On the 28th of June, after Mass at the Church of Our Lady of Peace, the Prelatial Church of Opus Dei - celebrated by Father Marin on the altar containing the body of St Josemaria - we went to see the centre of Rome.
The tomb of St Catherine of Siena at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
After Piazza Navona, the famous Gelateria Della Palma, the simple but beautiful Pantheon, and the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva ( the only Gothic church in Rome), we stopped at the Church of the Gesù (The Church of the Holy Name of Jesus), the mother church of the Society of Jesus. And to our dismay, we found the main doors locked!
We saw a small side door and went through it into a corridor. Apparently there was some a kind of exhibition for a some people from Lithuania. We saw a priest standing at the other end of the corridor and Father Marin asked if we could enter the church; the priest, a Jesuit, said it was closed. However, after Father Marin explained that we were a group from Singapore, he agreed to open the church for us - because we promised to be quick (we weren't).
The Gesù is magnificent. The Society of Jesus was in the forefront of the Counter Reformation - the Church's response to the Protestant Reformation - and the church art and architecture reflect this: the building is designed to inspire awe and wonderment. The Gesù marks the transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque styles of architecture. The Baroque artwork is intense and emotionally engaging, designed to stimulate the piety and devotion of pilgrims.
Father also explained a few other points in the church's design that reflected the era it was built in. Churches before this had several aisles - the Gesù has no aisles, just one nave, so that the congregation's attention is focused on the high altar with the Mass and preachers proclaiming orthodox Christian doctrine; the many confessionals inside the church is another sign of the troubled times the Catholic Church was going through back then.
The main altar
In a chapel on the left side of the church lies the tomb of St Ignatius of Loyola:
And on the right is the chapel containing the arm of St Francis Xavier (the rest of his remains are in Goa, India):
When St Ignatius founded the Jesuit order in 1540, Pope Paul III gave the Society a small neighbourhood chapel - Santa Maria della Strada (Our Lady of the Road). The late 15th or 16th century image of Our Lady under that title is enshrined in a chapel, on the left of the high altar.
In 2003 Pope John Paul II named the Mother of God, under the title of Our Lady of the Road as sponsor of Roman street-cleaners. A votive lamp has been buring at this altar since November 17, 2003, the day after the pope's decree.
We spent some time praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament, which is kept in a chapel to the right of the high altar. By then the Jesuit priest was getting a bit impatient, so we hurried out. :)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment