Monday of First Week: San Pietro in Vincoli

Well here we are.. it's the start of the first week of Lent.  And our first stop this week took us all the way across town to San Pietro in Vincoli.  In English that would be, Saint Peter in Chains -- so called because this church contains the the chains that bound St. Peter during his imprisonment in Jerusalem (Acts, chp. 12).  Neato!

San Pietro in Vincoli

Perhaps the best way to describe this church is to begin with the photo op:
 

What you see here is the full extent of this morning's experience with this church.  This photo was taken at about 6:40ish a.m. when I arrived; duly note all those patiently waiting for the gates to be unlocked (this is about a 20% of everyone that showed up).

Well you see, what happened was that the folks who were supposed to open this station church for us this morning were not in fact present to open it.  We all stuck around until about 7:10 and then couldn't wait any longer (people had class and other schedules to keep), so many of us walked back to the Casa Santa Maria (the graduate house for student priests of the NAC, located in the middle of Rome, right next to where I go to school at the Gregorian) and we had Mass there instead.

I was thinking to myself, yes there is just one day in the whole year when this church needs to be open.  But then I remembered, no this is all just part of the experience.  Whoever it was that forgot to be there has officially received the All-Italia Award.  Only in Italy..  lol!  Sorry I don't have much more than this for you today, folks.  I'm going to bed and we'll try again tomorrow.

I'll leave you with two of today's spiritual lessons that God was looking to teach me.. 1) Be merciful.  We all biff it pretty bad sometimes in life, God needs me to take things in perspective and give others a break.  We're all fighting our own battles.  2) Sometimes in life, my best laid plans go awry.  And then life goes on.  Let me always be thankful that God walks with me through every unexpected change.