Day Ten - Rome

Today, our last full day in Rome, has definitely been the most relaxed of our tour days - although filled with visits to several important churches. Our departure time was the latest of the entire trip - we didn't leave the hotel until 9:30 this morning! - although some people took the opportunity of a later group start to go off on their own to some holy sites in the early morning. We began our group tour by visiting the Basilica of St. Clement, one of the best places in Rome to see the history of the city and church architecture in one place. The current basilica, built in the 12th century, was constructed on top of a 4th century basilica, which was constructed on top of a series of 1st century Roman houses. Excavations over the past 100 years allow you to tour all three levels, giving you a great picture of how the city of Rome and church architecture has developed. We then traveled to the Scala Santa, or Holy Stairs, a church which contains the staircase from Pilate's house in Jerusalem that Constantine's mother, Helena, brought to Rome. These were the very stairs that Jesus walked up on his way to be judged by Pilate. The stone stairs are now covered with wood, and pilgrims are only allowed to climb them on their knees. Several of our pilgrims did this, while others walked up a parallel staircase while praying.

The Scala Santa is right next to the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Cathedral Church of Rome and the mother church of the entire world. As with yesterday, we arrived at St. John Lateran while a large group of pilgrims was preparing to celebrate Mass at the main altar, so we visited the Basilica as best we could, without being able to go to the central part of the church. After a short lunch break - for most of us, pizza and gelato - we visited the Church of St. Alphonsus, where the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is kept above the main altar. We will have Mass here tomorrow, on the actual feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, but we don't have a lot of extra time before we will have to head to the airport, so we scheduled a more extended visit today. We stopped to pray as a group in front of the icon, praying especially for the members of OLPH parish in New Albany. On our way out of the church, I noticed a mosaic in a side chapel of an American saint - unusual for Rome! He is St. John Neumann, bishop of Philadelphia in the 1840s and father of Catholic education in the US. He was a member of the Redemptorist religious order, founded by St. Alphonsus Ligouri, and thus it is appropriate that his image be in the church run by his order. We then visited the fourth and final of the Four Major Basilicas of Rome - St. Mary Major. The oldest and largest church in Rome dedicated to Mary, this beautiful basilica has some ancient mosaics and the ceiling is covered with gold that is believed to be the first gold brought by Christopher Columbus from the New World. Here, we celebrated our daily Mass in a side chapel, and then we returned to the hotel for a siesta time before dinner. A few of us went back into the city during the siesta time to visit some places again or do some shopping. We then gathered at the hotel for our final dinner in Rome, and of course a mandatory walk to find some gelato after dinner. Tomorrow morning, we will have Mass at the Church of St. Alphonsus and then fly to Athens for the final two days of our trip.

We have heard from some family members of pilgrims that there was a heavy rainstorm in southern Indiana this morning, and we hope everyone is well. Here, we have yet to see a single raindrop since we arrived in Europe - although there are some scattered storms forecasted for tomorrow morning. We have enjoyed the weather here in Rome - sunny skies with high temperatures around 80 each day - and we're not especially looking forward to returning to Greece, where the temperatures are about 10 degrees warmer. I think everyone in the group is ready to make a return trip to Rome - and we haven't even left yet! Pentecost Tours and our on-site tour escort, Mary, have made this a wonderful, memorable, and spiritually uplifting trip in many ways, and we can't wait to share our experiences (and pictures!) when we return to the States. But first ... back to Greece.