Assisi

I leave for Assisi tomorrow morning (Monday) at 0900.  I doubt that there will be WiFi in the village and I am not taking the laptop.  I get back on Friday, leave for home on Sunday.  This could very well be my last blog post.  For those of you who have followed along and enjoyed some of the posts: God bless you!

Some pictures from Assisi, but without comment for now... just so that I have a place to store the memories of such a memorable visit.

It's bubble-gum.  Everyone wants to leave behind some evidence that they had been there at the top of the mountain.

Yes, that's me and the haricut Franco gave me in Rome the week before...

The Bishop of Assisi's reception room, where Francis stripped off his clothes and walked away from his father and his fabric business

The Basilica in Assisi, where Francis is now entombed in the crypt below.  There are three levels to this church.

Taken from the Church in the above photo, same courtyard with the curved arches, but with a landscape view from this side

See the fortress in the background?  That's the top of another mountain.  Gives you an idea of the climb we were doing on foot.

A break in the foot-climb up the mountain to St. Francis' Hermitage.  Friends: Frs James, Patrick and Rob (taking the pic)

Gated entrance to the Hermitage... maybe I don't want out?

You can't see it because of Fr Bill, but we are looking at an old warrior's helmet that has been turned upsided down and made into a flower pot.

St Francis was here... so was I, about 800 years later.  He made this hermitage sacred by his prayers.

The famous cross of St. Damiano through which Christ told Francis in 1185 AD to 'build my Church which has fallen into disrepair'.

Close up

The ancient 'hospital' at the foot of Assisi where the first Franciscans stopped with a dying Francis.

Guess most of you can't read this (Italian).  Francis got to the bottom of this steep hill from below Assisi on his way to die in Porziuncula, and asked them to stop and lift him up so that he could have a last look at the town of Assisi, and bless it.  The blessing is included on this plaque.

I made the long walk from Assisi in to the valley where Francis is buried in Poziuncula, then we climbed back up as well.
This is the view that Francis would have had, looking back up.  I stayed in a place of Franciscan hospitality off to the right, and the darker, blue mountain on the right is where we climbed up to the hermitage.

The little chapel call the Porziuncola chapel is still perfectly intact within this larger Church.  St Mary of the Angels is beautiful in its own right, but famously it holds the Porziuncola Chapel where Francis worked and prayed and gathered the early Franciscan friars.

St. Mary of the Angels in Porziuncula

The family of doves that were present at his death have never left in 800 years.  They nest in that basket.  

Same roses growing year after year for 800 years, the unique thing is that they don't have thorns.  They did... until Francis, in trying to quell his passions, threw himself on them.  Now they grow without thorns... and come up every year.

I have lots of pics of the Assisi country side... because it is so beautiful and breathtaking.

In Speleto, an neighbouring community which would like to claim Francis as their own.

Roman aqueduct from the time of Christ, build by Roman ingenuity just outside Speleto.  There is a escape path on the other side of this wall.  The water runs in a trough on top...  of course I had to take the escape path to the other side and climb up that tower too.

Same Roman aqueduct, used to keep the castle supplied while under siege, and on the backside an escape route. See the little portico / half-moon opening in the middle upper section?  There a nice pic coming up of 4 priests posing there...

That's Fr James and I discussing the relative merits of a photo, while Frs Patrick and Ed look on.

Away we go... only two brave souls: Fr James and myself going along the escape route.  

Halfway along the aqueduct and viaduct we stopped at the aforementioned portico for a picture: myself, Ed, Patrick, James, and Paul

Gawking around inside the Church of St. Mary of the Angels with my head on a swivel with my jaw hanging open - as usual, that's how I spent most of my time in both Rome and Assisi.

A Soggy Station - S. Eusebio

Yesterday was another long haul to the Station Church for our Roman Lenten Pilgrimage, Saint Eusebius, (b.260 AD - d.340 AD) the famous first Christian historian and bishop.  He wrote our Ecclesiastical History.

