Assisi Day 3

Ari and I overslept this morning. On my part it was partially accidental and partially on purpose. See I thought Mass started at 8:30. So when I got out of bed at 8:15 I figured I was good. Only then I looked at the schedule and realized that Mass started at 8 with part 2 of our tour directly following. I had no idea where the Basilica was and I was exhausted so I went back to sleep.

Once we got up Ari and I decided to go on a little shopping expedition. I really wanted to get a statue of St. Clare with the monstrance cuz that's my favorite story about her. Some enemies, I believe it was the Turks, were attacking Assisi and the Sisters in San Damiano were very frightened. So they went to St. Clare who was very ill and bedridden at the time and she instructed them to help her up. She then went to the chapel and took the monstrance, with Jesus inside, and went out on the balcony and held up the monstrance and there was a blinding light and the attackers were overcome with fear and ran away! And so there are statues of St. Clare with the monstrance and I really wanted to get one and I finally found the perfect one! Another example of how Jesus has helped me with my souvenire shopping. I also got a beautiful holy card of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I felt a little weird getting an Our Lady of Guadalupe holy card in Europe but I love OLG and I kind of collect holy cards of her and this one was just so beautiful so I had to get it! Ari and I also stopped in a hat shop and I found the most adorable winter hat!

We then decided to take a short cut through a side street which of course took us who knows where but eventually got us to our destination. However, I am soooooo glad we took this not-so-short shortcut because it led us to the most beautiful place! We were walking up a flight of steps (many of the streets in Assisi are actually steps cuz the town is built into a mountain) and we turned around and we had the most gorgeous view! It was like we were looking out over all of Italy! And our view was totally unobstructed and just incredible gorgeous! We were in agreement that the lady who lived in the house up there has the greatest house in the world!

We eventually realized that we had about two minutes to get back to the hotel for lunch so booked it and made it just in time!

After lunch I headed back up to St. Clare's house next to San Rufino. I had been dying to get back up there and just spend some time with my patron saint! So I went in the little chapel and said my Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet and then I just leaned my head against the wall and talked to St. Clare. I can't really explain it but I totally built up a relationship with her while I was at her home. I relate to her now like she's my older sister. I'm also asking her to be my spiritual director. Cuz I feel like she knows me pretty darn well and she's totally looking out for me cuz she's my patroness and now my big sister and, I mean, come on, who wouldn't want a saint as their spiritual director? I also asked her to teach me how to love. Like I said, I really admire the love between her and Saint Francis and I really just want to learn how to love others the way I'm supposed to love them and just to learn how to truly love the way Christ loved and the way He wants me to love.

Before I left I kissed the wall and took some pictures and then I turned to leave and I just couldn't. It was the same kind of feeling I had when I was getting on the plane to come to Austria only not to the same degree. But I just so desperately didn't want to say good-bye! So I took a few more minutes and then I just had to walk away without looking back or I never would've been able to leave!

I didn't have any set plans at this point so I decided to just do a little more exploring. I took some more pictures and then, as I was passing a cafe, I saw Maude and Sarah! So I hopped on in and they were like Oh my gosh we were just saying we wished you were here and then you showed up! So the three of us chilled in the cafe for a little while and then went scarf shopping. Maude and I both got beautiful scarves! We also stopped at a bakery where I got several mini canolies (not sure if I spelled that right) and a lovely Italian pastry.

Maude then wanted to go back to San Francesco, the Basilica where they had had Mass that morning, and I really wanted to go cuz I hadn't even seen it yet! Isn't it beautiful how God provides? I had overslept and missed Mass but He knew I should visit the Basilica so He put the desire in Maude's heart to go back, directed me to the cafe where Maude and Sarah were chilling and so I got to visit San Francesco!

