• Home
    • About
  • Prayer Diary
  • Daily Quote
    • Untitled
    • Archives Quote musings 2012
    • Archives, Quote musings 2011
  • Word & Image
  • Resource List
  • Books
  • Prayers and Poems
  • Spiritual Books
  • Archives, scripture
  A Prayer Diary

Praying for peace in Rome

10/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
You can read about my experience praying for peace in Rome in September and see a sampling of the pictures I took of some of the thirty-six of the city’s 900 churches. Now that I’m home, I’m still praying. ​


www.acottagebythesea.net/a-solitary-traveler

0 Comments

Praying for peace in the churches of Rome

9/15/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
​I’m in Rome to pray for peace for six days. My plan was to light a candle for peace in at least 100 of Rome’s 900 churches. However, I’ve ditched that 100-church goal. Most likely it would be impossible to reach, and it would definitely be nonsensical. I’d just be rushing in and out, snapping a picture and adding the church name to my list. I’ve decided not to light a candle, but to pray for peace in some intentional, visual, way. Contributing to peace is my goal.
     Yesterday morning I went to three churches, raising the count to ten. Sant’ Agnese fuori le Mura and Santa Costanza are in the same complex outside the walls. Outside the walls because Sant’ Agnese has as a catacomb, where early Christians were buried. Rome had a policy that no one could be buried inside the city. Then to gaze at Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa in Santa Maria della Vittoria. I’m glad I had my bus pass. In the afternoon I found myself praying for me in seven more churches. As of last night the count is up to twenty.
     My intention to pray for peace in churches has me aware of all the people I pass along the streets. The sheer numbers, the multiple skin colors, body sizes, ages, languages. I am not other; I am one of them. Our uniqueness makes us one.
      And then there are the obviously loving people, most likely parents, who accompany their children with special needs. At the altar at the Church of San Giovanni in Laterano a mom was supporting her adult son who was draped on her. As he drooled, she wiped his mouth. Then they walked on, arm in arm.
     As I sit in this little park in the early morning it comes over me that regardless of what praying for peace means to each of us, when we think peace we become aware of the equanimity between all people. In wanting peace for myself, I have to want it for everyone. 

0 Comments

Runners and churches in Rome

4/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
     A beautiful day yesterday for the half-marathon run throughout Rome. So many runners, so many groups, running for autism and cancer, supporting causes and individuals. I am called to the Christian story, but clearly the Christ was in every person I passed, in every runner and spectator, in every person selling bottles of water. God shows no partiality.
    Rome is a city of many churches, most built in the 16th century as Rome responded to the Protestant Reformation. Baroque, baroque, baroque. Here are some I passed on my walk around the city. Sorry I can't give you the names.

0 Comments

Some paintings from the Vatican Museum

4/7/2018

0 Comments

 
    Here is a link to my cottage by the sea blog where you can take a tour of the Vatican Museum with me.
On this prayer diary blog I offer some of the prayerful painting I saw. Yes, my favorite topic, the Annunciation and a few others.
www.acottagebythesea.net/on-my-mind
0 Comments

Staying in monasteries in Italy

3/31/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
     My pilgrimage to Italy starts April 4th. I’ll spend four nights in Rome, three in Assisi, one in Cortona and six in Florence. Unlike my usual two week stay in an apartment in Florence, I’ll be staying in monasteries-turned-guesthouses run by nuns. The bedrooms are simple, but thankfully ensuite. The public rooms are quiet, but thankfully without TV. Thankfully, the nuns are servants of Christ.
I’ll still be writing and walking around with God, but this trip feels different. What can I anticipate? What can I plan so I don’t treat these convents as just an inexpensive place to stay?
    Let me start with a theological question. What does God want me to hear on this pilgrimage and what might I do to listen? Asking what God wants me to hear is a big shift for me. I’d rather set the agenda and tell God the kinds of things I want God to tell me. To listen I need to be silent; to be silent I need to quiet my mind.
    Of course the practical response never changes: pray and walk, pray and sit, pray and meditate, pray and gaze, pray and be in the moment. Nothing new here, just a reminder to practice, practice, practice listening to God no matter where I am.
    How very grateful I am to be going on a pilgrimage in these places, at this time in my life. How very grateful for help with arrangements through  www.monasterystays.

