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January 17, 2007
Day Three
December 30th dawned crisp and cold. We celebrated Mass in English at 6:00am in the Villa chapel because we were being picked up at 7:15am. This was the day of the great tour. The four of us had book a private tour of the Vatican and of Rome. It was amazing to be in the Sistine chapel early in the morning with very few people there. The past times I was there it was very noisy and crowded, jammed with people. Now I was impressed to see the floor as well as the brilliant frescoes. We also had a tour of the Vatican museums, and it was amazing to walk through those quiet halls with only our guide. From there we saw the inside of St. Peter Basilica. It seemed very crowed, but that was because the chairs were set up for the New Year events and there was very little walking space available around the edge. The visited the old forum, the Campidoglio, and Teatro Marcelo and then the Church of San Nicola in Carcere.
This 15th Century crucifix is in a side chapel of San Nicola in Carcere, and before this Crucifix on December 8, 1808, the newly ordained Canon Gaspar del Bufalo preached the initial sermon at the event that inaugurated the Pious Union of the Blood of Christ.
From there we went to lunch at a delightful place that had an open fire where the food was prepared with great delight. It being a cold day, we sat near the fire. After lunch we went to the Catacombs of St. Callixto. There we entered the catacombs with other English speaking groups and in the process discovered some friends from a former parish who were also on pilgrimage.
Afterward we had our driver drop us back at St. Peter Square. We had to go to the Bronze doors to secure our tickets for the New Years Eve Vespers and for the Mass on New Years Day. Then it was off to home for a little Pizza and then to bed. I felt like I was coming down with a cold. After the Christmas celebrations and then the travel and then the full experiences of these few days, I was feeling a bit run down.
Posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. at January 17, 2007 1:48 PM
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