On the Outside looking In

Wednesday is Papal Audience day...

Today was a Papal Audience, which means that you are invited to sit up front near the Pope during his regular Wednesday Audience in St. Peter's Square.  The special thing about this, today, is that we were recognized by the Holy Father, Pope Francis, by name:

Santo Padre:

Saluto tutti i pellegrini di lingua inglese presenti a questa Udienza, specialmente quelli provenienti da Inghilterra, Galles, Danimarca, Norvegia, Malta, Giappone, Canada e Stati Uniti. Sono lieto di accogliere la Federazione Cattolica per l’Assistenza Sanitaria negli Stati Uniti, nonché i sacerdoti dell’Istituto per la Formazione Teologica Permanente presso il Pontificio Collegio Nordamericano. Su tutti voi e sulle vostre famiglie invoco la gioia e la pace in Cristo nostro Signore!

Speaker:

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, including those from England, Wales, Denmark, Norway, Malta, Japan, Canada and the United States. I am pleased to welcome the Catholic Health Care Federation from the United States and the priests of the Institute for Continuing Theological Formation at the Pontifical North American College. Upon all of you, and upon your families, I invoke joy and peace in Christ our Lord.

So, any of my blog readers who can lay claim to any kind of 'family' relationship to me are included in this invocation of joy and peace from Pope Francis.  Well done to all of you!

At last week's Papal Audience, Russell Crowe was there:

You can see the statues of St. Peter's in the background... and no, I didn't meet him, or take this picture. He was in town promoting his new movie, Noah.

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The Pilgrimage Church, or Station Church for today was St. Paul Outside the Wall.  We left at 0515... that's early.  We got there at one minute to 7 o'clock, thanks to a taxi.  We were walking the estimated hour and a half toward that part of Rome that is outside the ancient walls of the city (all ancient cities were 'walled' for protection).  St. Paul was beheaded outside the city and buried in a place that was noted, marked, and honoured by the Christians of his day and every age since then.  A Church has been built on the spot... of course.

Anyway, we were about halfway there when we were overtaken by a fast walking Prince of the Church, Cardinal Edwin O'Brien (far left).  he has been faithfully attending the Pilgrimage every morning.  God bless him for that!  

Walking with Cardinal O'Brien

Unfortunately, we got off track and ended up far from where we were supposed to be. We were outside the wall... way outside and in the wrong direction.  This is a small part of the old wall of ancient Rome, the wrong part:

So we ended up in a taxi... four of us and the Cardinal squished into a little Italian cab, and we just made it!

St Paul Outside the Wall is huge.  Here are a few pics:

We were greeted in the center of a square court yard by an imposing statue of St. Paul... looking pretty stern.  Are you sure we are being welcomed?  

What? You want a close up?

The sword is two-edged... that's how he described the Word of God.  It can pierce you...right to the soul.  It looks like he can wield it pretty well, too.  Enter, if you dare!

It reminds me of the way the Our Father is now introduced in the Liturgy: 'At the Saviour's command and formed by Divine teaching we dare to say:'  The other, softer, introductions have disappeared and we now come to the Father with some sense of awe, reverence and daring.

Inside:  The long view from the back.  You can't see that there are two more rows of columns on both sides.  The mosaics in the apse and across that upper wall are amazing.

And the view from the about 3/4 the way to the front, looking back to the entrance doors:

Just a few more pics, I promise...

This is the place where St. Paul is buried.  His friends and faithful Christians buried him, and marked the spot.  They also kept his chains.

Good luck reading this

St. Paul's chains

One end of the Sarcophagus of St. Paul

The last pic (although I have many more) of this Church is the Altar of the Conversion of St Paul, my patron saint and namesake.  This pilgrimage is an 'itinerary of conversion', so I prayed here for a deepening conversion in my own life.  It's not a bad thing to ask for.

On the way home (the same hour and a half back...) we stopped at a several shops for priests, bought some stuff, and stopped for a haircut at Franco's:

That is NOT me on the left... but that is Franco, and my hair is nearly as short as this guy's.  Franco likes it short.  It all sounds the same to me in Italian.