0 Comments

Travel gratitudes~

3/22/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
     I’m on the train from Rome to Florence thinking about all the gratitudes I feel, and renewing my commitment to start they day expressing them and to continue to do so throughout the day. A good model is St. Paul, who began and ended his letters giving thanks. It’s a good habit, and habits come with practice. Another model comes from a friend of mine who, in emailing about some challenging changes in her life, started by expressing gratitude by naming specific things her friends had done for her.
     Today I am thankful for a safe flight and early arrival in Rome: that my hotel room was ready; that I enjoyed taking the bus to Castel Sant’Angelo and the Pantheon: that I have the stamina to walk and a good digestive system to enjoy tagliatelle with shrimp and zucchini: that things work out well in my life so I can take these solitary trips. Hmm, those graitudes are all about me.
     I desire to expand these beyond myself and into the wider world. As a start, I’m grateful that the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome has declared itself to be a sanctuary for refugees. Awareness comes with prayer.


0 Comments

S. Agnes Outside the Walls

11/4/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
My last morning in Italy. What better place to visit than the Church of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls, and the adjoining Mausoleum for Costanza, daughter of Constantine I. Because this church was outside the Roman walls, Roman law allowed Christians to bury their dead in catacombs. The church displays Christian artifacts from the earliest times (second century) to the present. What a prayerful place, both at the grotto in the garden as well as inside the church.
The Mausoleum for Constanza was build in the fourth century. On a previous visit I was the only one walking around and around. Today students were sketching. Different forms of prayer.


St. Agnes Outside the Walls

Mausoleum for Costanza

0 Comments

St. Agnese~very grateful~

6/2/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
For grace received.
     I want to share the slide show of Sant’Agnese and Santa Costanza that I put together, but alas I can’t seem publish it on this blog or even send it via email. Maybe it will happened one of these days when I figure it all out. Meanwhile, I’m including some pictures of the little altar of gratitude that is in the garden entrance to Sant’Agnese. As I sat there for a good hour several people came and said a prayer to Mary.
    I remember stilling on that very same bench on another visit, but this time I was touched with memories of my mom’s last words, “Very grateful,” and overwhelmed by how present she still is through that those two simple words. My mom knew that gratitude was the way to peace, the way to God’s kingdom now and in the life to come.
     She started her day with prayer and Bible reading, and thus was well versed in all the gratitude expressed in the Psalms. She read and reread Paul’s letters, which start with gratitude and thanksgiving. She embraced Jesus’ message in the Gospels through that same lens. Often, especially as she got older, she would give me specific examples of the gratitude she was feeling in her life.
      Mom is still teaching me that fundamental Christian message. Here, at this prayerful sanctuary, away from the center of Rome, her message was palpable.




Picture
In Sant'Agnese fuori le mura


These are the four candles I lit for the friends who had requested a prayer.

0 Comments

Favorite churches~

5/30/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Morning view from my apartment.
The sun is shining again. I’m off  to visit two of my favorite churches in Rome, Santa Costanza and Sant’Agnese fuori le Mura. Santa Costanza is a church in the Round,  just through the garden and up the hill from Sant’Angnese, which contains some catacombs.

     This morning I received emails from two friends asking for prayers for difficult times they are experiencing. So off I go to light candles for them in these early Christian churches.


0 Comments

Santa Maria in Aracoeli: morning prayer~

5/29/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Aracoeli Staircase
The Italian way is to stop by a bar and order a cafe or cappucchino on the way to wherever you’re going, so that’s what I’ve been doing. This gets me out up and out early. This morning I returned to S. Maria in Aracoeli (St. Mary of the Altar in the Sky), climbing the 124 marble steps and entering by 8. No one was in this magnificent church, and let me tell you how awesome that was. Just me, the angels and God—that kind of feeling. I love this baroque looking church, which dates back to the 6th century, although you’d never know it by looking. In spite of all the décor, and my, there is plenty of it, I wasn’t distracted. Maybe it’s the time of day, my best prayer time.

    My www.acottagebythesea.net blog has a slide show of the rest of my morning at the Roman Forum and on the Palatine Hill.