There are actually three Churches contained in San Francesco (St. Francis). The bottom one is the crypt Church on top of which is the original Basilica on top of which is the new Basilica. And Sarah related to me a very funny story which Fr. Brad had told everyone that morning. When St. Francis died his body was originally entombed in a Benedictine Church. And the Franciscans were like that's ridiculous, he founded our order, we should have his body! But the Benedictines were like No way, he's ours! So the Franciscans grabbed some fireworks and snuck over to the Benedictine Church in the middle of the night and set them off. All the Benedictines came running out cuz they thought they were under attack. Meanwhile the Franciscans scurried in, grabbed Francis' body and scurried back out. When they got back to their own monastery they buried Francis' body under layers of concrete so when the Benedictines came calling the Franciscans were like What body? We don't have any body? Did you lose St. Francis?! So for years there was this legend that St. Francis' body was underneath the Basilica and so they began excavating and lo and behold there he was! So the excavation site is now the Crypt Church and St. Francis body is right there!

On our walk back from the Basilica we kept stopping in food stores to see if we could find real Italian pasta sauce. Sarah and I had been planning to have a real Italian dinner for our next movie night once we got back to the Kartause. We had already obtained an amazing form of pasta called gnocchi (pronounced no-key) and wine but couldn't find pasta sauce anywhere. It then occured to us that this was probably because Italians make their own pasta sauce. However we finally found a jar of almost pasta sauce - it was kinda like a starter kit - to which we later added onion, ham, and cheese. I can not even explain to you how incredible that pasta was! It may have been the best meal of my life.

But back to Assisi. We then had Mass at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Our Lady Over Minerva, there was another Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome because both were built over temples to the pagan goddess Minerva). This Church was so beautiful! It was relatively small and actually kind of reminded me of my Grandma Millie's house though I'm not entirely sure why. But right in front was a gorgeous little grotto type thing with a beautiful statue of Our Lady in the middle. And I really loved that the Crown of Twelve Stars on Mary's head actually lit up. I just think that's so cool. Communion was particularly beautiful at this Mass, obviously I know the Eucharist is Jesus but it was like for a moment my heart really knew that this was the Lord like my heart knew Who it was receiving and it was just incredible! There was such peace!

When we returned to the hotel I had to quickly pack and drop off my bag to be loaded on the bus so I wouldn't have to carry it down with me in the morning. We then had a lovely dinner with lovely people and the dessert was incredible! It was this chocolate puddingy stuff but it was like eating chocolate cake mix! Like you know when you're little and you really wanna lick the spoon with the chocolate cake mix on it but Mommy's like "No there's raw eggs in there you'll get sick and die!" but sometimes you sneak it anyway? Yeah well this was like finally being able to lick the spoon and not get in trouble!

After dinner I had a lovely conversation with my household sister and some others and then went back to my room where Amy was practicing her poetry recitation. I still wanted to find a pastry shop and get some sort of dessert for our Italian dinner but it was almost 10:00 by now so we figured the pastry shops would all be closed. But Amy, Ari, and I decided to give it a try and - Praise God! - the best pastry shop in Assisi was still open! So I got a dozen lovely cookies and then told the others that I was gonna stop by St. Clare's house for one last good-bye since we were leaving in the morning. And my lovely friends decided to accompany me!

So the three of us headed on up to St. Clare's house and the chapel was actually closed for the night but I just stood outside for a moment and said a prayer while Amy and Ari sat down outside San Rufino. So once I was done I just sat down and joined them and we spent a little time there just talking and looking up at the castle on top of the mountain. On the other side of the courtyard from us there was an adorable cat walking around and I was like "I wish that cat would come over here." And as soon as I said it the cat started trotting towards us! It was so cool cuz I was in St. Francis' hometown and St. Francis loved the animals and I was like "I wish that cat would come over here" and Jesus was like ok - cat get over there! So this cat came over and was just kind of pacing around in front of us and then he started to walk away and I was like NO! So I started doing the whole "here kitty kitty" thing and Amy was like You should try it in Italian and I was like "here gato gato!" and the cat turned around! And at one point I went over to pet him and then Ari freaked out and was like HE COULD HAVE RABIES! Which I don't think he did but I was afraid if I touched him Ari would freak out at me so I didn't.

So then we finally headed out after saying one last good-bye to St. Clare and one last good-bye to the gato.

And - God is so good - I had felt a cold coming on ever since we got to Rome and I should've gotten sick so long ago but it wasn't until we were done with everything in Assisi on our last day there that I lay down in bed and the cold finally hit me. And all I could do was praise God that He held off this cold until I had nothing else important that I wanted to do and was headed on my way back to the Kartause!