Side Street Churches

Today I got up around 5 am, did some stretching exercises, and launched out on a back street adventure in trying to find Thursday's Station Church (Saints Cosmas and Damian -twins and martyrs).  It was good to walk, it actually helps... and it was a lot of fun finding my own way there.  Actually, I get close and then look for the horde of seminarians steaming up behind me at a far brisker walking pace... from there I just follow them to the actual church.  No stress.

As I descended those brick steps of the Juniculum Hill... more slowly than usual, I recalled my friend referring to them at one point in Italian as the 'Scale dall'inferno': steps from hell.

What I noticed, though, at the foot of the steps and out onto the path beside the Tiber was that at some point during my week off the trees had budded and the little leaves were giving a shade of light green to my morning walk.

That's the Tiber River on the left, through the new leaves.  Spring has sprung in Rome... although to be honest, it was 18*C and sunny pretty much since I got here.  This week has been cooler and rainy - so not quite as pleasant.  I know you folks in Canada don't really feel that sorry for me.

So, like I said, I wound my way through multiple back streets to get to the Church of Sts Cosmas and Damian this morning.  The church is very old, of course, and it is situated in a marshy, flood-prone area of Rome, so at some point the floor was actually raised 20 feet so today it was really interesting to sit in 'choir' because we were sitting close to the original ceiling!  You could really see the beauty and detail in the mosaics when you are 20 feet closer to the top of the building.

The church is tucked in behind this magnificent building, that I showed you before:

It's called the Vittorio Emmanuel II national monument.  Pictures don't do it justice.  Around to the left of this photo is Trajan's Victory Column I showed you earlier:

So, walking in between the Vit.Emmanuel monument and Trajan's column, amidst other ancient ruins of the Roman Forum... and before you get to the Colosseum, you discover the Church of Cosmas and Damian.  So, in this pic you are now behind the Vit Emmanuel monument - see it in the background - and the ancient ruins are at your feet in front of you, and the Church is still a little farther to your left (not in the pic yet):

If you do a 180* turn and look behind you, you will see the Colosseum in the distance (being restored -hence the scaffolding on the far left):

Looking at the picture above, today's Station Church is just on your right, but not yet in the picture (again!)

Yep, that's it.  Not much to look at from the outside, eh?  See the pilgrims waiting to get in?  Also, notice the yellow police tape?  That's right, Obama... again.  I was happy to see his helicopter leave this afternoon from the Vatican.  Remember I am close to the Vatican, so I saw it go.  Now they can take down all that tape.

Meanwhile, the Mass inside the Church with the raised floor was quiet, intimate and very peaceful. There were two Cardinals with us, Cardinal O'Brien who has been with us every day, and another one who celebrated the Mass but I didn't get his name.  The music by the seminary schola was excellent and added a very solemn mood to the Lenten spiritual reflection.

See what I mean about being close to the ceiling?  Usually that apse is waaaaay above your head. Those wooden benches that follow the rounded wall of the Apse is the 'choir' where I sat this morning... behind the main altar, so I couldn't actually see what was going on.

It wasn't hard getting a picture of the main ceiling (above) in the nave.  It was like you could reach out and touch it.

In a manner similar to my method of getting to the Station Church this morning, I took a series of back streets home.  Honestly, there was a church every second street... back street.  Churches that would be like cathedrals back home are tucked into the corners of little piazzas (squares that aren't square).  I stopped in at about 6 of them and took a few pictures.  I can't remember the names of them all.  Its really quite amazing.

The exterior

The interior space

Same church... the altar piece - a little bit like the sunburst at St. Peter's.

Another church, I liked the painting of St Michael the Archangel.

The choir loft and pipe organ.  You can't see it very well, but painted all across the balcony of the loft are a multitude of the heavenly host praising God on a variety of musical instruments.

Yet another church in the corner of a small piazza on a backstreet in Rome.  That is a pulpit on the left, halfway up the wall.  Many of the churches still have these... kind of different and perhaps not really needed in a church that is not the size of a basilica.

This is the altar piece of that same church... Mary and Joseph with Jesus and a Levitical priest (probably Simeon) in the temple in Jerusalem.  In ALL these churches, the biblical record is preserved and proclaimed through art for those who could not read... which was most people at the time.  Now-a-days, you often can't tell what a modern or post-modern artist is trying to communicate.  Here, art is in the service of the gospel and is meant to convey truth and reality as beautifully and as clearly as possible.

While I was in this church a man walked in, stopped at the open Bible and read the Scripture readings for today, and then went on his way to work.  What a great idea... which was probably more common when not everyone could afford a Bible. Don't believe that nonsense that Catholics weren't allowed to read the Bible.  After the disaster of the Reformation where each man interpreted the Bible for himself (resulting in 30,000+ Protestant denominations and counting), Catholics were not encouraged to make themselves into the sole interpreting authority of the Scriptures, but rather were encouraged to seek the mind of the Church (which wrote the Bible, BTW) on how it had historically interpreted difficult passages... but were they permitted to read the Bible, yes.

The Church near my house is 'Holy Spirit Parish' and it has a place for a round Rose window (as they are called).  Since the church is new, there is just clear glass there now.  I took this picture to show the Pastor there.

If I can get inside this church, I will get a picture of how the light shines through the window and take a picture of the details of the window.

I don't know how many pictures of Churches you can take.  I saw lots... I am posting a fraction of what I saw.  I can't describe the insides of each church... they are full of wonderful art, sculptures, mosaics, etc. and it gets to be overwhelming after a while.

If the door is open, I go in.  I can't help it.

Ah! Below is the exterior of the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere.

The oldest, or nearly the oldest surviving mosaics in Rome:

And then... this.  Can you figure this one out??  Click on it to enlarge (like all pics)

 What do you think is going on in this painting?  Who is the lady in the blue dress who takes up the foreground (and therefore the primacy of place) in this painting.  What is she wearing on her head? Yep... that's the papal tiara.  Was there really a Pope Joan???  I see six cardinals in the back left, in some kind of disputation or presentation to a gathering of clergy... but no Holy Father, unless... hehehe.

No, this is actually of the Council of Trent and that is holy Wisdom in the foreground.

 I'll leave it there for tonight.

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.

________________________

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...