Limping along in the rain

Wednesday,
Starting to get mobile again, but not able to do the Station Church this morning, which was a 55 min walk, one way.  Nevertheless, I went out this morning after Mass at the College in order to stretch my leg.  It was raining and as I was on my way out of the compound one of my priest-colleagues and I crossed paths... he cautioned me, not about the slippery pavers/cobble stones, but that there were police everywhere with whole sections of Rome near the Vatican roped off.   Oh?  Obama is in Rome.  Oh.  Not only that, but since I decided to take a short cut through the Vatican Square-that-is-round, it got worse: Doh! It's Wednesday and the Papal audience is in progress.  If it were all about me, which it isn't, I might wonder at the inconvenience: Just as I am trying to get to a particular street vendor on the other side of the Vatican, the Pope holds his weekly audience.  Not just any weekly audience.  An audience swollen by the fact that Popes John XXIII and Pope John Paul II are going to be declared Saints soon (so half of Poland is already here), oh, and Obama is here.  The umbrellas can't hide the fact that there are 50,000 - 60,000+ people underneath them holding them up.  A sea of colour in St. Peter's Square-that-is-not.  It's impossible to go through, so I have to go around.

It was just a few weeks ago I was standing at the back of the crowd taking pictures of the Pope as he drove through the crowd close by where I was standing.  Now there wasn't a square inch inside the Square-that-is-key-hole-shaped.  Who knows how to count that many people?  They overflowed outside St. Peter's Square-that-(never mind).  So I did the long loop around and didn't stand in the rain cheering on the papal address in Italian.  How could I?  I don't speak Italian.  Besides, there was a street vendor with a black felt hat with my name on it somewhere on the other side of St Peter's on the way to the Castel Sant'Angelo fortress/museum:

Bernini sculptures on bridge leading to Castel Sant'Angelo

By the way, those are all sculptures you see along the sides of the bridge leading to Castel Sant'Angelo are done by Bernini (which means they are magnificent) and they are of Angels holding all of the items related to the crucifixion of Christ: the spear that pierced his side, the three nails, the crown of thorns, the reed with a sponge full of vinegar, etc.

Three Nails

Sponge: 'I Thirst'

I get to walk by this incredible artistry almost every day... if I can walk.  I don't see how one can just walk passed them, although most do.  Anyway, I was actually out to exercise my gimpy leg with a specific mission of getting myself one of those felt wedge shaped hats.  I had priced one last Saturday on the way home from Lanciano, but I am only now getting out and about.  So, I found my street vendor, among the hundreds (really) and asked the price on a rainy day.  The rainy day price for a hat when there are 70K people around: 20 euros.  Price last Saturday: 12 euros.  Ha! I got it for 12 today anyway - my only attempt at haggling today.  You can laugh... just not when I wear it.

First 'selfie' ever: The black hat

Sporting my new black hat and a collapsible umbrella from the common collection provided at the door of the College, I made my way toward De Riti's thinking I would get a couple of cinctures (rope-belts), but I never made it.  I was venturing along Via Coronari and came across this Church, which I had never been in:

You have to take advantage of the opportunity to go into these churches while the door is open, because as often as not, the church is closed as you walk by.  They open during certain hours, but it is rarely as you just happen to be walking by.  Just inside the door, to the right, is this carving in wood of Padre Pio assisting Christ with his Cross.  

Padre Pio died in 1968 and is a saint for our days.  I recently re-read his biography before coming to Italy and I was so moved by his life, his holiness, his stigmata, his spiritual gift of discernment in the confessional, and yes, his ability to be present to people hundreds of miles away without leaving his monastery.  An inspiring saint who was still living when I was 10 years old! Wow...

Having lost myself in contemplation in that church, I never made it to De Riti's, but that can happen another day when Obama is not in town and the Pope is not giving his general audience... and it is not raining.

