Day 7 – Assisi-Rome
My phone is dying and my adapter was left at a previous hotel stop, so this blog will have to be short.
We woke up leisurely again today, praise Jesus! There was a very beautiful cloud layer surrounding Assisi this morning. After breakfast we had Mass in one of the chapels of St. Mary of the Angels in Portiuncola (the church where St. Francis’ little church is inside). Mass was just phenomenal. Archbishop’s homily was perfect as we meditated on our pilgrimage and the gentle yoke of Jesus.
After Mass we took a group photo (with select cameras), and left back for Rome. I had the great pleasure to be greeted by my good friends Garrett and Jamie Skloss, who I haven’t seen in years. Garrett is stationed at the Navy Base in Napoli, and they came up for a visit. We had lunch in the second oldest café in Rome, Café Grieco, established in 1760. This means we ate at a restaurant that is older than the United States. Just crazy. I did some errands for my Archbishop in the afternoon and then rested a bit (I stayed up very late last night). Then we had a meeting to reflect on our time together as pilgrims, followed by our last dinner together. We shared stories, and our tour guide, Fulvio, shared his recipies for lemoncello and a cake called mimosa. There were many goodbyes with the group from Mexico, who have a later flight (jealous!), and with others who are staying on in Italy or other places in Europe. Tomorrow we start our journey home.
