Day 6

Monday July 14th had a beautiful dawn.

It was a very full day. The day broke early and Matins and Lauds were chanted alone today. We were all off to different places for Mass. I had the outstanding honor of beginning the day with Mass for the Missionaries of Charity who serve the poor and the hungry who are near the Vatican. Mass was in English. The sisters were from India and from eastern Europe.

I thought this morning was part of God's divine sense of humor. So I am to preside at Eucharist and preach a short homily to Mother Teresa's sisters and the Lectionary gives me this as the Gospel text:

After Mass I headed over to St. Peters, right next door, and took some pictures in the quiet and empty basilica.

After a restful walk through the Cathedral, there were some pilgrims attending various Masses in the early morning and the place was very quiet, I headed over to this little coffee bar near the Jesuit generalate for some breakfast. On the way I noticed this little Romanesque church was open.

This Church is completely surrounded on three sides by this building. The Building is home to a few Vatican Dicasteries, Congregation of Saints, the Congregation for Legislative Texts, as well as home to a few cardinals. It is not a parish, but apparently it was given by John Paul II a to serve as an International Youth Center. It was very quiet while I was in Rome because all the Youth were in Australian for Word Youth Day, but today it was showing a little life and I got to go inside and look around. It is beautiful inside, and very peaceful.

After breakfast it was off to the Liturgical Candy stores:

Gammarelli is a famous store. They make the cassocks and the vestments for the Holy Father and they traditionally have the ready the three cassocks for a newly elected Pope. I purchased my cassock from them in 2001.

This store is is near the Sopra Minerva Basilica that is the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena. It is also very near the Pantheon. There is, alsong this street, many little shops that have priestly or liturgical items. There were some specific things I was looking for and I went to each store about two or three times. I found an ostensoria at Barbiconi that was reasonable, and there was another store that had a small stand for it.

I already had about four of my shirts from Barbiconi. They were purchased in 2001 and are beginning to show some signs of wear. Today I purchased three shirts, as well as an Alb, a surplice, cinctures, a few icon gifts, as wells as the ostensoria.

This all made for a very full morning. Also in the midst of this morning I was beginning to get some news from home. One parishioner in assisting the set up for one of the Masses inadvertently had knocked over the paschal candle. The Candle sits on the top step next to the Font, and fell toward the congregation, down three steps to the floor. The Candle shattered into a thousand pieces, the solid brass follower had a severe dent, the bobeche was folded in half, and the candle socket was broken cleanly from the stand. It is pretty expensive to replace a custom candle, but replacing the brass parts was very expensive. It was probably providential that I was in Rome.

We went to lunch at Ristorante Polese, a place near Chiesa Nuovo I had been to before. and then head home for a little nap. In the afternoon we were to go to St. Paul Outside the Walls for a little pilgrimage, and I will share pictures of that in the next post.

After the pilgrimage we came home for a Pot Roast dinner, and then we all retire for the night.