0 Comments
<<Previous
    Contact me
    bobbifisher.mac@mac.com

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011

    Categories

    All
    55 Maxims Of Fr. Hopko
    Amy Carmichael
    Anne Lamott
    Art
    Assisi
    Awe
    Bede Griffiths
    Benedict
    Bible
    Billy Graham
    Blessing
    Bliss
    Bonhoeffer
    Books
    Breathe
    Brigit
    Call
    Canticle Of The Sun
    Celtic Daily Prayer
    Centering Prayer
    Christ
    Christian Life
    Christmas
    Church
    Cloud Of Unknowing
    Coleridge
    Communion
    Compassion
    Contemplation
    Contemplation And Action
    Contemplation And Action
    Cottage By The Sea
    Craft
    Cross Roads
    Cynthia Bourgeault
    Dad
    Daily Prayer
    David Steindl-Rast
    Death
    Death And Dying
    Desert Mothers And Fathers
    Desiderata
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    Doris Grumbach
    Dostoyevsky
    Easter
    Edinburgh
    Emmet Fox
    Energy
    Ermetic Life
    Eve Kiley
    Everyday Simplicity
    Faith
    Fasting
    Father Maximos
    Fear
    Florence
    Food
    Forgiveness
    Frederick Buechner
    Friends
    Fruit Of The Spirit
    Gardens
    Gift
    Giving And Receiving
    Giving Thanks
    Giving Thanks
    God Moment
    Grace
    Gratitude
    Harold Rohheiser
    Healing
    Health
    Heart
    Hildegard De Bigen
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Week
    Hope
    Hospitality
    Howard Thurman
    Humility
    Humor
    I Believe
    Icons
    Incarnation
    Intercessory Prayer
    Intercessory Prayer
    Iona
    Iona Prayer Circle
    Ireland
    Italy
    James Martin
    Jeffrey M. Gallagher
    Jesus
    Jesus Prayer
    Joan Chittister
    Job
    Julian Of Norwich
    Kate Tristram
    Katherine Paterson
    Kazantzakis
    Kinds Of Prayer
    Kingdom
    Kyriacos C. Markides
    Laura Hillenbrand
    Lent
    Louie Zamparini
    Love
    Madeline L'Engle
    Maranatha
    Margaret Bullitt Jonas
    Margaret Bullitt-Jonas
    Marsha Sinetar
    Martin B. Copenhaver
    Mary Luti
    Mary Oliver
    Matthew 25
    Max Ehrmann
    Meditation
    Meeting Jesus In The Gospel Of John
    Meister Eckhart
    Midrash
    Ministry
    Miracles
    Mom
    Monastery
    Monastery Of The Heart
    Morton Kelsey
    Mountain Of Silence
    Moving
    Music
    Mystery
    Nature
    Northumbria Community
    Now
    Oliver Herford
    Oswald Chambers
    Othona Community
    Outreach
    Oxyrtynchus Manuscript
    Pamela Dalton St. Francis
    Peace
    Phyllis Tickle
    Pilgrimage
    Pope Francis
    Praise
    Prayer
    Prayer List
    Prayer Questions
    Prayer Questions
    Prayer Shawls
    Prayer Walk
    Pray Without Ceasing
    Psalms
    Raven's Bread
    Reading
    Religious Orders
    Retreat
    Richard Rohr
    Robert J. Wicks
    Rome
    Ronald Rolheiser
    Ross King
    Rule Of Life
    Sabbath
    Sacred Places
    Sacrifice
    Scotland
    Scripture
    Silence
    Simone Weil
    Simplicity
    Sister Madonna Kolbenschlag
    Skye
    Society Of Saint John The Evangelist
    Sol
    Solitude
    Son Of Man
    Spiritual Exercises
    SSJE
    St Augustine685a78b5bd
    St Benedict2e69d019b8
    St Brigid8a489d0d27
    St Francisb0c25165c2
    St Francisda1a8c4071
    St Ignatius97c6861c0b
    Suffering
    Taize Lent743fec0e30
    Talking With God
    Thanksgiving
    Theophan The Recluse
    The Reader
    Thomas Keating
    Thomas Merton
    Thomas-merton
    Thy Will Be Done
    Trinity
    Unbroken
    Upper Room
    Walking With God
    Walter Ciszek
    Way Of A Pilgrim
    Wm Paul Young757e23b986
    Wonder
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly