Tuesday, June 17, 2003
All right, so I haven't been updating this as I should. Can you really blame me? It's been crazy busy. So. Flashback to last week, shall we?
When I left off I was discussing the Vatican -- I saw St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum, and the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday, and attended a special prayer service given by the Pope on Wednesday.
The Vatican Museum has an amazing collection of art, most of which I was unable to see. What I did see was wonderful, though; I particularly enjoyed the picture galleries. Better still, though, was wandering through the building among so many rooms decorated in frescoes -- and running into the Raphael rooms, with the famous School of Athens. It was so incredibly beautiful -- and like with other famous works of art, a thrill to see it in real life.
But then I saw the Sistine Chapel. Or, rather, I stared with a crick in my neck at the ceiling for as long as I could, my mouth open in awe. The pictures I've seen are nothing in comparison to the actual paintings. They are so remarkably intricate and gorgeous, busy and full of life, with so many details that you cannot possibly take it all in without lying on the floor and observing it for hours. I wish I'd had the time to do that, too, and to make sketches of each frame, if I could. But alas, it was crowded by tourists and we were all too quickly ushered out, and my attempts to sneak back in were thwarted by surly guards.
St. Peter's, too, was a lovely building. But I had difficulty with it. The basilica was full of grand and splendid things, and it was an amazing building to be in... but it wasn't a church. Despite the statues of saints and popes lining all the walls, and the religious paintings everywhere, it wasn't a space of worship -- and indeed, the grandeur did nothing for the glorification of God. It was a museum, a place for tourists to be awed and amazed at the works of men. All the other churches we've visited are often decorated with extravagance and loveliness... but they still feel like churches.
I left the Vatican with mixed feelings. The prayer service the next day didn't do much for my conflicting emotions either -- it was an honor to be in the presence of such an important and holy man, but at the same time, I wasn't struck with awe or anything. It left me with a stronger feeling that the holiest of places are the ones like the monastery in Assisi where I felt so at peace.
Anyway, that was my Wednesday, and on Thursday I left for England. England was a most wonderful experience -- and I'll blog about that later. :)
| 11:23 AM |
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