October 19 , 2008
Rome-ing Around

By the time you read this, I should be safely back on American shores, but I’m writing this on Tuesday from Rome. We’ve only been here for three days yet I’m already overwhelmed. First, are hundreds of churches. Second, within each of the churches there are dozens of altars or other areas of interest (baptisteries, chapels, etc.) and most of the interiors are filled with statues and carvings – many of them HUGE – much larger than life-size. It seems that if one statue of a saint is good, then five or six others of that same saint is better!
The result is that after a while, its easy to walk by a spectacular Michaelangelo carving without even noticing. Nothing is quiet or plain or simple. What a contrast from the rustic hills and churches of Umbria where we spent last week on retreat!

Rome is filled with “layers” too – there are the ruins of ancient Rome, there are buildings that are hundreds of years old, places that were more recently created (and by recent, I mean before the United States of America existed)! Modern Rome is bustling and busy. It’s graffiti filled, garbage blows in the street, horns constantly honk and police and ambulance sirens compete with the bells that toll throughout the hours. All I want is some QUIET!!!

That’s not to say that we haven’t had our spiritual moments. We concelebrated mass in different special places – particularly of note was when we celebrated beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, right near the tomb of St. Peter. There were moments in the whirlwind of Rome when we paused to listen to beautiful choirs sing, their voices echoing through the cavernous churches.

Maybe one can get used to living in this kind of constant bombardment of the senses, but I’m not sure I could. In America there’s a different kind of assault – it comes from TV, radio, ipods, internet, video games, DVDs, etc. We’ve gotten quite used to living in our own kind of noise.
Either way, all this can obscure God. Shhhh…