St. Peter’s Basillica

There are so many things to see in Rome that one has to be selective. At the top of my list was St. Peter’s Basillica. Why the top? Well, it seemed to me to be a significant icon of church history and I had just finished going through a class on church history for the second time. A trip to St. Peter’s just seemed appropriate. It would be impossible to convey my impressions in a paragraph brief enough that anyone would be likely to read it so I will make the following summary: For me it was history made tangible. Since I am not catholic it does not inspire in me a profound sense of holy reverence but, nonetheless, I did feel a sense of awe at the length at which the church had gone to in order to express its reverence for God. I also felt a sense of great regret knowing the cost that many believer’s had paid for the structure to be built and the depths to which the church had sunk in order to raise those funds. Let us always remember that God dwells in the heart’s of men by our invitation and his willingness and not in any structure we might make with our hands.

The first photo shows me in front of St. Peter’s and the second shows a statue of St. Peter occluding the sun. Pretty clever photography if I do say so myself. It gives him a great halo.