so much too tell......sooooootired.....

Just got home from our not-Siena-but- Orvieto - Bolsena-Orvieto - Viterbo -run! I have tons to tell you but I am too tired to think straight!
Tomorrow fer sure.....zzzzzzz

Don't ride the Metro when it rains!

     It's pouring down rain and the wind is blowing umbrellas inside out. We have to meet our friend Rob across town to pick up our rent-a-car for our little jaunt over the All Saint's Day holiday. We get on the Metro.....just barely.....the door is gliding over Pat's backside as it closes. I have never been packed  in with that much humanity in my life!!!  I was poked prodded and leaned against by male and female and I know I violated at least 2 people with my cane!!! It was impossible to fall down because you were held upright by bodies!!
     Any way, we meet Rob, walk 6 blocks in the pouring rain to the  car rental place.....as I leave the rental place (which had put cardboard outside for foot wiping) I slipped on said cardboard, fell on my @$$, and now not only my sleeves and feet are soaking wet, but my backside is SOAKED......and I am on my way to Mass and dinner at the Lay Center......can you say "miserable"?  Mass was in Italian (frustrating), the gloria and the closing were in Latin but we sang Keil's Psalm 24 and Haas' Blest Are They - at least those were in English!
     So we finally get our car - a Mercedes Benz!!!!!!! We were so psyched to be going to Siena, Orvieto and Bolsena in the comfort of a MERCEDES!!!!  I immediately began singing "O Lord, woncha buy me a Mercedes Benz" and it is still running through my head!
     Rob picks us up tomorrow at 10 and we are off......in a car....not a bus....not the Metro......but a car!!!!
Wooo hooo!!
More later from Siena!

Affirmation Sunday!

     There are ALL KINDS of awe-filled experiences to have in Rome....in Fiorenza.....in Assisi......in Italy, period. This morning, we experienced, yet again, the beauties of the liturgy at Caravita. One of the 3 priests who hold the community together, Fr. Gerry, is a Jesuit and a WONDERFUL, intelligent and Spirit-filled preacher and he shed light on the story of Bartimaeous that I had not seen before! Pat felt the same way - we were entranced and we discussed it all through lunch! (Mary Ann, we went to the same place we took you and Richard)
     Then another of the priests, Fr. Keith, (who is a recognized and published expert on the liturgy) wanted to know if I could possibly extend my stay in Rome for Advent and Christmas. I was flattered beyond words, but I told him that I missed my community back home, my subs are probably tired by now.....and my pastor would kill me!! But it felt oh, so good and affirmed to be asked!!!

  Tonight, we are going to the church around the corner (there is a church around every corner from us!!!) for a Mozart concert!! I love Mozart!!

Santa Lucia

   Don't ask me why this text is green and underlined - it just happened when I uploaded this photo of Santa Lucia.
    I show her image (found in a museum in Assisi) because of blind Bartimaeous, and because she is the patron saint of eyesight and I pray for my mom to be able to hold on to what little sight she has, through the intercession of Santa Lucia!
Ciao

My patron!

     Today, we set out to see the church of S. Caecelia, the patron saint of music and musicians - 2 buses and a several block walk later, we came to it! It is a lovely church with a court yard and a piazza.

         In front of the sanctuary is a statue of the dead Caecelia as they found her incorrupt body. Her head had been partially hacked off with an axe and she died of her wounds - this is how she was found, wrapped completely in cloth.

    She is the patron of music because they first tried to kill her by locking her up with no food or water, but she sang and sang and was not starved to death, so they let her out eventually and killed her with an axe. I thought this particularly appropriate, as I know several pastoral musicians who have gotten the same treatment!!! ;-\

This is the gorgeous baldechino and apse mosaic in the sanctuary

     Under the church is the excavation of S. Caecelia's home - I took a ton of photos of the rooms and the structures and the inscriptions, but I wanted to show a portion of the this beautiful mosaic floor which has survived for centuries

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      A bit further on in the excavation is a chapel with some absolutely beautiful mosaics - this photo could be brighter, but this is all I got!

      After this, we had 2nd breakfast (we are turning into Hobbits!) at a little cafe and set off to get the bus. Littel did we know tha we would be on the bus for a complete tour of Trastevere (the other side of the Tiber from where we live!) We were on that bus for at least an hour and the scenery was no hat great. Unfortunately, the walls and buildings are covered with grafitti.....and not even very good grafitti!!! It was depressing. But we finally got back to Piazza Venezia and got our bus for home!
     I am hoping to put the rest of my photos on my Picasa site and I will let you know if that happens!!
Ciao adesso!!

Assisi / the day after....

We checked out of our hotel and left for the train station. While hunting for .....you guessed it.....the bathroom, I ran into two ladies. One had a "Maryland" sticker on her suitcase, so I asked about it. She and her companion (Ann and Sharon) are both from Maryland!!! Ann lives in Hillendale, which is about a mile from the house where my mom is and where I grew up! What a freakin' small world!!
     The train ride home was fine ( meaning we got on the right train and didn't end up in Sorrento!!)
We spent the rest of the day recovering......in separate rooms.....needed alone time - we had been together 24 /7 for the better part of four days!!!  LOL!
     This morning we attended a talk given by a perfectly charming Irish priest whose 1st name is Michael, but who spells it and pronounces it in an odd way! After the talk, we had liturgy and I had planned it and served as cantor! It is a wonderful feeling to be able to do this in a foreign setting. The clergy that I have worked with here ( both at Caravita and at the Lay Center) "get it"!!!! They are good and holy men who spread the word of God with the gifts of the Spirit given at the Second Vatican Council!!! Yes, there are the cassock and lace crew who parade around the streets with their entourages, and there are the Tridentine adherents who don't care whether anyone is there or not, but there are also wonderful priests here, filled with humility, filled with the Spirit and filled with the desire to form community in faith! I am blest by their presence!
    In an hour or so, we will be off to the market as my cupboard is bare and I need DIET COKE and toilet paper - 2 staples of life - oh, and pastry.....can't be without pastry!!  Lol!!

Assisi - part 2

    Yesterday, after enjoying our complimentary breakfast, we caught the bus at 9 for town and the Papal Basilica of S. Francesco! The bus drops you off in the piazza and the lower basilica and crypt is.....wait for it.....up a hill!!!

      So I got a Diet Coke and a taxi (2 things which make me very happy!)and up we went!
      The lower church is awe-filled and art-filled, most notably being the Cimabue painting from which the famous St. Francis is excerpted. I was trying to elude the guard which is why the photo is so blurry - bad, bad Linda!

Cimabue's Virgin with Angels and St. Francis

     We heard Mass going on and it was being celebrated in a chapel by a Chinese priest with a Chinese congregation. It was beautifully done - the priest was a wonderful singer (the congregation, not so much) and he chanted all the prayers and dialogues.

     Then we went to the chapel which houses the altar over the tomb of Francis - a very moving experience.
   Down another staircase, was the actual tomb and a small room of relics of the saint. The tomb itself just looked like a concrete box but His poor little patched robe was so compelling, I couldn't take my eyes off it! Of course, it was encased in glass so the photo is not clear, but you can see the patches- so many that you can hardly tell what the original fabric was..

    Then we went to the upper church......yes, more steps - OY! I was not going to chance photos of the Glorious Giottos, considering the degree of disintegration some of them have suffered. Suffice it to say, they were glorious!!
    We strolled the (insanely hilly) streets of Assisi, had lunch and shopped and visited 2 museums; one was a museum of the missionary efforts of the Umbrian Franciscans in the rainforests of Brazil.

Note the instruments for Mass in the rainforest!

and the other was a state/town museum which looked like it contained the art that was too disintegrated or too poor in quality to make it into the churches. Still there were some lovely things to see

St Francis and the Child Jesus - Mary had disintegrated...

Our Lady of Mercy

     At 4 PM, we were exhausted, so we got a cab DOWN to the piazza where we could catch the bus - we rested and had dinner in the hotel (a very fine dinner of pesto stuffed chicken with carrots and asparagus and oven roasted garlic and rosemary potatoes - major YUM!!!)
S-L-E-E-P!!

Assisi - part 1 1/2

    Ok, so I tried yesterday, but the wifi was playing all manner of nasty tricks and I lost a whole bunch of stuff.
      S. Maria degli Angeli and the Portiuncula

   It really is beyond words to think that you are standing in places and touching things that Francis did! .....another view of the Portiuncula

door of the portiuncula with tourists

the backdrop over the altar in the portiuncula

This is a portion of the cord that Francis used to keep his robe tied.

This is a statue on the way to the rose garden - the dove is alive!!

     The whole experience is awe-filled! And I took these photos at risk of expulsion from the church, as there were no photos allowed
 But wait...... there's more!!!
      Francis asked for the favor that anyone visiting the portiuncula should have all sins and purgatorial time removed, (ie. plenary indulgence) so Pat and I are golden! I told him we should step out in front of a bus, because we would go straight to heaven! :-)

But wait......still more.....
That night (after a nap!!) we took the bus to Assisi and roamed around for a few hours. I was NOT up to climbing the hill/stairs (ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING in Umbria is up a hill or up stairs or down a hill or down stairs......even the bathrooms!!!!!!!) to S. Francesco's church, but we went into a little

church on only a SMALL hill called S. Pietro d'Assisi.There we saw a most charming  creche/town of Bethlehem, a tradition begun by St. Francis.

portion of the precepio

I love the little cloud of putti over the stable

 Then we came home and wrestled with the computer until bed!