately.  The first steps are nicely inclined and wide enough to take two steps on each stair.  See above... I am still smiling.  It is about to get tougher, though, and narrower...

You can see that the walls of the dome are angling in as you climb higher.  It is a weird sensation to have the stairs square to the ground under your feet, but the walls tilting in on an ever increasing angle... so that you are walking straight, but leaning over to one side.

Whoaaaaa! Its like a carnival fun-house the way it disorientates you.

You can see the curve of the dome in this pic... but the floor is flat beneath you.  It is harder for taller people, of course because the wall comes right over to bump you in the head.  When's the last time you had a wall bump you in the head while you were walking up-right?

Fr James, climbing up the spiraling staircase.

 The next pics are the final few (20?) steps that are a tight spiral to the top.  So, tight, in fact, that they provide a rope!

That's not a smile on my face... I am trying to catch my breath and let the burning in my calves subside.

Finally, at the top of the rope-stairs you break out into the open air.  And what a view!  St. Peter's Square (which is not square).  See the statues of the 12 Apostles across the roof line of the basilica (at the near end of the square), they are probably 20 feet tall.

I can fly!!!  Not.   

The Pontifical North American College is the group of buildings in the middle of the picture, just in between the two sections of trees.  The yellow upper floor also has a terrace where I took the pictures on Day 1 or 2, looking in the direction toward where I am standing now, that is, toward St. Peter's.  I live in the Casa O'Toole which is the cream-coloured 4 story square building in the middle-right of the pic.

I am leaning out of the safety cage putting my Blackberry at risk in order to take a picture of the Sistine Chapel from above.  It is the brown roofed rectangular shaped building just beyond the edge of the white roof-line.  In the upper right you can just see the circular columns of St. Peter's Square.

 Again, with the Sistine Chapel in the immediate foreground.

The Vatican Gardens.

 Me and my safety cage.

***************************************************************************************

Now for the descent... Yikes!

 I'm guessing that this is where the Pope has chosen to live, rather than in the Papal apartments.


When you are half way down there is a break in the journey, as there was on the way up.  Here, I am standing BEHIND the statues that you see at the top of the roof line of St. Peter's.  They are statues of the 12 Apostles (except that Peter is down in the Square, with St Paul, so John the Baptist takes his place beside Christ.

Again, only closer.  Notice: the didn't carve the backs of the statues!

Walking on the roof of St. Peter's.  What a surprise to find a restaurant and a gift shop... on the roof!

So I bought a few gifts.  This Rosary is just like the one I use, so I bought it for someone who asked for mine.

We got to stop part way up the stairs to see the inside of the dome from close up, so I will include some of those pics here, without comment...

Over top of the Bernini baldachino (four poster canopy) and the main altar

A little cherub as a mosaic wall decoration. There were 12 of them.

Close up of the portion just under his wing.  See how intricate the mosaics are?

The dome itself, from the inside.

The altarpiece viewed from an angle that most people never see.
The sun shining through the alabaster is stunning.

All the previous pics were taken through these little holes in the safety screening.  

**************************************************************

Last of all, and briefly, I went to the papal penitential service tonight.  The first ever by a Pope, so I'm told.  I was within 4 people of him as he walked up the main aisle in procession... but to be honest, I was put off by all the people taking pictures as if this was just another tourist attraction.  You won't see any pics of this liturgy from me.  There wasn't enough priests to hear all the confessions... but it was a good first attempt.  They will work out the details in the future if they chose to do it again.  I kept the 'program', of course.  It included a nice examination of conscience in English, but it was mostly all in Italian.