My Easter Tuesday Journey

Easter Tuesday I took the opportunity to get out of the house and replenish the Sacred Oils for the house.  You'll remember that on Holy Thursday morning, Pope Francis blessed the Oils (the Oil of Catechumen, the Oil of the Sick, and the Sacred Chrism) that will be used in the celebration of the Sacraments in the Diocese of Rome throughout the coming year.

Cardinal O'Brien had asked me to replenish our oil stocks (and I needed to replenish my own Oil of the Sick).  Since the Lateran Basilica is the Cathedral of the City of Rome (not St. Peter's as many mistakenly believe), I needed to get to the Cathedral of the city to get the new supply of oils.  SO... 4:30pm on Easter Tuesday I headed out toward the Lateran - a 5 kilometer walk.  No problem... needed some exercise!

Someone here shared with me a phone app that has maps without needing to be connected to the internet to work - don't as me how it works, but it does.  So, trying to retrace my steps from my journey to the Colosseum on Friday night, I used the app as little as possible and, after a long walk, arrived at the Basilica of St. John at the Lateran.

As has pretty much become the "new norm" around here - the Basilica is surrounded by barricades requiring everyone to pass through metal detectors before entering the church.  As I said before, it's OK with me - I'm happy that the police of the City of Rome (who man the security stations) are keeping us safe.

I walked into the Basilica and found the "man with the golden keys on his lapel" who would be able to help me refill the oil stocks.  He told me to wait a minute - while he went to get the key to the side altar where the oils are kept.  When he returned, we entered the side chapel and he took the stock from me and, cleaning each one out, put in new cotton and refilled them each with the newly blessed Sacred Oil.  (For those who don't know - putting cotton in the bottom of each oil stock is the way that we keep the oil from spilling everywhere.)

When he was finished I took some time in the Basilica to walk around and to say Evening Prayer.  Here are a bunch of photos I took in the Basilica.

From ETWN.com - the Churches of Rome: "Beneath the triumphal arch in the middle of the transept we admire the beautiful Gothic papal altar, which contains a wooden altar where the earliest Popes, from St. Peter to St. Sylvester, supposedly celebrated Mass, and silver busts with remains of the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul."  Inside the altar itself is said to be a piece of a wooden table that St. Peter used to celebrate Mass during his time in Rome.

On the right is the CATHEDRA - or bishop's chair - for the Pope as the Bishop of Rome.  

The importance of the Eucharist is clearly evident by the altar of the Blessed Sacrament, which is located towards the extreme left of the crossing. It was built by Pope Clement VIII in honor of the Jubilee Year of 1600, using four colossal columns of golden bronze which measure seven meters high.  (I managed to cut them off in the photo - you can only see the very edge of two of them on the left - but the photo on the right shows them from a distance.)  The columns are dated back to the Roman era and they are the only visible remains left of Constantine’s Basilica. Underneath the baldachin, there is a table which (according to a beautiful legend) was used for the celebration of the Lord’s Last Supper.  You can see the image of the Last Supper - behind it is the wood of the table.

 The Holy Door at St. John Lateran (above)

Then I started my journey back home.  First, though - since I was right there - I decided to go across the street to the Holy Stairs.  Tradition says that these are the very stairs that Jesus used to walk up to Pilate in the Praetorium.  Get more information about them here.  You can see that, even here, there are military security guards stationed.  They are working very hard to keep everyone safe.

I was determined that I was not going to use the map-app - I need to learn the city - so I started back by a different route hoping to find the way toward St. Peter's. I got back to the Colosseum and, rather than going around it and continuing on, I headed up the hill (toward, I thought, the church of St. Peter in Chains - which I didn't ever find - although my instinct was right).  Instead I eventually found myself  on top of a hill - giving me a BEAUTIFUL view of St. Peter's Basilica - a welcome sight, since it gave me the direction I needed to go.

Turns out that the building to my right (which I didn't photograph) is the residence for the President of Italy.  I found a set of stairs and walked down - headed the general direction of St. Peter's when, much to my surprise, I found myself here... a LONG way off from where I had planned to be...

The journey continued and I found myself here... again - you figure out what ancient Roman building this is - today it is lesser known name as the Church of All Saints.

From here I had a very good idea of the route back home... so started down those ancient, winding streets of Rome.  Fortunately I found myself here - the place that some of the seminarians consider the BEST gelato in town.  Well, being Easter week and after such a long walk, I had to indulge.  Many of you know how I like chocolate...