Italy Pilgrimage: Rome (Part 2)
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The Italy Pilgrimage is coming to a close. Tomorrow (Thursday) we depart for our flights home. We have experienced many blessings along this journey that have been transformative. The bookends of blessings on this pilgrimage have been encountering Pope Francis. We had the unexpected opportunity to see Pope Francis up close in Florence on our first day in Italy (read more about that here). Today we had the opportunity to attend the Pope's Wednesday General Audience. We departed early to try to get good seats in St. Peter's Square and had success as we were located along one of the barricades the Pope would pass by in the Pope Mobile. The anticipation was great as we waited for Pope Francis to appear.
The experience of being in St. Peter's Square with Catholics from all over the world made visible the universal nature of our Church.
Here we all came to encounter and hear from the Vicar of Christ!
Eventually, Pope Francis emerged in the Pope Mob
ile. He rode through the crowd, kissing many babies along the way, and eventually came to our side of the square. After the excitement of seeing the Pope pass closely by, our anticipation died down as he continued around the square.
But then the excitement escalated when we realized the Pope Mobile was turning the corner back toward us. To our surprise, the Pope did a second pass so we got to see him up close in the Pope Mobile again! This was a bonus blessing!
The general audience then continued as usual. The Pope gave an inpiring and passionate message talking about the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, which begins on December 8th. In typical Francis style, he often gravitated away from his written address and ad-libbed. He referred to the Jubilee Door (the one at St. Peter's is pictured here) and spoke of the door as an image of how we need to let the mercy of God into our lives and then go out to share it with others. Here's a quote: “Let us take advantage of this moment that is coming and cross the threshold of this mercy of God who never tires of forgiving, who never tires of waiting for us, who looks upon us and is always by our side. Courage! Let’s enter through this door.” You can see a video clip of the General Audience with more of his address by clicking here. Attending the Papal audience was a beautiful grace on our last day in Italy.
In the afternoon today, we toured the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. Pictured below are some pictures of St. Peter's. All this provided a nice capstone to an exciting pilgrimage. Prayers would be appreciated as we make the retur n trip home tomorrow. Blessings from Rome!
