Day 1: The Vatican

 Today began a short pilgrimage to Rome.

We came to visit our seminarian, Antonio. I first met him when he was in sixth grade in Shelbyville. Now he’s in his third year of seminary, studying abroad at the Irish College. To see a vocation unfold over time like that, it’s one of the quiet privileges of being a priest. 

We arrived around 9am, me with 20 minutes of sleep. I got settled at the Irish College, where preparations were already underway for the Feast of St. Patrick. A joy to be here of all places during these days! And among priests and seminarians, in a house that has formed so many for the service of the Church.

We made our way to the Vatican Museums. So much beauty, but a few moments stood out. Caravaggio’s Entombment--the sheer weight of Christ’s body, the raw humanity of it, draws you into the reality of the Passion. And Raphael’s School of Athens--all those great minds searching for truth. Every human heart is searching, but in Christ the search ends in encounter.

Then St. Peter’s. Prayed Evening Prayer there, and this line jumped out: “Let my prayer rise before you like incense, the lifting up of my hands like an evening sacrifice.” Standing beneath that great dome, candles burning, incense in the air, you sense that the prayer of the Church is not confined to a moment. It rises continuously, across time and place. You are stepping into something that was already happening long before you arrived.

Dinner that night with evverybody and also with Fr. Dionel from Guatemala, a friend of Antonio’s sister-in-law and her family. There is something deeply consoling about priesthood in moments like that. No matter where you are, there is a brother already there. 

Exhausted, I returned to the Irish College, joined the celebration briefly, celebrated Mass at 10pm, and went to bed!!

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