Many gifts

There was a poster outside our hotel room in Rome that, translated, said, "The city unveils its secrets" which I hoped would be an omen and I now know it was.

Rome is a beautiful city and also loud, chaotic, busy, rushed and somewhat disorganised but oh so enchanting, captivating and rich with diversity and surprises.

You all know the trouble I had in maintaining my blog where wifi was scarce most of the time and the lack of success in uploading photos but I could not leave the blog unfinished. So here is my final post written after the 'official' Path of Peter Pilgrimage is over although I will never willingly leave the path. 

The photo above and the 2 below are of Monte Cassino about 1 and a half hours out of Rome and is a Benedictine Abbey - a breathtakingly beautiful place on top of a hill.

Every centimetre of the place had a touch of beauty both simple and elegant and rich and ornate. Google it and you will be able to read its history as I do not want to bore you with details at the moment. I can still feel the tranquil mood of the place so the details don't really matter that much to me.

 Here is a bread shop that also sold cakes and pastries which we found near Piazza Navona. 'Fornaio' means oven and the smell as you walked inside was tantalising. Tosca and I bought a ricotta pastry which we gobbled without uttering a word except to say, "Mmmm, good!". In case you can't tell the thing in glass on the left of the entrance is a huge Mortadella log which would have been around 40cm in diameter - huge!

This is outside the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Mary Major) which is one of the four Papal Basilicas in Rome. Beautiful on the outside but I found it to be rather gloomy and serious on the inside.

On Anzac day we were privileged to attend a service at one of the War Cemeteries led by the New Zealand contingent. Each year Australia and New Zealand alternate leading the service. It was a very moving occasion as was the sight of the headstones of many young men who'd died in the line of duty, some as young as 19 years of age. 
 

 The papal audience on Wednesday April 24 is a day none of us will forget! Apart from the crowds, the heat, lack of organised access, cranky participants etc there is something very very special about Pope Francesco! He exudes love and warmth - no wonder each Wednesday has had record breaking attendance.

Our final night before departure was spent at Domus Australia where we attended Mass led by Cardinal Pell followed by dinner with the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, Mr John McCarthy. The style of the Chapel fits in well with other Roman churches and edifices although one can tell it is quite new unlike the norm here.  Lovely touches of Australiana are included such as little kangaroos at the base of the lectern and on the right side of the sanctuary is the most captivating picture of Mary MacKillop.

Dinner was a delicious mix of Italian and Australian cuisine and you can see below that Leonie, Jim, Tosca and I were very happy dinner party members!

And so there I must leave my writing as I have been back for 3 days and other responsibilities need my attention. The city of Rome did unveil some of its secrets as did every place we visited and as we have time to process our pilgrimage experience I'm sure much more will be revealed. This time away has been a gift and a blessing which we have been very honoured to receive.

In the words of Rev. Peter J. Milano - "Tourists pass through places, but pilgrims let places pass through them, allowing their hearts to be changed."Our hearts have been changed.

Saturday April 20

Today we left at 4.50am to begin our day at the Via Dolorosa for the Stations oftheCross. It is eerie walking around at that time of morning but comforting being part of a large group. We then gathered for Mass at the Holy Sepulchre before making our way down to the Wailing wall via the golden menorah. A stunning site with the dome of the rock in the background.
Some free time for shopping in the markets was fun and even occasionally reminded me of Paddys markets ie noise factor.
Lunch at a cafe of vegetable soup kept us going for a bit before getting back to the hotel. A 2 hour nap helped me recover from the early morning start before a catch up with the group before dinner. We all settled in for an early night before another middle of the night set off. Some were lucky to get about 4hours sleep before the call saying we had to leave early due to a change of plans.
My next post will be from Rome as we are about to board our plane for the next part of our Path of Peter.

Roma bella!

