Roma Day 2

We began our second day in Rome at St. Peter's! It was like coming home! I felt such joy everytime I entered Vatican City over those next few days! Vatican City truly is a different country, it's not just a part of Rome. I walked in and I knew I was in a different place entirely, and not just any place, but the center of the Church! And that's why it was like coming home!

We had time before Mass so we went to the Tombs of the Popes which are in a crypt underneath the Basilica. Only some of the Popes are buried there along with a few Cardinals and even some holy lay people. The tomb of Pope John Paul II is here! It was incredible to stand there and be so close to him. Unfortunately it was very crowded and we didn't have time to really stand and pray but at least I got to see him! - or, well, his tomb.

After that we headed up to the basilica for the first time. It was incredible! And at 11:00 we got to have Latin Mass in St. Peter's Basilica! It was absolutely amazing! I can't even explain it was just so insane!

After Mass we had to sprint to the middle of St. Peter's square so we wouldn't miss the angelus with Pope Benedict! We had about 30 seconds to get there so Amy and I just sprinted from the Basilica to the middle of the square and just as we were getting there the cheer went up that announced that the Pope had appeared at the window of the Papal apartments! We made it just in time! I couldn't believe it! We actually saw our Papa! It was almost like he hadn't really existed until I saw him! And then he was there and it was like Oh my gosh, he's real! And he led us in the Angelus and then gave a brief greeting in all different languages to welcome all the different pilgrims. It was so cool when he greeted the English speaking pilgrims cuz he actually spoke to us in our language! It just felt so personal! I also thought it was really cool when he greeted the German speaking pilgrims cuz he's german so that's his native language. There was also a group there from Iraq which I thought was really cool. And, oh my gosh, the crowd was huge! I mean, obviously, it's the Pope, it's not like I expected it to be small but there was just something about being there and seeing all these people and knowing that they're all my brothers and sisters and we're all united in Christ, it was just so cool! And at the end the Italian delegation let out a bunch of balloons for the Pope which was just cool.

A bunch of us then headed to a restaurant to get real Italian pizza for lunch! It was quite delicious!

We then headed to the Colosseum to meet up with the rest of our group for our walking tour. We got there a little early though so we headed to a gelato shop and I got the best gelato I had on the whole trip! Then we met up with everyone, took some pictures, and MOS and the Disciples finalized our plans to go to St. Peter's Square on Wednesday night for our Rosary and to sing our household songs! I was super excited!

We then had our first tour of Rome which began with the Basilica of St. Clement, the fourth Pope, who has a very interesting story. He was a slave but his master, who was a cousin of the emperor, converted to Christianity and when the master converts the whole household has to convert. So that's how Clement became Catholic, but, obviously, he wasn't Catholic-in-name-only, just because he was forced to be, he took his faith quite seriously and was even ordained a Bishop. Now when the emperor found out that his cousin had become a Christian, which was against the law, he had him executed. And so his widow, as was customary for Christian widows in those days, joined a convent. There's a beautiful painting in the Basilica of her being invested in the order by St. Clement. St. Clement was a great preacher and caused a lot of problems for the empire because he was converting so many people and so eventually he was captured and sentenced to death. The problem was, a lot of Christians were being sentenced to death but they just wouldn't die! Like they would be standing in the middle of a fire and they're bodies wouldn't burn and other such things. So, to insure that St. Clement really died, the Romans tied him to an anchor and threw him into the sea which is why he is usually pictured with an anchor.

So that's the story of St. Clement - now on to the story of his basilica! Before entering the Basilica you first step into a courtyard with a fountain in the middle. This was customary for early Christian churches because many people would have to travel a long way, or would come on pilgrimage, to get to the church and so before they entered they would stop at the fountain to clean themselves and make themselves presentable before appearing before the Lord. The inside of the Church is relatively small and above the altar is a beautiful mosaic filled with symbolism! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures.

Our guide then informed us that the building we were in was not actually the original basilica but had apparently been built on top of the first basilica which had been discovered during archaeological excavations. And so we went down a flight of stairs and back 800 years to the original basilica! The most interesting part of the original basilica were the frescoes depicting different miracles and stories associated with St. Clement.

However, the Basilica did not end here! In further archaeological excavations it was discovered that the original Basilica had actually been built on top of a pagan temple dedicated to Mithras. And so we went down some more stairs and back a couple hundred more years. The temple contained a banquet hall and a school room along with several other rooms one of which included running water from the ancient Roman sewer system.

There actually exists another level of ruins underneath the temple but it's not safe to go down there so, obviously, we didn't. However, the ruins are thought to be from the time of Emperor Nero and the great Roman fire.

We then headed to the Church of San Presede which also houses a beautiful and symbolic mosaic and we were allowed to take pictures this time!

After San Presede we headed to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. My favorite thing about this Church is that the ceiling is made of several tons of gold which was brought back from America by Christopher Columbus. He presented the gold to Queen Isabella who, being a good Catholic, donated much of it to the Church and the Pope used it for the ceiling of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Our last stop on this particular tour was the Church of St. Peter in Chains. As we were approaching the Church God gave us the gift of the most beautiful sunset! Inside the Church we saw Michaelangelo's statue of Moses and . . . the actual chains that were used on St. Peter when he was taken to be executed! I didn't know the Church still had those kinds of relics! It continues to blow my mind all the things I'm seeing in Europe - things I didn't even know were still in existence!

We then headed back to the hotel for dinner after which we went back to the convent down the street for a Holy Hour which was absolutely beautiful! I totally needed it cuz, despite how incredible everything was and how overjoyed I was, I was still kinda stressed out from all the travelling and having to deal with people and everything. So it was nice to have that time to just spend with Jesus and to get to confession which is definitely the way you want to start off a pilgrimage - with a clean soul! And God sent me a beautiful little miracle that night - during Benediction I was thinking of the version of the Divine Praises that we used to do at XLT and how I missed it and I wished we could do them that way but I never expected music ministry to actually do that particular version but they did! And it just totally made my night! God is so good!

And that was basically it for day 2.