5th Week of Lent: San Stefano Rotondo

My Lenten Journey takes me to the Church of San Stefano Rotondo on the Celian Hill. It was built in the 5th Century on the former site of military barracks for non-Italian soldiers.
Today the neighborhood still has the feeling of a tranquil seclusion that attracted the composer Palentrina in the 16th Century, according to Georgina Mason in her Companion Guide to Rome.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Upon entering the church, I am awed by the purity of the round plan of the building and the way it is bathed in light. The altar is in the center, and the cross has been covered in purple for Lent. There are many tourists gazing at the patterns created by the antique columns and wooden ceiling. The walls are covered with frescoes depicting very "unmerciful" martyrdom scenes. Charles Dickens had this to say about these frescoes in his Pictures of Italy (1846) :
To single out details from the great dream of Roman Churches, would be the wildest occupation in the world. But St. Stefano Rotondo, a damp, mildewed vault of an old church in the outskirts of Rome, will always struggle uppermost in my mind, by reason of the hideous paintings with which its walls are covered. These represent the martyrdoms of saints and early Christians; and such a panorama of horror and butchery no man could imagine in his sleep, though he were to eat a whole pig raw, for supper. Grey-bearded men being boiled, fried, grilled, crimped, singed, eaten by wild beasts, worried by dogs, buried alive, torn asunder by horses, chopped up small with hatchets: women having their breasts torn with iron pinchers, their tongues cut out, their ears screwed off, their jaws broken.... So insisted on, and laboured at, besides, that every sufferer gives you the same occasion for wonder as poor old Duncan awoke, in Lady Macbeth, when she marvelled at his having so much blood in him.
























Once I settled down in a chair, I was able to keep the frescoes in the background and allow the architecture to energize my mind and soul. I imagined Palestrina's music accompanying worship in this space. I became aware that over the centuries pilgrims have come into this space to seek mercy. And here I am. Dear God, help me to be merciful - and be merciful to me!

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

New McDonald's in Rome

There was something new this morning at the corner where I change buses  on my way to school. Across the street from the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls there is now a McDonald's. 


Roman McDonald's have a feature usually not found in the American siblings: McCafe. It is a section of the restaurant with a stand up counter serving espresso and cappuccino with the typical pastries found in the traditional Roman coffee bars.

Someday it might be nice to sit on the roof under a market umbrella with a Coke & french fries and watch the pilgrims come and go from the basilica.

March of the Penguins

Yesterday we got a Blockbuster card and watched March of the Penguins. It was in Italian with Italian subtitles. A wonderful film! Here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday of marches or processions. 

This is the Palm Sunday procession at San Filippo Neri, the church across the piazza from our home. Notice there are no palms. Italians have olive branches!

This is a group of bikers near the Pope's summer residence at Castle Gondolfo.

Chiara Lubich: 1920 - 2008

Chiara Lubich, the 88-year-old founder of the Focolare movement, died March 14 in her room at the Focolare headquarters in Rocca di Papa, about 30 km south of Rome in the hills near Castel Gondolfo.


From an CNS story by Cindy Wooden:
The Focolare movement...began in the 1940s with Lubich and a small group of female friends...As World War II raged around them, they began asking themselves, "Is there an ideal that does not die, that no bomb can destroy, an ideal we can give our whole selves to? Yes, there is. It is God," she wrote.

"We tried to put into practice the sentences of the Gospel, one at a time," Lubich said.

Gradually, the women decided to form a community and share everything they had with each other and with the poor. They sought a sense of family gathered around a hearth -- "focolare" in Italian.

Many of the early Gospel readings and discussions were held in bomb shelters. More and more, the group began to focus on Christ's commandment to love one's neighbor and his prayer that all would be one. The community grew, men became involved, other houses were formed and families started joining, too

The movement now counts more than 2 million adherents in 182 countries. it opened an ecumenical chapter in 1961 and began forging ties with Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and others in the 1970s.

Lubich was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1977 and the UNESCO Peace Education Prize in 1996.

Today we traveled to Rocca di Papa and joined the thousands of people who were gathering to pay their last respects. Vincenzo was part of Focolare when he lived in Sicily, and some of his friends drove ten hours each way to be present and honor the life of this great woman. One of his friends said that he had to come from Sicily because Chiara Lubich was like his mother. Tomorrow, our good friend Maria, from Catania, is flying in to attend the funeral with Vincenzo on Tuesday at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. (Vincenzo and Maria meet each other through Focolare 20 years ago.)
Everyone was able to be in front of the open casket and say goodbye. As we were leaving the room, I noticed that we were right behind Romano Prodi, the former Prime Minister of Italy.

4th Week of Lent: Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

It was a rainy day as I approached the Basilica of Santa Croce. It is one of the seven churches (Italian: Sette Chiese) that pilgrims were traditionally expected to try and visit during their stay in Rome. (The others are the basilicas of St. Peter, Saint Paul Outside the Wall, Saint Lawrence, Saint Mary Major, St. John Lateran and Saint Sebastian.)

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was consecrated around 325 to house the Passion Relics brought to Rome from the Holy Land by St. Helena of Constantinople, mother of Constantine I. At that time, the basilica floor was covered with soil from Jerusalem, thus giving it the title "in Gerusalemme." The church is built around a room in St. Helena's imperial palace, Palazzo Sessoriano, which she adapted to a chapel around the year 320. The church was restored in the 12th Century, giving it three naves, a belfry and a porch. In the 18th Century it was modified giving it the Baroque appearance it has today.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.

I have always been a person to "check out churches." Rome is an unbelievable city to feed my appetite for church buildings. They are everywhere! I remember being told in elementary school that men should take off their hats when passing a church. If that was still a custom, men would never have hats on their heads here in Rome.

What am I seeking when I got to a church? What do I see? What speaks to me? How do I respond? What hunger is being satisfied?

During Lent I am visiting a different church each week that is a designated station church for that week and I bring with me one of the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount.

As I walked into the front door of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, I was surprised to find myself in an oval vestibule with a dome and lantern. It was a nice space and I would have liked to sit for awhile there, but there were no seats.


I walked into the nave of the basilica and experienced a very cold interior after spending time in the light filled vestibule. I did a little exploring around the church and walked into the entrance for the Chapel of the Relics. Beyond this entrance was a set of steps leading into a room that had a photo exhibit showing parallels between Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and a second room containing information about the soon to be beautified Nennolina, an Italian girl who died of cancer at the age of six in 1937. She used to leave letters to Jesus every night on her bed stand. There was an exhibit with some of her clothes and toys. Nennolina is buried here in Santa Croce, her parish church.

I encountered several groups of people in the basilica. Near the front door were two beggars standing together counting the coins in their plates. Outside the Chapel of the Relics a small group of English speaking pilgrims were making the Stations of the Cross, while inside the Chapel there was a woman kneeling before the shrine and two tourist peering into the glass enclosed reliquary. In a side room there was a solitary man prostrated before a crucifix and a life sized reproduction of the Shroud of Turin.

In the apse of the basilica about a dozen monks had begun chanting vespers. They seemed oblivious to everyone else in the church. I settled myself into a pew in the nave thinking about all of the people in this basilica. What individual needs do we have that we want to have satisfied? What are we seeking in this church this afternoon? Somehow, we are united together in the kingdom of God!

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.

As I think about my life in Rome, I realize that my main work here is teaching fifth grade. Over half of my students have parents working for world relief organizations: FAO-the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, WFP - the World Food Program, and IFAD - International Fund for Agricultural Development. These are parents who are dedicating their lives to helping alleviate world hunger and malnutrition. By teaching their children, I am participating in this work in a small way. Together we are striving for a better world, and it is satisfying to know this.

Outside the Basilica of Santa Croce there is an interesting gate leading to the monastery garden. It is made of a tangled grill with hanging hunks of colored resin.

Retreat in Orvieto

On Friday evening I took a train to Orvieto with members of Caravita, my parish community in Rome, for a day of reflection.

We stayed overnight in the convent of San Ludovico.
This was the view from my window.










Our time together included reflection time walking around the city. A man stopped me to point out an ancient tower. He told me it was one of twelve that formed the defenses for the city that was originally an Etruscan town dating back to the 9th Century BC. Orvieto became a territory of Rome in the 3rd Century BC. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Orvieto became a free city and prospered during the Middle Ages.


















The Cathedral, with its splendid Gothic facade dates to 1263.

3rd Week of Lent: San Marco

For the third week of Lent I visited the Basilica of San Marco, dating from the 4th Century and restored or rebuilt in 792, 833, 1460, and 1750. It is the national church of the Venitians living in Rome and is dedicated to their patron, St. Mark. According to tradition, Mark wrote his gospel in Rome. I approached the church by walking across the Piazza San Marco, which is really a small public garden next to Piazza Venezia.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
I was surprised to find, after going through the front door, that I had to walk down several steps to enter the church. Blessed are the meek... I was immediately confronted with a lectern holding a book, opened to the gospel for the Third Sunday in Lent. I stood there and read the Italian text, line by line. I probably comprehended less than 50% of the Italian sentences, but I was able to fill in the unintelligable parts with my knowledge of the gospel narrative. It was the story of the Samaritan woman at the well.

After reading, I sat in the church to take in all that the church contained. The nave was flanked by rows of beautiful marble columns and above was a magnificent Renaissance ceiling. The apse was covered with a mosaic depicting Christ standing in the center. Amidst all of this grandeur I was drawn to the twelve humble sheep at the bottom of the mosaic, representing the apostles, with the Lamb of God in the center. Blessed are the meek...



Some exploring in the church took me behind the main altar and down some stairs where I discovered a simple stone chapel with the remains of Pope St. Mark (336 AD) and Saints Abdon and Sennen. I had never heard of these saints, yet here wertheir remains, in the lower level of a magnificent basilica and next to the remains of a 4th Century Pope. Blessed are the meek... When I got home, I found references to legends saying they were Persians martyred by the Roman Emperor Decius in the middle of the 3rd Century.

The words of the gospel that I read when I first entered the basilica came back to me when I left the church and noticed a modest water fountain in a corner of the Piazza San Marco. It is composed of a pine cone with water flowing from faucets below it, offering refreshment to all who stop. Blessed are the meek... While I watched, a homeless woman came to drink, some tourists filled water bottles, a young Asian couple took pictures of each other as they drank, and a mother with a stroller stopped to fill her child's plastic cup.




What water do I need to quench my thirst and desires? How will I let God satisfy my thirst?
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4: 13-14