After pranzo, lunch, I dragged two of my priest friends to an instructional session on the Traditional Latin Mass at the Seminary.  It doesn't take long for birds of a feather to flock together... we tend to find each other as the sabbatical progresses.  I have also been taking some instruction from Fr Wm Barker, FSSP at S.Trinita dei Pelligrini, as well as attending Mass there.  This week the Pope's vicar of Rome is going to celebrate a Pontifical High Mass in the Extraordinary Form (TLM), so that should be wonderful.  They actually let me sit in 'choir' now, but I don't even know when to doff my birretta, sit, stand, bow, kneel... so you can appreciate their patience and dedication to helping simple priests like me learn the old mass.

I have taken a few pics, but not many, in the week that I have been indisposed.  I will try to post some of them later.

Feast for the eyes - while fasting.

It being Lent and all... I spend less time sitting at the table in the College refectory filling my mouth with meat and more time daydreaming out the window (like I did in 4th Grade).  Whereas my wandering eyes at the tender age of 8 resulted in me spending long stretches of time standing alone in the school's hallway, this week the consequences of looking out the refectory window is much more gratifying and much more to my liking.

Here is the view I have every day during Cena (supper):

Taken from the Refectory window @ PNAC

I told you the names of meals are different.  Pranzo (lunch) is taken at the Seminary refectory and, if one cares to climb 6 flights of stairs (as I did), you get a similar view from the rooftop terrace.

Taken from the terrace of PNAC Seminary

So, yes, I am living that close to St Peter's, just outside the walls of Vatican City.  Truth is that I skipped Pranzo today, not because I am fasting from lunch but because I get distracted and miss the meal timings.  Instead of eating, I went on an adventure.

Yesterday I bought a birretta, a zucchetto, and a clergy shirt from Barbiconi's.  For those of you who don't know what the first two items are, they are headdress for priests (in black of course).  Stand by for a pic.  Meanwhile, when I was there yesterday I tried on the shirt because normally I can't get shirts that fit my longer-than-normal, knuckle-scraping gorilla arms.  Wonder of wonders! the arm length was great... so without doing up the collar, I bought it.  Now, its not entirely my fault that I didn't test the neck size.  The saleslady measured me and declared me a 44.  I don't know metric neck sizes.  I said I was a 17.5" - 18" neck.  "Quarantaquattro," she exclaimed, holding up four digits twice.  I suggested that maybe a 45 would be better because I don't like the collar too tight.  "Forty-five,' I gestured with my fingers, making that waffling motion with my hand that means 'maybe?'  She looked at me with disdain for implying that her measurement was wrong and her assessment of my neck size was somehow flawed.  I took the 44... happy that the sleeves fit.

At zero-dark-thirty this morning when I tried to do up the collar in hopes of wearing it under my cassock, it was impossible.  An utter failure.  So, undaunted, I put on one of my old less-than-black faded tab-style shirts and decided to return/exchange the new one.  The problem was that yesterday I was with two other priests who knew their way around the tangled web of backstreets that is Rome.  No problem, said I to myself, I'm a military priest... I can use my superior sense of direction and retrace our steps from yesterday.  Nope.  I knew I was lost when I had completed several loops of the area in which I thought I would find the shop, only to realize that the loops were indeed quasi-circular and I was lost.  Of course, I never asked for directions.

Oh yes... the birretta and zucchetto:

Clockwise: Bag with address, shirt in question, folded birretta, zucchetto

Basically, I only realized after getting home that I had the address to Barbiconi's with me, on the bag, the whole time.  The birretta, which folds, is square for a round head and the tassel (read: pom-pom) is still tied up.  The zucchetto is round for a square head... mine.

Oh BTW, I picked up 5 postcards at the Vatican mail office.  Do you want one?  I was shocked when I stepped up to the wicket and the guy told me that the Vatican stamps were 2 euros each!

Off to the Station Church of Ss John and Paul tomorrow; San Giovanni et San Paulo - pray for us.