A great day today!
Mass this morning in St. Peter's Basilica, in the Polish chapel (Cappella Polocca) under the main altar, in the grottoes of the Vatican. It was very neat to have our own mass there, with Father Parham presiding. He has been going through a series of consistent messages in his homilies during this trip, and since today was our last mass, he tied everything together very nicely! He has been talking about the 3 most important words in the scriptures: covenant, remembering, and returning.
Next we took a tour of the Vatican Museum. We walked for the longest time to get to the entrance and then stood in line for a long time, then 2-3 hour tour of the museum. We had a good 20 minutes of guided tour with explanations and plenty of time to look around in the Sistine Chapel. We were pooped, but we saw lots of wonderful things!
Afterward, we recuperated over lunch. I had gnocchi and Kathleen had fettucine with mushrooms. Yum!
Next, a taxi ride to St. John Lateran, the papal basilica prior to St. Peter's becoming the home of the pope. This church dates back to Constantine around 300 AD. It has been damaged many times over the subsequent years (fire, earthquake, etc.) but unlike many of the other churches we have seen, they kept to the original design and preserved the original church. Also saw the "sacred steps" across the street in another church. These were brought back by St. Helena from Jerusalem and are thought to be the steps that Jesus climbed toward Pontius Pilate.
A going away celebration dinner tonight, an early morning tomorrow, and then traveling home. See you soon!
- Jill
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