Retreat in Assisi

wThis past week was our retreat in Assisi.  Our excellent retreat director was an Irish Dominican who has given the retreat for a number of years.  Thought provoking and affirming at the same time.  We stayed at the Casa Papa Giovanni a  religious guest house.  The food was great and the facility simple but very serviceable.  It was also well located which was nice.  Because I have been to Assisi many times I spent my time reading, reflecting, relaxing and praying rather than checking out the town.  It was a good plan for me and I know that many of the guys enjoyed the opportunity to explore Assisi over a whole week rather than just a couple of days.

Each morning we celebrated Mass in one of the churches connected to St. Francis and St. Clare.  All were within easy walking distance and the brisk morning air was nice to walk in.

On Monday we went to the Basilica of St. Francis and had Mass at the tomb.  That is always a special experience.  We then had a tour of the Basilica and the town.


That's the tomb of St. Francis behind me.

Tuesday we went to the Church of Santa Chiara.  We celebrated Mass in the chapel which contains the cross that spoke to St. Francis.  They do not allow pictures in the chapel so here are a couple I found on the internet.

The cross that spoke to St. Francis


The main nave of the Church of S. Chiara

Tuesday we went to the Chiesa Nuova which is on the property where St. Francis grew up.  It contains the cave where Francis' father imprisoned him to try to get him to forget about his commitment to Christ.


On Thursday we went to the Cathedral of St. Rufino.  It is located next to the house in which St. Clare grew up and contains the baptismal font in which both of them were baptized (which I believe was actually in another church.  The original Cathedral is the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (not the one in Rome!) which is where Francis stripped himself and returned his clothes to his father.


Baptismal Font


The Cathedral Nave


The Chapel where we celebrated Mass


A little shrine at the home of S. Clare.

Friday was our last day of retreat and we left the guest house and had Mass at the Church of St. Mary of the Angels which is built on the spot where Francis actually lived with his community and where he died.  It is called the Porziuncula or the Little Portion.  The larger church contains the small chapel which was part of that early community and also contains the chapel built on the spot where he died.  We actually celebrated in the Clare Chapel which was smaller and quieter.  We then had a tour of the Basilica.

The Clare Chapel


The Porziuncula

A wonderful week and a great way to bring our time here to a relative close.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Underground

Image
Today we began, as always, with prayer.  My liturgy group (made up of 6 of us) was responsible for leading today.  I took on the role of presiding at Morning and Evening Prayer.  Heading down for the latter shortly. We then headed back to St. Peter's for a tour of the excavations under the basilica.  I had done this when I was a student but it was every bit as fascinating as I remembered.  Our tour guide was a seminarian from Seattle who did an excellent job.  They are required to a lot of study and are tested and certified by the Vatican to be official guides.  Some of the men at the College in my time did this as well so it seems to be a well established tradition.  We began in the area that once was the Circus of Nero.  It had been a marshy area that was unused and Nero wanted to build a circus.  Since there was no more room in Rome proper he built it on the unused Vatican hill.  In the Circus was an obelisk that was later mo...
Read more

A beautiful Roman winter day

I am praying for all my family and friends back home as they endure what looks to be brutal weather.  Deep cold on top of the recent snow in some spots.  Today finally dawned bright and clear.  Still crisp but a beautiful day. I had a great birthday yesterday.  We had our first presentations and then the afternoon free.  I spent some time reading with a short siesta.  Love that tradition.  In the evening I went out with Msgr. Tom Cook from our diocese who is working over here for a couple of years.  We went to a nice restaurant that he recommended and had a terrific meal.  I had been saving some of my Roman favorites for my birthday so started out with Spaghetti alla Carbonara which is my favorite.  I remember thinking, when I first came over for studies in 1981 (yikes!), that I wasn't sure how I would survive on spaghetti and meatballs every day for the next four years.  Little did I know.  Such a variety and so many new fav...
Read more

My Weekend

It is now Monday and I thought I would post a quick update on our doings. Classes start tomorrow so I don't know what my time will be like. On Saturday we took the train into Brussels for a guided tour of the city. It was nice since the lousy weather kind of dampened my spirits for a lot of running around when I first arrived. We visited the Cathedral, the Grand Place, and the Royal part of the city. Brussels has a long history and many chapters in it. I would like to find a good book that goes through the history of this area. What little I have learned has been fascinating. We had beautiful, sunny weather. Temperatures were in the 50s so I thought it was great. All weekend and today have also been sunny and pleasant. Cool at night but nice during the day. Folks say this is unusual weather so I suppose we will be in for more rain and cold in the next few weeks. On Sunday we had a tour by the son of a couple who works at the College. He has lived in Leuven all his life ...
Read more