This little light of mine

Taken from the media

(2/28)  My roommate and I have decided to make Thursdays our "explore Rome" Thursdays.  Since we have class all day during the week and we travel on weekends, we decided that after our 1 morning class on Thursdays we'd pick a site and run with it.  We decided to check out the Pantheon and find the highly recommended by past Bernardians "Da Francescas" trattoria to eat lunch.  We felt adventurous and confident that we could find it without using a map.  We were wrong.  After getting turned around multiple times, we caved in and bought a handy picture map.  After getting lost a few times even with the map, we managed to find it.  I have to say I wasn't too impressed.  Yes, I am glad I saw it and I enjoyed some of the history behind it, but after seeing so many incredible churches, this seemed like a loud, touristy place to be.  After looking around it, we decided to head off and find the restaraunt.  We were content with wandering around for a little while, until hunger hit us like a brick to the stomach and we felt desperate enough to give up our search and climb into a little no-name side street trattoria.  It turned out to be the best decision ever!  We were able to sit outside on cute checkerboard tables and received actual soft bread for the first time.  What excited me the most was a whole menu of Salads!  My stomach needed a break from all the pasta and pizza and me being a daily salad eater back home, was craving fresh veggies.  I don't know if it was because I was so hungry or because my body really needed some R&R from carbs, but I spent the rest of the morning raving about how good the salad was: Fresh spinach, warm eggs and bacon, fresh mozzarella, fresh-picked vegetables, and savory olive oil and vinegar dressing.  Fully satisfied, we stopped for groceries on our way back.
   We held a make-up class for Dr. Rota in the basement of our house, but took a break at 5:00pm to head up to the top of our terrace where we could hear the bells ringing as the Pope left.  We were delightfully surprised when, at 5:05, distant bells from the Vatican rung and we saw a helicopter hovering over the dome shortly in the distance.  "Is that him?"  We all wondered.  Suddenly, in the clear pink sky, we saw a larger white helicopter rise from the dome underneath the smaller helicopter and start to fly in our direction.  Some in our group were skeptical as to if it were the Pope since he was scheduled to leave 10 minutes later, but I knew in my heart that it was him (and we found out later it was).  We waved eagerly, jumping up and down as the helicopter flew past us and towards the colosseum, circling around Rome before landing at the place where he would stay forever away from the public eye: In Castle Gandolfo.  That was it.  That was our last goodbye to the Pope himself!

Media shot, Praying in the square

   We headed downstairs for a quick bite to eat before heading off to St. Peters to pray during his official final hour of his Papacy.  When we arrived at the square, there were the normal buzzing of people.  We gathered as a group along with our Chaplaincy and began to pray evening prayer.  Fr. Carolla read us the English translation of the beautiful message he had spoken to us at the audience the day before.  The line that stuck out to me most was this: "In our heart, in the heart of each of you, let there be always the joyous certainty that the Lord is near, that He does not abandon us, that He is near to us and that He surrounds us with His love."  As well as his reminder that he did not step off the cross, but continues to carry it as he continues his life of prayer and service for the Church in a different way.  We then began to light candles and pray the Rosary in the square.  Pilgrims began to gather around us. Some joined in, others watched in prayer, and others took pictures.  Looking around at the candle lit faces I saw tears, both of sadness at the loss and of joy at the new priest to come, the peace and trust of the holy spirit, and the love of every person surrounding me towards the church and each other.  Our voices lifted into the "Salve Regina" as others around us chimed in.  I remained on my knees in prayer as the clock struck 8 and the bells slowly rang and echoed across the city, signaling the sign that we no longer had a pope.  I could feel the presence of the media with their cameras surrounding me, taking pictures of me as I prayed, and I tried my best not to be distracted.  Finally, an God-send came to my rescue.  As I remained kneeling with my eyes closed, I could hear a stranger firmly whisper next to me, "Leave her alone.  Can't you see she's trying to pray?  Please, give her her space.  She is praying."  I was filled with emotion, both with embarrassment that my prayer was being filmed by the media (not because I was ashamed, but because I felt that my private moment with God was going to be twisted not into a moment of joy, but reflected out as a moment of sadness that I was somehow "abandoned by the pope"), and with graciousness that a stranger, who was really a part of my universal Catholic family, felt that my prayer should be protected.  I took a walk around the square with my burning candle and soaked in the various people in prayer, in chatter, in song and in silence.  All of us girls decided we wanted to go out and "celebrate" his Papacy and Catherine's 21st birthday, but as soon as we exited a lady from some media station thrust a microphone into Emily and my face.  She asked Emily why she felt it was important to come here tonight, and she asked me probably the only other question the media knows how to ask about the Pope resigning: "Do you think the Pope's stepping down has anything to do with all of the Church's scandals?"  I withheld an eye roll and gave an uber-catholic response that will probably never make the story.  Something about him being a man of prayer and realizing what the Church needs, his act of humility in stepping down, the Holy Spirit picking exactly what the church needs for these times, etc.

The Abbey Theater

  We carried on past the signs with the Pope's face that read, "resterai sempre con noi, Grazie (You will remain with us always, thank you" and over to the Irish Pub: the Abbey Theater.  All 14 of us grabbed a table in the back and chatted with our Irish waiter who had a crude but playful sense of humor.  We ordered drinks and devoured 2 plates of Nachos and chicken fingers, laughing and being loud American girls the whole night.  We stumbled home right before the gates closed and went to bed after an emotionally exhausting evening.