Fifteen hours after departing Rome, I returned home late on Saturday evening.
There’s nothing like foreign travel to help you appreciate the simple things - the hug of a child, the loving glance of your wife, being able to follow a schedule, home-cooking, and your local Church.
The next morning, it was off to early Mass. Being in the heart of the Church (Rome) gives you a new appreciation for the heritage that we as Catholics are a part of. Attending Mass Sunday morning, I somehow felt more alive, more connected with Christ, and better able to pray. After gazing upon the beauty of Rome’s artwork, I had a new appreciation for the stained-glass windows, the statues, and the beautiful paintings in our little country Church. The Crucifix seemed somehow larger to me, somehow more central.
I wish that all Catholics could have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Rome at some point in their faith life, because being in Rome helps you to realize that you are a part of something far, far larger. As you stand in St. Peter’s Square and watch the many nationalities and hear the languages of all the people who pass by, you begin to see how Christ’s admonition to “Go make disciples of all nations,” has become a reality. You realize the tremendous universality of the Church.
Yet, there’s more. Much more.
Surrounded by the Roman ruins, the catacombs, the ancient art, the monuments and bodies of popes and saints, you also realize that you’re a part of a rich, rich history. It’s not a history that goes back only 30, or 200, or even 500 years, but extends back to the very beginning, and you realize that no one else has this. They simply don’t. The Catholic communion is one that extends across both space and time, connecting us with all who have gone before and all those who will come tomorrow. Being in Rome helps you to realize that our faith is a cosmic faith. It’s center is Jesus Christ, redeemer of the Cosmos.
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Rome is priceless, brings you back to your roots. The Vatican building is a thrill in it’s hallway’s, rooms and exterior; keys are everywhere. Confession in St Peter’s unforgettable. It is home for every Catholic, a “must visit” for every Catholic.
This article is very nice. I felt quite the same after my stay in Rome. I felt connected to the wider Church and more connected to Her history. When I see liturgies from Rome, it does my heart good to realize that I was in that very place. It is a joy I carry with me, similar to how I feel about my pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
The Scavi (excavated Roman Necropolis) under St. Peter’s Basilica was thrilling. Quite unexpectedly, it ended with us standing only a few feet from the bones of St. Peter! Also I very much enjoyed getting up at my hotel near St. Peter’s every morning and walking over to one of the Masses being celebrated at one of the multitude of altars. As I walked past the big statue to the left of the Basilica of St. Peter holding the Keys to the Kingdom in the early light, enjoyed feeling that St. Peter’s was my parish church.
My own journey to Rome and the Vatican was also memorable. Having had the blessing of attending Mass with our Holy Father, Blessed John Paul II, in his chapel and being present for a semi-private audience with him as well as experiencing all of the historic and modern sights and sounds of being in Rome was just awesome and so inspiring. I not only felt like I had come home, but also like I had died and gone to heaven. It would be just wonderful if every Catholic could make a pilgrimage to Rome and it would be even more meaningful if everyone could make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land before coming to Rome as I did. Having traveled many times to various places of great beauty and significance in the world, these two trips were definitely the best and a highlight of my life and all of my travels!
I’ve heard Protestant who’d disagree with you- who claim the early Christians and the Church’s whole panoply of saints as their heritage just as much as ours. And in a sense that’s true, except when they believe -as they usually do- that the Church Christ founded fell into apostasy and “became” the Catholic Church, even the earliest Christians weren’t free from Romish “errors,” and the “true” gospel was only restored to the world in 1517, and they don’t share the same doctrines, priesthood, sacraments or liturgy as those Early Christians, Dark Age Christians, Mideaval Christians… So yeah, you’re right: “no one else has this. They simply don’t.” Even if they think they do.
Actually, there is one other Christian communion of which it can be said that it goes back to the very 2,000-year-old beginning of the Christian Faith, and that is Eastern Orthodoxy - but even then, not separately, as the Western Church, which later became the Roman Catholic Church, and the Eastern Church, which later became known as Eastern Orthodoxy, were one undivided Church for a thousand years, only dividing in 1054 A. D. For this reason the Orthodox Eastern Church has even been styled “the other lung of the Catholic Church” by Blessed Pope John Paul II. Pray for the reunion and restoration of the One Holy Undivided Catholic and Apostolic Church.
I should mention that I, too, visited Rome. It was a long time ago, in the 1960’s, but I vividly remember the sense of history and the reality of the presence of God - the undivided Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit - in that blessed city, and the sense of being in the midst of a procession of centuries of Christian saints and Christian people as I toured the historic churches of that city. I even got the opportunity, although I was an Anglican at that time, of attending a general audience with the Pope (Paul VI at that time), carried around on his sedia gestatoria. However, let us not exaggerate Rome’s importance. There is another center of the Holy Catholic Church, and that is Jerusalem - the Holy City, where our Lord Jesus made His triumphal entry, where He celebrated His first Eucharist, where He was betrayed, where He underwent His agony in the garden, where He was arrested and tried and mocked and whipped and scourged and underwent His Passion for our salvation, where He was crucified, where His Body was laid to rest in the Tomb, where His Resurrection took place, where He appeared to His disciples, where He ascended into Heaven, where He poured out the Gift of the Father, the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, energizing His Apostles to become missionaries of the Gospel, and where He gave birth, by that same Holy Spirit, to His Holy Church. Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
## Go to Rome - and be swindled by the taxi-drivers.
“For this reason the Orthodox Eastern Church has even been styled “the other lung of the Catholic Church” by Blessed Pope John Paul II.”
## JP2 said (& did)a lot of idiotic things - don’t let it get you down :)
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