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January 23, 2007
Day Seven
My memory sometimes fails me. Also I was being extra careful since the first day mishap. So after Morning Prayer I was a bit frantic because I could not find my passport. I searched everywhere. Finally it dawned on me that the nuns had collected all our passports when we registered.
So, somewhat relieved I made my way downstairs to the chapel where the sisters were chanting Morning Prayer in Italian. I found a nice quiet bench in the back that had a heater under it. The time for Mass cam and went and no priest had arrived. After about 10 minutes I offered, but I am sure that sister did not understand a word of my English. Finally the priest arrived and Mass was celebrated in Italian. After breakfast we enjoyed the brilliant morning sun in front of the guesthouse and spent some time taking pictures. Then we took off for the Basilica of St. Francis. We started with the lower basilica and visited The tomb of St. Francis.
These Italian churches are a bit overwhelming for people who are used to our little church in Newark. We took our time and saw just about every square inch of the place. Next we went upstairs and took in the upper basilica. About half way through that experience we had a bit of a scare when Sr. Mary Mark could not remember where she had put her purse. I got a bit of exercise walking down the hill to our car where I discovered her purse in the back seat. We went back to the Upper basilica and then proceed to walk through the town of Assisi. Some of the shops were quite captivating. We had pranzo (lunch) at "Il Monaci." The name of the restaurant means "the monks." It did not seem anything like a monastery, but the food was excellent. We had it on good authority that this was the best pizzeria in the world.
After lunch we did some more walking through Assisi. There were any number of shops selling Ecclesiastical and liturgical vesture and appointments, but in my opinion, things looked a bit cheaply made.
Later we took the car down the hill to Santa Maria degli Angeli and to the Portiuncula. It is always a joy to visit this place of grace.
Later we returned to our guesthouse for dinner and then retired. We had done a lot of walking that day and were pretty tired.
Posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. at January 23, 2007 1:32 PM
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