Last days

Well I'm in the home straight now and while I have had a wonderful time, I think I am ready to come home.
Last time I wrote we were getting ready to visit the Vatican museum. The night before we went I did a presentation on the Sistine Chapel. This is one place that gives so much more if you know what then plan is and how the different pictures play off each other. One good place to learn is the Vatican Museum website - regarded as one of the best web sites in the world. Though I had prepared material last year and was able to use it, I ended up taking the group through this website and supplementing the information. They found this helpful for the next day's visit.
We arrived early - about 1 1/2 hours before it opened. Even though we didn't have booked tickets, we got in only a little behind the groups that had paid extra to book. Even then they had to wait in line for quite some time. One piece of advice I gave was that if you wanted to see the Sistine Chapel well go directly there and try to see the other things later. The ones in our ggroup that followed this advice found themselves in the chapel with about 20 people. Those who didn't found themselves in pandemonium. Cattle act better than the crowds who were there. They took no notice of the requests for quiet and not to take photos and I really wonder why they were there. For one thing, the photos they took were useless, one was much better off getting postcards. I honestly think if you want to see the chapel, go in winter.
For myself, I wanted to see the Modern art Collection and was delighted with what was on display. Last year, little was on view, I presume because of renovations. They seem to be renovating something somewhere here all the time. But I suppose that is the nature of life in a building over 4 centuries old. One thing that amazes me with the renovation is how discretely the necessary additions of the the modern world - electricity, smoke alarms, security devices - are worked into the fabric of the buildings.
But this year with one of the sisters, Teresa Jackson, I slowly went through the collection. Lots of stuff, good stuff was on display and it was a pleasure to have someone to share it with. As it turned out a number of our group were interested in that display. It was largely the legacy of Pope Paul VI and it is a wonderful selection of the best of 20th century artists. There is a bronze casting of Vat II that fills a room and which delighted all of our group that took time to wander around the walls, looking at all the groups of cast people.
In the painting section of the gallery, I was taken, last year, with a painting of St Matthew writing the Gospel and was pleased that this year there were a number of posters etc available of this painting...and that a number of our group enjoyed this painting as well.
The day after we went to Monte Cassino, the place were St Benedict founded a monastery and were he and his sister, Scholastica are buried. It is a wonderful sight and it is quite something to go up the mountian,back and forth across curves and 7 switchbacks. The monastery is the property of the Italian Government, like most houses of religious in Italy. Even though 20 monks live there it is largely a 'historical monument'. For Italians, visiting historical monuments is the stuff of holidays and while we were there a number of groups went through. But surprisingly to us, when Marcia was negiogiating the parking arrangements for the bus, the officials could hardly believe that we wanted to spend three hours there! We had a tour, were given time to pray in the room that Benedict wrote his Rule, pray in the Church and crypt and then spent time going through the excellent musuem. It is very well done with an amazing number of pieces - vestments, manuscripts, etc. I do wonder though if someone ever said to the sacristan or the abbots - "I think we have enough jewelled chalices." There are some many and just how many do you need.
After Monte Cassino, one of the highlights of the program for the landlocked Americans - the seaside near Sperlonga! This year our bus driver took us to a much better beach than last year - a long free beach, where people could change easily and get drinks without having to climb over 150 steps.Once again it was like taking toddlers to the beach they had so much fun. I tried sand sculpture for the first time, making a dolphin and a starfish and a little fish and I protected this from the traders who push there carts of goods up and down the beach constantly, but then one of our group, Ann, walked right into it and gave the dolphin a lobotomony - so no picture for the blog. The bus driver we had this day and the week before was so pleasant, we are going to request him for our trips next year.
On Friday I did later Monastic Women and that went well. Once again I was grateful for the teaching of Nola Smith. Even though I had a lot of material, I felt that I was in control of it and was able to get through most of it, on time....well only five mintues over time.
Since then we have been having reflections days bring together the threads of the program. We had to change the timetable as the Italian transport had a strike of part of the train system - ON A SUNDAY. Whoever has a strike on a Sunday and then only part of the system.
The G8 meeting was held here recently and it was quite a difference to when George Bush was in town. The securuty doesn't seem to have stopped the city to quite the extent that Bush's visit did. Mind you, we don't really seem to be following the news that much - but then when three helicoptors went over during Vespers last Friday, the Americans did know that that was Obama and his family flying out.
This coming week will be busy, the troops leave on Tuesday, we have much to pack and a report to write. I am really looking forward to having time with Leo and Cathy's family in Perth. I'll be there just under a week and then home, home to space, sea and the glories of Central QLD. It is good have come here and it will be good to go home.