It was drizzling rain when I left, steadily raining at about halfway when I finished the Rosary, and a torrential downpour for the last half - kilometer.  I was soaked, my cassock was soaked and filthy at the hem, my purple stole (wet inside my backpack) had bled its colour onto my new alb and amice, and every step I took had that detestable squishing sound of shoes that have been awash in three inches of water.  The drainage system in Rome leaves a lot to be desired, that's for sure.

Taken from the porch of S. Eusebio... having just arrived in the rain.

So we sat like so many drowned rats in an feeble attempt to appreciate our surroundings and to celebrate the sacred mysteries of our redemption.  Thank God the presider at the Mass, who also gave the homily, was reverent and devout and full of faith... oh! and the schola of singers from the seminary lifted our spirits wonderfully!  They sang Sicut Cervus, my absolute favourite from Palestrina.  Please, click on the link (later) to enjoy this beautiful motet (Note: if you click the link it will take you away from this page and you will have to click the Back arrow to return, and sometimes there is an advertisement that you can click through after 5 secs).  The words are: As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, so pants my soul for Thee, O God. which is the first line of Psalm 42.  Unfortunately it is only 2 min 22 sec long... .  When they sang that during Communion, I forgot my little aquaeous misery and was transported to a drier, happier place.

The Altar Cross is draped in purple and covered for Lent

The Altar, with the earthly remains of St. Eusebius underneath.

An attempt to give you a different angle...

Fr. James and I sat and offered Morning Prayer together as the Church gradually cleared out.

I took this pic as we were leaving in the daylight and after the rain had stopped.  But I still had to walk home for 55 minutes of squish, squish, squish... but I was humming Sicut Cervus and memorizing the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar.

Upon arrival 'home', I took a hot shower, put on a wash and hoped for the best.  All is well, all the stains came out of the alb and with a little bleach the amice will lose it purple tinge.  The sun is out and my shoes are drying, perched dangerously outside on my window ledge.

Saturday should turn out to be a lovely day... but for me, a quiet day, mostly indoors.

Vatican Museum

The Vatican Museum is the third most visited museum in the world, next to the Louvre in France and the British Museum.  We were fortunate to visit on a day when it was not so crowded.  We had the privilege of being guided through the museum by Elizabeth Lev who is a remarkable art historian and a woman of faith herself.  Instead of a secular tour guide regurgitating a series of memorized facts and dates, we were treated to the theological, liturgical as well as historical significance of many of the most important pieces in the Vatican collection.  She prepared us well for the breath-taking experience of the Sistine Chapel and it is one that can never be forgotten.

This is Liz Lev in front of the Roman attempt to copy the Greek statue of 'Apollo' which was brought to Rome by Nero, which (15 centuries later) Michelagnelo used as the basis for his 'David'.

Apollos is perfectly proportioned, so exactly that no actual human can compare.  He is aloof, poised effortlessly and his gaze is of unearthly interests.  He doesn't care about you. He is saying, 'I am a Greek god, you are beneath me and can never be me.'

Michelangelo captures David in the moment before he runs to meet the challenges of Goliath, with the stone and slingshot in hand.  His body is purposefully disproportionate; his determined gaze and furrowed brow speaks of physical and moral courage for the honour of God. You can be David.

The epitome of Greek sculpture, the Laocoon, was known, but considered lost forever... but was found in a farmer's field outside of Rome buried in rubble and covered in filth, but identified as this Greek masterpiece by Michelangelo.  

And who could forget Hercules, the hero of my boyhood cartoons, but more importantly, the bronze sculpture in the center.  Also, that porphyry dish in the center of the room belongs to Nero.  He had it carved out of one piece of stone.

What is interesting about this poor sculpture which is missing all its extremities is that this torso was used by Michelangelo for the torso of Christ in the famous full wall painting of the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel.

