A week of classes II

As you can see we didn't study so hard that we couldn't go anywhere.  Here are some more photos from Monticassino.

 This picture looks odd but it is the place that Benedict fell.  The story says that as his right elbow hit the stone it softened so that he wouldn't break his arm which was still needed to write his "Rule."  Fr. Jim Wallick from Eastern Canada has his arm in the spot this happened.

 This is the War Cemetery where more than 1000 Polish soldiers are buried, who lost their life in the battle preceding liberation of the Montecassino Abbey, which took place on May 18, 1944.

                              Abbey vineyards.

                         The view from the Abbey

 

This is the mountain on which the Abbey sits.  If you do your close-up magic you can see it on the very top of the highest part of the mountain.

 Our next stop was Casamari, an abbey that was built by the Benedictines almost 1000 years ago.  It was eventually taken over by the Cistercians.  We looked into the church but did not enter because there was a funeral going on.  By the way this field trip happened on Saturday, 9/24, which was before the week of classes started.

 It has a much plainer design and very little artwork.

 These stained glass windows were in the assembly room where the monks held court with each other.

They did have a small museum to show some of the history of the area, like the fact that this place is named after a Roman leader that lost politically.  We are all getting the explanation over our earphones.  It was too early to listen to the Husker game.

This picture has nothing to do with the Abbeys.  It is in St. Mary Major and is where Cardinal Law will be buried.  You see we will probably not have an audience with the Pope so we had Mass at St. Mary Major with the Cardinal instead.  I have a picture of all of us with him that you have to wait and see when I get back.

 These are views from the top of the North American College building.  You can see everybody's house from the top of the sixth floor.

 This is their astroturf sports field.  It is good for soccer, football, softball and has a jogging track that I run around once in a while.  At the far end there are lighted tennis courts on the other side of the retaining wall.  I haven't used them yet, but hope to soon.

The building in this picture is Casa O'Toole where my sabbatical group stays.  You can see the top to floors in this picture.  If you use magnifying magic and look just to the left of the middle, large shuttered window facing right you will see a balcony railing.  If I were not on the NAC building taking this picture I would probably be on that balcony reading while overlooking St. Peter's dome.

 On Monday, 9/26, we did another field trip.  This time it was to St. Paul Outside the Walls.  You can look on the Vatican.va web-site for the virtual tour of this place so I will not have a lot of pictures here.   But above you have St. Benedict again.  He gets around.  Below you have St. John the Baptist waving to try and get our group into one place.  I really thought I heard him say, "Over here guys."

 We had Mass in the St. Stephen the First Martyr chapel.  After all that was where we first heard about Saul, not Paul yet.

 Above is St. Paul outside the front of the Basilica.  Below are the front doors.

 Inside are the pictures of all the popes.   The current one is always lit.  The last time I was here Pope John Paul II was lit.

 Below is probably the world's largest Easter Candle stand.  It is really hard on altar servers, about 15 feet high without a candle.

Below is the bell tower that is in back of St. Paul's that the rest of my group missed because they come to the front end and never walked around to the back of the church.

Below are all pictures of the Basilica of Saint Sabina

 Below are pictures of the Basilica of Saint Alessio at Aventino

 The next ones are St. Jerome Emiliani

 The next ones are the Church of St. Anselm

These next two are dark but they are picturing a relic of St. Valentine.

 The next four include information about St. Mary in Cosmedin, a little Basilica near the Colosseum.

 This next one is the Basilica of Anastasia

 On display are some great art rendering of Pope John Paul II.

The next ones are of St. George

 This is hard to read but it says this has the cranium of St. George in Velabro.

 Above and below are pictures of the outside of St. Theodore Church which was also an embassy so those are usually locked.

 Above and below are two churches that were abandoned, which seems to be unusual in Rome.

 This next one is St. Mary, Our Lady of Consolation

 This was in a dark spot in the church but shows the Seven Swords that pierced Mary's Heart.

Behold the Man

                                      These next ones are St. Mary in Traspontina

St. Albert the Carmelite

St. Barbara

          The church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia

After this trip I spent four days trying to figure out the Theology of a German Theologian named Fr. John Fuellenbach.  Mostly he gave me high blood pressure.  He didn't like all that negative stuff in the bible, or that judgment stuff.  He just wanted good old sweet Jesus and His unconditional love.  He told us he actually believed in Hell but thought it was just a scare tactic used by Jesus unnecessarily.  Certainly no one would end up there and if they did it would only be for a brief time.  I really hope I misunderstood him.  My homework was to read his notes and then try to read his book.  I read the notes but finished Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth II, and The Story of a Soul by St. Theresa of Lisieux instead.