Papal Audience

My wife and I just returned from a pilgrimage to Italy that was called The Shrines of Italy Tour. We flew to Zurich and then to Venice where we spent the next 11 days following our tour guide. We visited several well known cities and spent our free day in Pompeii. In Venice much of the walking was done on raised platforms, called tables, because of the especially high tides and flooding in the streets and shops. People in rubber boots were checking in and out of hotels, shopping in stores, and going about their daily lives with 8 - 12 inches of water on the floor. It made sight-seeing a bit difficult, but we had a great time anyway. In Venice we walked and shopped along the flooded streets and visited the Doge museum, including walking across the Bridge of Sighs. We also did the obligatory gondola ride through the canals one evening, complete with Champaign, a musician, and a singer with a beautiful voice. In Florence we walked across the Ponte Vecchio bridge, shopped along the streets, and visited the Doge and Piti Palace museums. In Assisi we simply walked and shopped, and ate in a small restaurant, not wanting to leave until after dark. In Rome we visited the Vatican Museum, shopped along the streets of the Vatican, and sat and ate at the small sidewalk tables of tiny restaurants. We also ate dinner one night, and listened to traditional Italian singers, in a 2000 year old Roman Bath house.

 

During our trip we were able to celebrate Daily Mass in some of the most beautiful churches we’ve ever seen. In Venice we celebrated in the crypts below San Marcos where Saint Mark is buried, and in Santa Lucia, where Saint Lucy can be found in a glass coffin. On our way to Florence we celebrated in La Basilica del Santo in Padua, and then again early the next morning in Santa Maria Novella, with frescos depicting scenes from the life of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In Assisi we visited both the upper and lower churches of the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, where Saint Francis is buried with a few of his followers, and we celebrated in a side chapel at the Basilica di Santa Chaira, that contains the remains of Saint Clare of Assisi. In Rome we celebrated in a side chapel in the Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura (Saint Paul’s Outside the Wall), where Saint Paul is buried, and in the Lithuanian Chapel below the Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano (Saint Peters Basilica).

 

For me however, the highlight of the trip was attending the Papal Audience this morning, in the square at Saint Peter’s. There is something very comforting about being in a city where everyone around you is Catholic, knowing that everyone shares your faith and beliefs, and who also believe that faith itself is important. During the audience I was moved by the thousands of people sitting and standing in the square, waving small flags and listening to every word. It seemed to me that there were people from every nation, representing faith in all its variations, where I felt very connected to the community of saints throughout the world. Prior to the readings Pope Benedict XVI made his way through the crowds in his little white car and I found myself within about 10 feet of His Holiness.

 

He continued his series of teachings on faith by observing that although secularism is on the rise, everyone has a desire for God, and this can be seen in the experience of love. “Even in today’s secularized society, this desire for God continues to make itself felt, above all in the experience of love”, he said. The Pope quoted St. Augustine’s famous words about hearts remaining restless until they rest in God, and he noted that love is the way to begin satisfying that longing, which finds its fulfillment in faith in God. Love by its very nature means encountering others, noting that this can be another person or in God himself. The essence of love is “seeking the good of the other,” and by loving we “find ourselves by giving ourselves away.” Pope Benedict explained that when people go beyond themselves it nurtures their built-in sense of a greater reality beyond them, even beyond fellow human beings. “Thanks to this innate religious sense, we can open our hearts to the gift of faith which draws us ever closer to God, the source of all good and the fulfillment of our deepest desire”. Noting that this is the Year of Faith, he invited Catholics to pray for all sincere seekers of the truth, “that they may come to know the joy and freedom born of faith.”

 

The Pope delivered a greeting in Arabic for the first time as part of an effort to reach out to Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians in the Middle East. After acknowledging groups of pilgrims from different countries in their native tongues, including Saint Clare's from the Diocese of San Jose, the Pope sung the Our Father in Latin. We've each been strengthened and encouraged to return to our respective countries with a renewed mission to carry out God’s plan in our lives, as individuals and as part of His Church. Of course my new rosary was in my hands during the general blessing, which he extended to our family and friends back home.