Oh, O, Orvieto

What a wonderful few days! Marcia and I went to Orvieto for a three day weekend. Orvieto is a hill city with rampart built on the cliff faces all the way. While many of the buildings within look medieval when viewed closely we could see that they had been mostly renovated to modern standards of comfort. For most of the time there we visited the venues associated with the Cathedral, the Brizio Chapel, totally decorated with frescoes, the Papal palace, now an art gallery, the Emilio Greco exhibition and the San Agostino church – a now disused church in which there is a sculpture exhibition – all on the one ticket of 5 euros. An bargain. The rest of the time we mostly viewed the Cathedral – one of the best in Europe, or wandered the city itself.
The first amazing thing was that I got up the ‘funicolare’ – the vertical railway- without needing a valium milkshake. The memory of going on the one at the Blue Mountains when I was a small child still rates as one of my nightmares. But I was able to go up and down even taking pictures

– for your benefit of course – what I will do for those I love.
The next was the cathedral itself with its striped brick (which I first thought ugly and then found works to lighten the building inside) and colourful facade totally covered with mosaics. Inside the art is mostly devoid of baroque as is most of the city. The city’s art work rarely went beyond the Medieval and Renaissance. I found this such a relief.
The next is the size of the city – one could walk at a brisk pace from end to end in about twenty minutes. But of course we never went briskly, there was so much to see that was so different to our home experience – the medieval town, the ceramics, the plazas and the churches.
On the first night, we went to the ramparts for our tea – saving our pennies, we had bread, cheese, olives, cheap local wine (very good) and couldn’t have feasted better. In this view, we watched the setting sun.
In this view we watched the rising of the almost full moon amongst clouds set red by the sun.
And in between we saw this view glow golden green. (I didn’t take photos at the time as I though they wouldn’t come out.)
And we talked and talked. Just before 10pm the lights in the small church nearby went on and so as we passed we looked in. Saturday Evening Mass for families! No wonder there were so few in the Cathedral the next day.
On the next day we did the first three of the venues on the Cathedral ticket but the best came on the last day. Down at the end of town, tucked away at the end of a recommissioned church was the most wonderful Annunciation scene. Two sculptures by Francesco Mochi of Mary and the Angel. The pictures on this internet site do not do them justice of course.http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/mochi/index.html

Mary is a strong young woman, rising from a chair. Her body is moving forward into the decision she has to make, while her face fully shows all the disturbance the Gospel speaks of. In contrast, Gabriel is full of energy and movement and his face is utterly determined, consumed by his mission. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/mochi/index.htmlMarcia reckons they are as good as David. How theses sculptures can be so little known mystifies me. But it was to our advantage. We could walk all around and up close with hardly anyone else there. For your information, Mochi did the statue of St Veronica in St Peter’s Basilica.

There was more, much more to see in Orvieto. But less is more. We came away utterly happy with what we had seen. I do hope to go back, that Annunciation scene is drawing me!

Subiaco

On Thursday we went to Subicao for a day's reflection. This is the area to which St Benedict fled as a young man and lived as a hermit in a cave for three years. It is a beautiful area, heavily wooded with steep mountainsides. The monastery built around his cave is literally built onto the cliff face. The weather was glorious this year and as we went up the path, through the trees, the singing birds, the gentle breezes, we thought we were in for a quiet day......

Alas, maintanence even needs to be done in 'heaven on earth'. These men had abseiled down the cliff and were jackhammering into the rock face ini order to shore up the foundations. They must have been enormously strong and with no fear of heights. You don't want to know what wasn't below them. The jackahmmered for 3&1/2 hours, Most of us went off and found a quiet place nearby. They did stop for siesta so some of us had a few hours quiet in the monastery around the cave. Then we went down the hill.

