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.

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...