Im sorry that my blog has been very neglected lately because Rome (the whole of Italy actually) is about 10 yrs behind us in wifi access! Photos are not loading either - ah the challenges of a modern daypilgrim! We're staying at a hotel that used to be a convent so its very clean.
Our days are as full as full and tiring but so wonderful.
Every place we go to is so exquisite in beauty that I couldn't begin to describe. The group members are lovely in their own way and everyone is getting along really well on the whole.
Today we went to Assisi and tomorrow we go to the Vatican.
A highlight so far has been Montecassino where st benedict established a church with his sister st scholastica. It's on the top of a hill with a breathtaking view. I could go on but I must go as the bus is picking us up soon.

Take care

Addendum

Just letting you know that I usually write my posts really late at night after 10 hour days of being out and about. I've noticed that I've made some spelling or grammatical mistakes so please overlook them. :)

Mountain and Sea

The past couple of days continued to be quite full and fast paced. We are enjoying everything we see and do. The picture below was taken in the beautiful gardens of the church at the Mountain of the Beatitudes. We began our day with Mass there after hearing some historical context from our guide. In fact we are learning so much from our two guides - Rami gives us the historical and social context of life in Jesus' time and Robert gives us the biblical context - a perfect match!
Apparently the shape of the mount which is semi circular has very good acoustics which means that if Jesus were preached on the shoreline people further up on the hill would have been able to hear him very clearly.
Bon and Michael, this photo is for you!!



The Dead Sea was a very pleasant surprise for me and Leonie as we expected the water to be a dull grey colour. Instead as we came along the highway and started the descent we saw the sea in every shade of blue and torquoise set against a background of light brown, rocky mountains. The contrast was striking and for something that was supposedly "dead" there seemed to be a lot of life and energy there. It was obvious that the sea is depleting as the tide lines were marked in the 1990s at around minus 400m below sea level while now it measures 1000m below!
The mud found at the Dead Sea is allegedly very beautifying so several members applied the black mud to their skin and floated happily in the water.
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is very long winding and would have taken anyone a long time to travel so we wondered if Jesus took about 3 years to get from one end to the other??





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Hope

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Oh Bethlehem!

Dear stars,

I hope your week is going well. Here is a view of the scenery taken on our way to Cana in Nazareth. Today was hot and sunny which everyone enjoyed (except for me and another pilgrim!) but what we all enjoyed was learning about the Jewish traditions and customs of the time of Jesus' life. Our guide has such a great way of telling facts in an engaging way which keep us interested and entertained. We learnt that in Jesus' time all the village would have been invited to the wedding of a local and the fact that the wine ran out was more due to the popularity of the family than poor judgement. It was highly likely that more people than expected attended the wedding and that the wine would have been white as it is still now. Also women were never referred to by their names especially in public as it would have been inappropriate, so when Jesus called his mother "woman" he did so as a sign of respect. 

It is wonderful to discover the history of our Christ.   

Today was MUCH cooler as we set off for Bethlehem to visit the Israeli Museum which has the story and replicas of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was so interesting and informative! Our guide went to school with the grandson of the guy who discovered them. The family is well off now and still hold many pieces of the scrolls - in fact last week they sold a piece for over $1 million. Not bad if you need a bit of pocket money!

Going into Bethlehem is a real eye-opener when you see how the people in this area are so restricted in what they can do. There is a huge wall enclosing their city full of graffiti as a sign of protest although on the whole the people are very tolerant as they know they are better off co-operating with the Israelis otherwise.... We had lunch at Bethlehem College prepared by the Hospitality students and then we watched a dvd about the Uni and listened to about 4 students describe their lives. One girl gets up every morning at 4am to arrive at the uni at 8am then she leaves at 4pm and doesn't get back home until 8pm! they describe living in Bethlehem as living in an open air prison - a very sorry situation.

The uni grounds are beautiful with lots of roses growing around the campus. It is one uni where both catholic and muslim students attend and accept each other willingly. Our last event here was attending Mass in their chapel called after "The Divine Child" and it is just beautiful.