At the lower monastery we had a look at the 'book' display. Subiaco had the first printing press in Italy. As well as that they had an extraordinary number of ancient books and manuscripts. Their oldest piece is about second century. An eldery monk could see were interested and he bought out this 10C copy of the Rule of Benedict that came from France. Underneath in that glass case are sheets from the first printed book in Italy. Converstaion with him was difficult as we had no common language but we found a way. A Ugandan sister who we had brought with us, knew French as did he. So we conversed through her. But it does say something about the education systems of Aust and the US that we, the highly educated group had no-one who could speak either Italian or French.

In this display area was an old olice press. This is huge!

We then had a tour through the lower monastery and came home through a great storm. It seems that that day the Abruzzi region had another earthquake. L'Aquila used to 'belong' to the monastery of Subiaco and is quite close. But we didn't feel a thing, maybe the jackhammering men set it off.

As we go down into places like that I can't help thinking how vulnerable we would be in an earthquake.

The other day I had an incident with a thief. We were getting on the train at Termini - our Citivecchia line - all tired out. Two fellows were handing out pieces of paper and distrating most of the group. As I got on, a third fellow put his hand down into my lunch bag. Mechtild from Jamberoo saw it and without thinking jumped over and smacked his hand out and then took a assertive pose from her youth group leader days and the fellow jumped back very quickly with both arms up showing he had gotten nothing. Still the three fellows hung around. When I made a quip that had all of us laugh they went off. Seems laughing at them hurt their pride but it did not stop them. A few minutes later we saw one of them running quickly away from the carriage further up. You cannot be too careful of thieves here in Rome. This was our second incident this year.

Today I'm going off to Orvietto for just over 2 days. At this time we encourage the group to visit some other part of Italy to get that experience. And Marcia and I are going for a rest. There is a magnificnet church there...and St Patrick's well - a place built to the people would have a water supply in time of siege but Marcia well knows that I'm not accompaning her down the 450 steps to the bottom to see where they collected water.

Churches!

The last two days have been church tour days. On Tuesday we went to St Sabina's, a very beautiful, very ancient church on the Aventine hill. The church was restored in the 20th century in line with its original simplicity so one senses are not attacked in a riot of baroque opulence. The light in this church is extremely gentle and comes from lattice worked windows. The look most unusual but when you discover that the 'glass' in them is not glass but rather think sheets of mica, it all makes senses - the small sized of the sheets and the softness of the light. The church has been for centuries a Dominican church and has one of the best-priced gift shops in Rome especially for Dominican cards and pictures. After looking at the ancient structure of Roman churches we went up the Rome to Sant' Anselmno's, the 'study house' of the Benedictines and were given a tour by the Abbot Primate's secretary, Fr Henry O'Shea, though a monk of Glenstal Abbey in Ireland, we could never quite work out if he was Emglish or Irish, the sense of humour and view of Europeans seemed closer to eccentric English. We concluded the day with a tour of Santa Maria in Cosmedin - another ancient church. Not such a successful tour as we had to contend with hordes of teenage groups who had come to the church for the relics of St Valentine!
Yesterday was the the Parish church of rome and the Mother of all the Churches - St John Lateran. Of the major basilica's of Rome I think this is my favourite. When one is in the body of the church there is a sense of lightness and space. The apse mosaic is very beautiful and I like the scenes of paridise at the bottom - little figures below Christ, Mary and the saints, boating, fishing resting aloneside the river of life that flows from the Holy Spirit through the jewelled Cross. We took time in the adjoining cloister, saw the ancient vestments and then went down the road to San Clemente. But this time my body was thorougly tired os steps. Up, down, down up. So when the others when down the ancient basilica and mithrium beneath that, Istayed up in the church and took time out.
Much as I learn from the ancient churches I find the fixation on them bordering on obsession. The imagery in the mocaics and other art works can be a way of bordering our horizons and deepening our faith but that dynamic doesn't seem much in eividence. It just seems to be a glorification of the past. 'This is x number of centuries old and we must go Ahh how wonderful.' Yet when you look at the the works you can see that the people of the past did not respect the earlier works -eg some of the best mosaics have been covered over with baroque arches in a way that would now be called vandalism.
Unfortunately some of the modern art that is in churches is modern ugly.
Studying these churches really makes me ask where are we putting our energies as members of the church for example, how much goes into maintainng the past, how much into understanding the present, how much into tranlating what the gospels are about into a language for our time.