Holy...Week!

+JMJ+
Wow!  What a week!  Sorry I fell off of the face of the earth there for a few days.  I was feeling a bit "blogged" down...ha....haha...so I decided to take the Triduum off, then got swept away by all the excitement that's going on around here.  I'll share a bit of that with you now, but only briefly, because I'm leaving in the morning for a two-day trip to Florence and Assisi with MY FAMILY!!!!

Let's do a little run through of Holy Week:

On Holy Thursday, I went to the Chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.  Pope Francis celebrated the Mass!!  The Chrism Mass is the Mass where all the oils that will be used for sacraments until next Easter are blessed.  I didn't get a seat in the special section this time, but I was very close to the aisle.  One of the classmates was right on the aisle and was able to hand off a postcard she had written for Pope Francis to a cardinal walking RIGHT BEHIND the pope who said he would give Pope Francis her letter!  YAY!  Also, there was a large family sitting next to us that had a baby, so we let the baby through to the aisle, out of charity of course....and hoping that Pope Francis might come over and kiss the baby.  No such blessing was to be ours that day...

Enjoying the Basilica while waiting in line on a rainy day

View from where I was sitting in the basilica 

We sat right next to one of the guards!  Had to be stealthy, major. 

The Chrism Mass is a Mass dedicated to priests in a special way.  The procession of priests into the basilica lasted around fifteen minutes because so many of them came!!  Even the priests from the parish up the road from our villa were there!  So beautiful!

This is one of the vats of holy oils to be blessed.  It was HUGE!

Papa!

Bye, Pope Francis!

After Mass, I prepared for my family to arrive!  I helped clean the apartment they'd be staying in, went grocery shopping, and had this prepared for them to surprise them when they arrived:

Ok, fine, I ate almost all the Nutella,,,still, it was a nice gesture, right?

When my family arrived, I gave them no time at all to rest or settle in!  Right away, we were off to Trastevere for the sepulchro walk.  On Holy Thursday, the Eucharist is taken to an altar of repose after Mass.  In Rome, these altars are elaborately decorated with candles, flowers, bread, and wine, and the churches stay open until midnight so that people can come and pray.  A sepulchro walk is making a pilgrimage to any seven of these churches, taking a few minutes to pray in each one.  I think it was one of my favorite things I've done all semester.  The altars were so beautiful!

My personal favorite

The altar at our villa was decorated too!  We had adoration all night.

The rest of the Triduum and Easter was good too, but since I went a little overboard on my extrapolation of Holy Thursday, the rest will have to wait since I've got to be up and ready to go EARLY.  Happy Easter!  Ciao!!