The Rest of the Last Free Weekend

     Here I shall tell to ye the rest of my doings this past weekend. (Monday was a part of this weekend, by the way.)

     Saturday, my roommate and I went to Largo Argentina. Largo Argentina is a small group of ruins between Castel Sant'Angelo and the Pantheon where a lot of stray cats live. No, I'm not making this up. See for yourself:

 

 

 

 

     That afternoon, I went to Santa Maria in Trastevere, a church with some very cool gold-background mosaics.

 

Apse (dome behind the altar)

 

Facade of the church

     From thence I headed to San Pietro in Montorio, which is in the same part of Rome. However, I could not get into the church itself, which was annoying, because I have to learn about that church in order to complete some of my homework. At least I did get a very cool view from the hill it was on. I also found the only piece of funny graffiti I've ever seen. I think it's been here for a while, because I'm pretty sure I've seen someone else's picture of it.

     Sunday I rose later than I wanted to, heard there was a thunderstorm, and justified my going back to bed by telling myself that I did not want to walk to St. Peter's in the middle of a thunderstorm because that would be imprudent. Thus Sunday turned into a very lazy day indeed, and I did not go to Mass until 5:30 pm. I went for the first time to the church that is just down the block from our hotel, Santa Maria delle Gratzie. Italians are very unorganized and disunified. At almost any given point in Mass, there was one person standing, one person sitting, and sometimes one person kneeling. They can't make up their minds as a whole! I am not rebuking for the elderly people sitting while other people were standing. I am against perfectly healthy looking people under 60 sitting when they should be standing or kneeling, standing when they should be sitting or kneeling. The hymns had terrible melodies. They were strange, did not follow normal song procedure, and when the cantor sung them, it didn't even sound like normal Italian. It was unclear singing that echoed at lot. Bottom line: I am very glad that I decided almost immediately that St. Peter's was to be my parish, and not the church down the street. Yes, you have to get up earlier, walk farther, and wait in line to get into church, but it's so worth it.

     Sunday night, I ended up "circumnavigating" Vatican City without fully intending to. I was just walking around with some of the Rome group and chatting, and then it was like, "Let's go this way, I've never been this way. Ah, sure. Why not?" Then we saw that we were already at the back of St. Peter's, so we HAD to keep going all the way around so we could say that we walked around a country. They say it's a two mile walk. It took about an hour to an hour and a half. Didn't really keep track of the time.

     Monday morning, I had planned only to go to a “normal” Mass at St. Peter’s and then talk to Fr. Bergida (the priest who led us on Pilgrimage Week at the beginning of the semester and whom we see at least once a week). What actually happened was quite different, but really cool: We got in line to see if we could catch the Ukrainian Catholic Mass which was being celebrated for the Feast of St. Josephat, who is buried in St. Peter’s. St. Josephat was martyred sometime between 1500 and 1700 for trying to bring the Eastern Orthodox church back to the Pope. “He was called the ‘Thief of Souls,’ he was so successful,” said Fr. While in line, we met these Americans who wanted their picture taken with Fr. (not sure why, I mean, they were Catholics, so it’s not like they never see priests, but anyway).

     We only made the end… less than half of Mass. We got there sometime during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. This was the first non-Latin Rite Mass I’ve ever been to, so that was really exciting. I’ve been wanting to go to a Byzantine Rite Mass (not the same as Ukrainian Rite, but close, I’m sure) for a long, long time. The Mass was either in Greek or Ukrainian; I couldn’t tell. I want to say it was in both languages. It was celebrated by—unless we are gravely mistaken—the Metropolitan of the Rite, the bishop in the black and white vestment with the crown.

Picture from the Papal Mass in early October

 

     There was a lot of singing during Mass, both chanting and polyphony. The choir was a good choir, though small; I only wish I could have understood what they were singing. Receiving Communion was a very different experience. The Eastern Rites use leavened bread, not wafers, and one always receives Communion under both species, the Body and the Blood—at the same time. I couldn’t see whether the wine and water were poured into a ciborium, or the bread was put into a chalice; both species were in a cup-like vessel, and you were given Communion with a shallow spoon. No, you did NOT close your mouth on the spoon. You also didn’t say anything before you received, unlike the Latin Rite, where the priest says “The Body/Blood of Christ,” and we say “Amen.” Speaking of which, they pronounce it “Ameen.”  I learned that they really do bow and bless themselves a lot during Mass. I remember reading the rubric (right word??) for the Byzantine Liturgy at some point in high school, and I noticed a lot of symbols that indicated that the Sign of the Cross was to be made. I thought, “Man, that’s a lot of times. I doubt they really do it every time it says to.” Well, they do. They also bow when they do it, and they make it differently than we do. They touch their shoulders in the opposite order of the Latin Rite.
     After Mass, prayer in front of St. Josephat's tomb, and the chat with Fr., I had coffee at a new place which Fr. recommended. It was on the expensive side, though. That's one of the great things about All Brothers': they are the only coffee place that close to the Vatican that doesn't jack its prices way up. Most of the other places near the Vatican do.
     Last night was even MORE excitement: I got to hear the Westminster Cathedral and Pontifical Sistine Choirs live at St. Mary Major, free. It was part of a Vatican-sponsored festival. They were truly amazing. I was so happy to see all the little boys being normal little boys: talking nervously among themselves, squirming... I have disliked boys' choirs, but the voices last night were angelic, particularly this one boy who hit a very high note, held it, and was clear the entire time. That was during "Christus Vincit," arranged by James MacMillan, who is actually a modern composer. I tried to put the video directly into the post, but it was taking way too long. The song is longer than a normal song on the radio or a Sunday hymn would be, but I encourage you to listen. It's quite unique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqNVgHYZtIY 

Ceiling in St. Mary Major

Choirs :)

     So there we have my weekend! I got to do some things that I've been wanting to do for a while, and some things that I'd never thought about doing, but were amazing nonetheless.