Donna looking out from her window at Casa San Giuseppe
Today is Helen’s birthday and there’s something lovely about the idea of waking up in Greece and going to bed in Italy!
Today we’re back on the bus for the two hour drive to Thessaloniki. James our guide tells us that the media has reported that the storm we drove through on our way to Kavala delivered more rain than the area has had for a year and that about 300 sheep and goats had drowned!
We begin our trip with the morning prayers and Archbishop Mark spends time putting St Paul’s missions in sequence, with the over-riding theme that he was always heading west to Rome. (more…)
28th June, 2009 - Posted by Archbishop Mark - 2 Comments
We came to Rome a little more briskly than did Paul. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that, after leaving Malta, the ship put into Syracuse for three days and then headed from Sicily to the Italian peninsula where it touched down at Reggio Calabria. After a couple more days, they came to Pozzuoli near Naples, the birth-place of Sofia Loren. Paul stayed there for a week with believers he found there. Then we have the laconic punch-line of Acts: “And so we came to Rome”.
Christians from Rome, we are told, heard of Paul’s arrival and came to meet him at the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns. The Forum of Appius was about 75km from Rome, so this was a considerable act of homage. They would then almost certainly have passed through Velletri and entered Rome through the Porta Appia, better known today as the Porta San Sebastiano. Then he would have been taken to the place of his house arrest which was, according to tradition, on the Aventine Hill in the home of his old friends Prisca and Aquila who had prepared the way for Paul in Corinth and Ephesus and now did the same for him in Rome.
28th June, 2009 - Posted by Ursula Stephens - No Comments
It’s Saturday in Roma!
With such a profoundly moving day yesterday ( we covered a great distance but took some 7500 steps) today is going to be wonderful and hard work.
We wake refreshed in the knowledge that we are not so much living out of our suitcases - this has become quite significant in our minds!
First, breakfast together then onto the bus for our trip to the Catacombs. Archbishop Mark translates a prayer to St Paul from Rome as we make our way along the busy streets marvelling at the mix of old and new. (more…)