The second thing was that one of my phones was stuck on Bangkok time (it's fixed now) but I used it to set our alarm on Monday morning for 6am. Well you've probably guessed what happened - it went off at "6" and I struggled out of bed to wash my face and just as I applied my sunscreen Leonie told me that it was actually only 2am! Oh well we slept really well last night and I didn't get sunburnt during the day!

Here I am, Lord!

Finally there is internet I can access! After multiple attempts at trying to connect and write something to publish I think I have succeeded!
So we are really here..... So much has already happened in the last three days that I hardly know where to start... but I must say that parts of the trip in were challenging! Crossing the border from Jordan into Israel took over 4 hours while some of our pilgrims were interrogated because they had Lebanese sounding names. From the time we left Sydney to when we arrived at our hotel in Galilee took about 35 hours and we were tired but in good spirits.
The next day, however, more than made up for it as we set off for the shores of lake Galilee for Sunday morning Mass. We sat and celebrated Mass along the pebbly shores listening to the Gospel of John describe the second meeting of Jesus with the disciples after his resurrection. We were at exactly that spot - the same lake where Jesus met and travelled with His disciples! That fact blew our minds a bit! 
The next event when we boarded a wooden fishing boat to sail into the Lake and listen to Rami, our tour guide, explain the various customs of the time was fascinating. The locals here refer to Lake Galilee as Tiberias, by the way. 
This session was topped it off with a beautiful rendition of "Here I am, Lord" which I can never sing again in the same way!                                                                                                                            
Tomorrow I will tell you a funny story but for now I will say good night as I need to sleep.

I am remembering to keep you in my prayers.

Places of interest

Here is a list of the places we will be visiting while on the "Path of Peter":
Mt Nebo
Sea of Galilee
Capernaum
Mt Tabor
Mt of Beatitudes
Nazareth
Ein Karem
Bethlehem
Jerusalem
Mt of Olives
Garden of Gethsemane
Calvary
Temple Mount
Jericho
Mt of Temptation
Dead Sea
Masada
Rome
Castel Sant'Angelo
Montecassino
Orvieto
Assisi
The Vatican
St Peter's Basilica
Sistine Chapel
The Catacombs
St John Lateran
St Mary Major
Rome War Cemetery

There will be plenty to see and much to take in and I will be ready!

Waiting in the wings

Last night was our second but last meeting before we leave next week. A feeling of excitement and anxiety filled the group as we listened to our final instructions and asked our final questions.
Life is messy! Months ago, when I thought about the pilgrimage I imagined I would be calmly preparing and reflecting on what lay ahead. My work would be done and filed away and my desk would be neat and clear as a sing of my organisation and competence.

Well that ain't the case let me say. I know you may be smiling at this point and thinking I should have known better and you're right!
Family demands, day to day routines, unexpected events and work all seem to conspire against my being able to complete anything in a way that I imagined. Pre-reading and packing will inevitably end up rushed and flailing as I race against time in the coming days before I can immerse myself in the great experience of a pilgrimage.

Or is there something else I am observing within myself?
Maybe this anxiety that things won't be done or done satisfactorily is my pride getting in the way of allowing the experience to be real. I am feeling humbled and maybe this is a good thing even if rather uncomfortable.
A quote from The Pilgrim's prayer that was in our folder sums it up well I think... "If some things do not happen on schedule as per the itinerary Lord, may I remember - I am a pilgrim not a tourist!"

Maybe letting go of my itinerary list and replacing it with God's itinerary is the lesson for me here.

Countdown

Just over 2 weeks to go before I leave with over 42 others for The Path of Peter Pilgrimage which will take us to the Holy Land and Italy. I feel very fortunate to have been picked and am very much looking forward to experiencing a pilgrim's journey.
I am curious to see how I will manage the experience and the day to day routine which I think will be quite different to 'normal' life.
Tomorrow is Good Friday and I hope to spend some time over the Easter period reflecting on our readings about Peter's discipleship and my own call to this pilgrimage. However it goes I know I will be a different person once I return.