Weekend in Bologna

San Petronius

This weekend, the whole house took a trip to Bologna with our art teacher for an "outside of the classroom" class.  (And contrary to popular belief, it is pronounced Bo - loan- ya, not Ba - lone - e)  While it was great to see a ton of beautiful art in person, I will be the first to admit that there is only so much art that I can take.  But there were definitely some highlights from the weekend that are worth sharing.  We left Bernardi at 6:30 Saturday morning on a coach bus.  The ride took about 5 hours, so while it was long, I did get to take a nap and see some beautiful mountains on our way north.  And once we got to Bologna, we were off to the races.  We visited churches, museums, the oldest university in the Western world, and got to see the heart of the city. In the realm of churches, my two favorites were San Petronius and San Domenico.  Saint Petronius is the patron saint of Bologna and is basically their home town hero.  Everyone there loves him and has a great devotion to him.  I wish I could tell you anything about his life, but he is kind of a big deal only in Bologna, so I don't know a whole lot about him.  In building this church, the people of Bologna built it to fit their personality, using local materials and trying to make it as cool as possible.  And while they tried to make it as big as St. Peter's in Rome, it did not happen.  The Vatican actually helped build other buildings around San Petronius so that the church couldn't be extended.  We went to Mass their Sunday morning, and because these churches are enormous and centuries old, they lack some modern amenities  like heat.  So you know that is is a good Mass when you can see your breath.  But it was a beautiful church and I really enjoyed it there.

Chapel of the Rosary 

My other favorite church was San Domenico, which is the church where St. Dominic was buried.  St. Dominic is kind of a big deal because he founded the Dominicans, one of the greatest orders in the history of the world.  And again, if you remember my Siena post, I was asked by my friend who is in formation to be a Dominican priest to pray for him through the intercession of different Dominican saints.  And I feel like St. Dominic is a pretty legit Dominican saint, so it was great to be able to pray for Brother John Dominic there.  The Angelicum, the university where I am studying this semester, is also run by Dominicans, and a priest from the Angelicum (Fr. Dominic Holtz O.P.) came with us for the weekend.  Having him with us was great.  Not only is Fr. Dominic super cool, but he gave us some of the spirituality behind the art that we were seeing.  So it wasn't just looking at art for arts sake, it was looking at art to encounter God, which was just beautiful.  St. Dominic did some awesome things, but one that he is most famous for was the fact that he gave the Church the rosary as we know it today.  So I was able to touch my rosary to his tomb, so that every time I pray the rosary, he is also interceding for me.  Praying with the saints is a great gift, because they are role models for us.  I love the saints because it shows that the Christian life is possible.  There is great hope for Heaven and when we fight the good fight, to quote St. Paul, we will, one day, receive the gift of eternal life.  Lastly, in the very front of the church, they had an enormous set of choir stalls, where Dominican brothers or sisters would pray together.  They were just beautiful and we were able to sit tin them for a while.  I have an awesome picture of Colin Jones, St. Paul-Minneapolis seminarian, praying in one of the stalls.

ASPM seminarian (and my roommate) Colin Jones 

But to be honest, my favorite part of Bologna was nothing that we actually went to Bologna to see.  That is because my favorite part was the street performers that played all through the city.  There would just be these bands, usually composed of 4-6 people, who would just sit together and jam.  And they were phenomenal.  They had guitars, upright basses, trumpets, saxophones, drums, violins, and even banjos (I thought those were only in the south...)  But I could sit and listen to these guys for hours.  They were just having fun, not doing anything too serious, and playing some great music.  I even have a picture of one of the bands playing, and look who is in the background!  It is Grand Rapids seminarian Mike Steffes with our good friend Ryan!  They seem to be enjoying themselves!

Lastly, I just want to share a quick story that happened in Rome Friday morning.  I was going to be showing some friends around St. Peter's Basilica that morning, so I decided to go to Mass there.  And one cool thing about St. Peter's is that any Catholic priest in the world can say Mass in the Basilica, from 7-8 AM.  There are a ton of altars, and my plan was going to be to just hop on with a priest and go to Mass with him.  But as I was waiting by the sacristy, I noticed 2 priests and this third guy walking together towards the sacristy.  And almost immediately, I recognized that "third guy" as the Catholic Guy, Lino Rulli!  Lino hosts a talk show on Sirius XM's The Catholic Channel, and it is easily my favorite radio talk show out there.  His whole goal is to show that you can be both a normal person and a Catholic at the very same time, which is something that I really appreciate and try to model myself.  So I was like OK I'm going to bail on this Mass idea for the moment, and I will wait to say hi to Lino.  And that is exactly what I did.  He was with his occasional co-host Fr. Jim Chern and Fr. Dave Dweyer, another Catholic Channel radio host.  So I chatted with the three of them for a while about the program I am here in Rome with and about the new Pope.  It was so cool to meet these guys in person, and of course, I had to get a picture.  It was so cool to meet Lino and just to tell him how much I appreciate the work he is doing for the Church.  The Church needs witnesses to show that being Catholic isn't weird, boring, puritanical, or lifeless.  No, being Catholic means that you are full of laughter, life, joy, and peace.  And Lino really does that in his own unique way.  So being able to thank him for that was a great gift.  His ability to engage the world while still pursuing holiness and virtue have been very inspirational for me, so it was a great joy to meet him.  And don't worry, I got to Mass about 20 minutes later.  Please continue to pray for all of us over here and especially Pope Francis!

Lino Rulli, the Catholic Guy!

  

Sts. Peter and Paul - Pray for us!