St. Mark's News & Events for November 18, 2007

Greetings to all of you!

This week I want to continue to bring you some highlights from the parish trip to Rome. I left off with our first morning at the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica. When I woke up that morning, I felt refreshed and went down stairs for breakfast only to find none of our group was there. I thought to myself that everyone must be still sleeping and although I am not a morning person, here I was the first one at breakfast! As I waited and waited, no one in our group came down for breakfast and I knew we had an 8:00 a.m. departure time for our tour. I then went to the lobby to see if anyone was there, only to look in horror as the clock registered NINE! Well I did it, I missed the very first tour of the trip and I just knew I was going to hear about it later. Thus, I decided to meet the group at the Basilica since I knew I would never be able to get into the Museum. So I decided to walk all the way from our hotel to the Vatican which is not around the corner. I figured by the time I got there they would have ended their tour of the Museum and I would catch up with them at St. Peter’s. I had a wonderful walk in the cool breeze and sunshine. I passed a number of coffee bars and stopped at a few places for some espresso. By the time I got to St. Peter’s I was wired! Anyway, I did finally meet up with the group and we toured the beautiful Basilica with the magnificent Pieta and the other wonders that are too many to count. Some of us even went down to the tombs of the Popes and passed by the tomb of Pope John Paul II, which continues to have a procession of people paying their respects. A phenomenal morning for all of us and of course we just had to find a restaurant after the tour for more pasta and vino! More again next week….

This weekend we also welcome Mr. John Paul Cappa who is our new Director of Music. John Paul comes to us from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and he has very impressive set of credentials. I hope you will be able to meet him and welcome him to our great parish. Hopefully you will be hearing more about him in the near future so to John Paul we say welcome!

Well, that is all for now. Keep in mind God’s precious gift of life!

Peace,
Fr. David