Sent From the Cross

Before departing for Assisi, I was able to celebrate Mass one more time in St. Peter's on the altar above the tomb of Pope St.Pius X.  When I arrived there, I saw that someone had left a Latin Missal on the Altar, so I decided to celebrate in the ancient language of the Church. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am an advocate of Mass in the vernacular, but there was something utterly transcendent being there in our! In a sense, mother church, praying the exact words that the Popes had for millennia, including the one whose earthly remains were buried underneath the altar on which I was celebrating. Each time I genuflected during Mass, I would come face to face with the enbronzed relics of a saint.  The communion of Saints seems so real to me in this place.

I spent one last time in prayer at the tomb of soon-to-be St. John Paul II. I took the opportunity to read the entirety of the homily I heard him deliver in Denver in 1993.  I could hear him speaking to me, to all of us gathered there over twenty years  ago: "At this stage of history, the liberating message of the Gospel of Life has been put into your hands. And the mission of proclaiming it to the ends of the earth is now passing to your generation. Like the great Apostle Paul, you too must feel the full urgency of the task: 'Woe to me if I do not evangelize'. Woe to you if you do not succeed in defending life. The Church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your youthful ideals, in order to make the Gospel of Life penetrate the fabric of society, transforming people’s hearts and the structures of society in order to create a civilization of true justice and love. Now more than ever, in a world that is often without light and without the courage of noble ideals, people need the fresh, vital spirituality of the Gospel."  I was moved to tears as the words of this modern saint challenged me to preach the gospel.

Our trip to Assisi was incredible.  As impactful an experience Rome has been for me, it is, in a sense, Catholic Disney World.  As much fun as it is, and as spiritually enriching, and historically enlightening it is, the crowds, the noise, and the walking weigh on you after a while and you just need to get away.  Assisi is just the place to do that.

The spirit of Saints Francis and Clare are so thick in the air, you can more than just feel it, you can almost touch and taste it.  Many of you may know that I have a deep admiration and devotion to St. Francis of Assisi, this man who renewed the Church by his humility, his radical following of the Gospel and his zeal for souls, not by hugging trees and preaching relativism in the name of tolerance as some people paint him.  Francis embraced the Cross and preached the truth.  

We began by going outside of the city, which is nestled up in the mountains of the quaint  Italian countryside to the place of hermitage used by Francis and his brothers.  The land  is so quiet and beautiful it reminded me someone of the Smokeys- not rocky, but green hills and lush woods.  We even passed the tree where St. Francis is said to have preached his famous "Sermon to the Birds".  This place was so quite and serene that seems the three of us (Fr. Eric was gracious enough to take us and show us around Assisi) entered into an immediate silence as we wend to the place where Francis slept and prayed when on retreat.  It was just so easy to enter into prayer there in the cool of the dusk as the tones of the Stabat Mater sung for the Stations of the Cross hummed in the background. It is so obvious why Francis and his brothers chose this place to get away and pray.

The town of Assisi is quite remarkable. Little has changed in appearance.  The smell of burning wood in twilight greeted us as we first walked our way up and down the hilly, narrow streets lined by wood and stone structures that truly look like they are right out of the thirteenth century.  On the secular side, it's almost like stepping into a Renn Faire, which as we know, it right up my alley.  On the spiritual side, again, the place is just so thick with the spirit of Francis and Claire. I swore that when I closed my eyes, I could see the Friars walking the streets.

We stayed in a hotel of sorts, more like a retreat house, right off of the famous piazza where Francis renounced his father who did not understand his calling by surrendering the clothes off his back saying: "Until now I have called Pietro di Bernardone my father. But, because I have proposed to serve God, I return to him the money on account of which he was so upset, and also all the clothing which is his, wanting to say from now on: ‘Our Father who are in heaven ,’ and not ‘My father, Pietro di Bernardone.’"

Saturday morning, thanks to Fr. Eric, I had the privilege of celebrating Mass at the tomb of St. Francis. This was a truly moving and powerful experience.  A privilege is granted to priests visiting this place to celebrate the Mass of St. Francis.  I was particularly motivated by the Prayer After Communion: "Grant us, we pray, O Lord, through these holy gifts we have received, that imitating the charity and apostolic zeal of Saint Francis, we may experience the effects of your love and spread them everywhere for the salvation of all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen."  Again, The Lord is speaking to me about the mission spreading the gospel. 

The Basilica of St. Francis is quite a cite, going back to t he thirteenth century, it outdates the current St. Peter's in Rome by over 300 years.  The ancient frescos make the life of the Saint come alive.

We where then able to visit the monastery of St. Clare.  Here I was able to kneel before the crucifix under which St. Francis prayed and heard Christ call to him, "Francis, rebuild my Church, which you can see has fallen to ruin." I spent some time there in prayer, remembering all who have asked me to pray for them and meditating on the cross as we enter into Holy Week.  Only later in the day would I read what Pope Francis put out on his Twitter feed: "How beautiful it is to stand before the Crucifix, simply to be under the Lord's gaze, so full of love."

In this Basilica, I was able to pray at the preserved remains of St. Clare.  I was able to pray for and remember the Franciscan nuns sisters who have influenced my life, and one friend in particular who entered a Franciscan convent after college.  

There is more to wrote about in Assisi, the Portiuncula, San Dominano, and more, but words simply fall short. As I said, the place is just saturated with the Franciscan Spirit.  It's so withdrawn, even with the crowds there. My next trip to Italy will include more time in Assisi.

Our time in Rome concluded with Palms Sunday Mass celebrated by the Successor of St. Peter. I was able to distribute Holy Communion at this Mass which gave me a close seat.  Though the Mass as in Italian, the Proclaiming of the Lord's Passion, part of which was sung, moved me deeply. There is a moment in the Palm Sunday Gospel, where, after Jesus dies on the Cross, we pause and kneel.  It was so profoundly powerful to hear the square fall into silence as we all went to our knees, starting with the front, and the with everyone following. It was like a wave of reverence falling on the crowd who all knelt before the love of Jesus Christ, as Pope Francis calls us to do.

This pilgrimage has been fruitful in providing a great spiritual enrichment. I feel that has truly helped me to enter more fully into Holy Week.  I believe that it has fueled the fire within my heart for the salvation of souls.  I pray it has given me grace to share with the people whom I serve. I pray that I am able to live up to the calling that I have received and to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before.  Above all, I pray for the grace to always advance the radical love of Jesus Christ and his Gospel for the salvation of souls.