Of particular interest to me and to the priests on tour was the earliest Christian sarcophagi which, somewhat surprisingly, never depict Christ on the cross (that only happened for the first time in the 5th century in the Church of Saint Sabina - you remember? I posted a pic of that in one of my earliest posts.)  Below are two examples of many in the museum of the burial or funerary depictions of Christians on their tombs:

What do you see?  That is the fun part... trying to decipher and then interpret the carvings.  Christ himself said in the Gospel that no other sign would be given to that generation except the sign of the prophet Jonah who was in the belly of the whale/sea serpent three days and three nights.  Do you see it? Thrown overboard (on the bottom left), vomited up on shore (on the bottom right). That's also Jonah shading himself under the gourd (top right) while he waits for the destruction of Ninevah, which, meanwhile, is repenting (top center) and delivering itself from the coming wrath of God.

More fun... figure this one out:

As the Latin inscription says at the top, this is the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus a Roman prefect in 359 AD.  He holds the same position as Pontius Pilate did.  This is a series of panels telling different stories... how many can you get?  The easiest is Adam and Eve covering themselves and being expelled from the Garden of Eden (lower left inside).  How about Daniel in the lion's den (lower right inside)? The arrest of St. Peter (top left inside), the arrest of St. Paul (lower right outside). Pontius Pilate washing his hands before the Crucifixion (top right)  It is no surprise that as a Roman prefect he included this.  Look at the top left - that is the sacrifice of Isaac, prefiguring Christ's own sacrifice.

Okay, without looking here, go up and tell me what the one in the lower center is...

Did you guess the story of Nicodemus up in the sycamore tree?  Yep.  Did you notice that Christ does not have a beard in any of these panels?  It is because they wanted to depict him as eternally youthful.

Look at the top center, where you would (rightfully) expect to find Christ.  What do you see? Sorry the pic is so bad... It is the eternally youthful Christ, seated like a teacher and holding a scroll in his left hand - probably Scripture, on the side where St. Paul stands.  He is turned slightly toward St. Peter on his right who is the first among the Apostles, and he is seated over an ancient Roman river god (they are everywhere here in Rome, there is even one on this College's property) showing the triumph of Christianity over pagan philosophy and religion.

I have a ton of pictures, of course, but I feel like I should spare you most of them.  No pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel.  I am including a series of pics from the rooms leading into the Sistine Chapel which cover the entire wall.  They are done by Raphael who was working on some of them at the exact same moment that Michelangelo was in the next room working on the Sistine Chapel.

A quick and inadequate explanation:  This is across the room from the picture below so you have to see them as kind of in motion from the one to the other.  Notice, that this fresco of the wisdom of this world, with all of the great Philosophers represented (Plato and Aristotle in the center) has all of the lines descending.  They are walking toward something, except there is a figure running in from the left and one exiting from the right... the passing nature of human wisdom.

The truths that Socrates, Euclid and Pythagoras discovered and proclaimed all lead to the one Truth which, if you follow the steps down and across the room, start at the bottom of the fresco and move up you will see that the movement continues up, up, up.

It starts in this world and leads to the sublime mysteries of the next, centering on the dispute concerning the truth of the Blessed Sacrament... which is the one mystery of Christ's presence in this world that has a direct bearing and connection to the world of the divine, through the Holy Spirit (dove).  You caan see the mystery of the Trinity in the ascending line to the Father... with Christ flanked by St. John the Baptist on his left and the Blessed Virgin Mary on his right.

I already had the Disputation on the Blessed Sacrament in my study on one wall, so I bought a poster of the Philosophers to put on the other wall.  That way I can continue to meditate on what I saw in the room leading to the Sistine Chapel.  My only challenge will be getting it home without creasing it.

The end wall was the miraculous release of St. Peter from prison.  Raphael had just seen the Sistine Chapel for the first time and was inspired by what he saw... and wanted to out-do Michelangelo in this fresco:

Like I said... I have lots of pictures, but I spare you the whole and thank you for your patience while I recorded a few thoughts from Liz Lev so that I can come back to this blog in days to come as a reminder.

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