Ancient Rome and St. Paul

After Making a Holy Hour In St. Peter's.

The Palotine Hill: home to the Emporer's Palace, some ruins of which are seen in the background. Photo taken from Circus Maximus.

Looking across the Circus Maximus with St. Peter's dome in the background to the left.

This bird had no fear! He sat there for several minutes. Looking out from ruins of emperor's palace .

Chapel in Lepanto Foundation where I celebrate daily Mass

Dear Friends and Family,

Every morning and evening you are in my heart as I pray in this little chapel at the Lepanto Foundation, where I am living for three weeks. The large reliquary on the right contains a first class relic of the True Cross and the tiny one just to the left of our Lady contains a first class relic of St. Alphonsus Liguori. It is a very peaceful and quite place to pray. Since I am the only one living here I am able to have several hours in the morning for silent prayer, plus a quiet cloister in which I can stroll to pray matins and lauds, and then offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which some others attend depending on the day. And then in the evening all becomes quiet again. Roberto de Mattei has been very generous in welcoming me here again, and as always is an interesting person to visit with regarding the current situation in the Church and world.

A lot happened this past week: I had a wonderful meeting with Cardinal Burke, who as always was very kind and quite insightful in his advice; I made it through 1 1/2 books in Italian for canon law studies, 3 1/2 more to go.... and spent the better part of a day exploring the old Roman Forum and Capitoline Hill. It was really interesting getting a better understanding of the Roman world in which St. Paul, St. Peter, and others arrived to preach the Gospel. If you want to see a 5-minute silent video of a computer model of ancient Rome, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrIEwjgfbYs.

For example, the Colosseum could hold 40,000 - 70,000 spectators and had games as often as 170 days out of the year, so it was truly a major part of Roman life. Walking around the stadium, learning how the crowd spent their time there, what sort of entertainment was provided (including the martyrdom of many Christians...), which involved elaborate scenes brought up through trap doors in the floor: for example trees and mountains would appear as the backdrop for gladiatorial fights or Christians being fed to the animals.

Or walking around and studying the Roman Forum--with it's many temples to Roman gods, the house of the vestal virgins, the rostra from which Cicero spoke, the emperor's palace, etc. etc. helped me imagine Roman life at the time St. Paul arrived.

And then to picture St. Paul arriving to preach the Gospel message... what a contrast! I've been re-reading the letter to the Romans this week and it is very interesting to think of how that message would have contrasted to the life of Rome. What a call to conversion, to embrace ideals and a life so very different from what the world at the time proposed. And then that gets me to thinking about our world today--in the West not so very different from the pagan world of ancient Rome. It gives me great hope to think of how Jesus gradually "conquered" the Roman empire through the preaching of the Gospel and the heroic witness of martyrs, because that means that He could once again "conquer" our increasingly pagan western world of today. But that will most likely only come through the blood of martyrs and through much sacrifice. Well, may it come soon!

Tomorrow begins two weeks of "courses" at the Vatican as part of my canon law studies. It so happens that this week also has the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, for which my class will be attending the papal Mass. Much to pray for given the current crisis in the Church...

In case you're interested, I'll try to post the schedule below. Hopefully it's visible. Well, I'm heading out in a few minutes to pray at one of the local churches and then to meet someone for lunch.

With much love, and with my prayers, from Rome,

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Anthony Pillari

Monday 27 June 2016	Tuesday 28 June 2016	Wednesday 29 June 2016	Thursday 30 June 2016	Friday 1 July 2016	Saturday 2 July 2016
9:30  Saints 11:00 Clergy 12:30  Catholic Education	10:30 Penitentiary 12:00 Signatura	Pallium Mass	10:00 Pallium Audience	10:00 Consecrated Life/Societies Apostolic Life 12:00 Eastern Churches
4:00 Protection of Minors*	2:45 Secretariat for Communications 4:00 New Evangelization		4:00 Rota

*via della Scroffa (Sala San Pietro)

Monday 4 July 2016	Tuesday 5 July 2016	Wednesday 6 July 2016	Thursday 7 July 2016	Friday 8 July 2016	Saturday 9 July 2016
9:00 CDF 11:00 Sacraments & Divine Worship	8:30 Bishops 11:00 Evangelization  of Peoples	11:00 Secretariat of State	11:00 Christian Unity		DEPART
5:00 Legislative Texts