Every day a Resurrection

Living here on the Hill so close to heaven and looking down upon ancient Rome where the world has come in homage for centuries and where she comes still one cannot help but feel each morning as the Sun rises, your own personal Resurrection.  As one of the priests said today most wonderfully that he looks forward to that great and terrible day when God, in His great mercy, will receive him into eternity.  A day which he has looked forward to in Hope all his life.

Yet another Roman Dawn, the earth herself reminding us of the Resurrection we all eagerly await.

Roman Dawn 9-11-12

Today we remembered at Mass the dead of 9/11.

 Did you know the Ancient Romans called the places where the dead were buried "necropolis", the cities of the dead because they were gone forever, never to live again.  Early Christians called the places were their dead were buried "Cemeteries", the place where the dead slept awaiting the Resurrection.  Thus early Christian writers speak of the "sleep of death", the "Falling asleep in the Lord".  Our Lady had a Dormition, a falling asleep.

This brings me to our visit today to the Casa Santa Maria, the residence for Priests studying for Doctorates at one of the Roman Universities.  It was originally a Dominican Convent built by Domina Orsisi, the wife of a Medici whose husband died and she built this Convent.  She had a very happy marriage and did not wish to enter into another so she built the convent and lived there with her household staff and the Sisters.  She built a magnificent Chapel, being quite well off.  The chapel is some 500 years old.  The pope eventually gave the Convent complex to the American Bishops as a Seminary to acknowledge the growing importance of the American Church.  The Convent was originally under the Patronage of Our Lady of the Assumption.  There is a lovely painting over the altar showing the Apostles staring into the empty tomb of Mary which is filled with life giving water and floating flowers, a separate panel near the ceiling shows Mary being Assumed into heaven.  Between these two panels is an endearing image of "Our Lady of Humility".  The Casa Santa Maria sits on Humility Street.  Today the house is under the patronage of Our Lady of the Assumption, OL Humility and OL Immaculate Conception (Patroness of the USA).  There is also a side altar dedicated to OL of Guadalupe.  Here are some pictures, breathtaking!

Altar, Casa Santa Maria

Choir loft, Nice Aye!

Our Lady of Humility

Side Alar of OL Guadalupe

A copy of image of Our Lady of Humility can be found outside the Chapel at the NAC as well in a pretty shrine.

Afterward we toured the city and stopped by the Pantheon.  Inside can be found the tomb of the Great Master Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino.  Known to the world simply as Raphael.  He was from Umbria, studied in Florence for 4 years then moved to Rome where he lived.  He is considered one of the Trinity of great artists of the Renaissance, and I might venture of all time, the other two are Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.  Both Raphael and Michelangelo served as Chief Architects of St. Peter's Basilica.  Raphael became Chief Architect in 1514 after the death of the genius Bramante.  Most of his architectural contributions to the great basilica were altered torn down by Michelangelo.
Raphael was considered physically beautiful, his interior life beautiful and what followed from his genius beautiful, he raised the human form to heavenly dimensions.  In 1833 his body was transferred to an ancient sarcophagus given by Pope Gregory XVI and the following inscription was added by Cardinal Peter Bembo, it is most beautiful and moving:

"Here lies Raphael, by whom nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared that she herself would die"

The Sarcophagus where Raphael sleeps awaiting the Blessed Resurrection

Tomorrow we see and hear the professor Pope, Benedict XVI.