Speaking of in-containable experiences, I'm not sure how I will get through to the end of this semester with full brain capacity. We woke up at 5:30 to be ready for the first 870 bus hurried to St. Peter's, and made it to the altar just was Monsignor was setting up. I've never seen black vestments, but I understood it to mean that he was cleared to celebrate a requiem mass. I almost fainted during the mass but that actually reminded me of Shaun. I fainted during stations and benediction when we were in middle school and Shaun helped to carry me out of the church. Monsignor told me that Shaun is 'Johannes' in Latin an I saw that the alter was patronized by a Johannes, but I couldn't see which one.
Our tour at the Vatican museums was led by a funny little nun in green, Sr. Emmanuella from Manchester (England, not New Hampshire). She guided us through a room of sarcophagi from the second century, the facades carved with stories from the life of Christ. We saw the Apolline Christ, the hall of maps, tapestries, an the Sistine chapel. We then finished in the Basilica with a prayer before the main altar, the bronze baldicchino. If the dimensions she told us were accurate, St. Peter's is colossal. The entire day only showed me how truly colossal the Church itself is, throughout the world and at the same time it serves to help the passing of one boy from South Philly from this world to the next.
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