Rome 1 (July 9)

(please excuse any typos, and bad grammar, I'm putting this together from my phone...)

Vatican City is an interesting testimony of the Pope's claim to exercise both temporal and spiritual authority. It is its own nation, the smallest nation in the world. But it has the biggest church, the basilica of St Peter and Paul, built on the very probable burial ground of Peter. The fundraising for this church, whose famous dome was designed by Michelangelo, was the driver behind the indulgence sales that sparked the Reformation.

It's very difficult to capture the scale.

Inside into your right, Michelangelo's Pietà.

The Sistine chapel, which does not allow pictures, is right around the corner. We heard an interesting theory from our guide today that Michelangelo's last judgment was a particularly disputed painting by the papal theologians because he in it he embraced many reformation themes, justification by faith, a lack of purgatory, and so forth. In fact, we were told the story that Michelangelo was asked where purgatory was in the painting, and he responded, “It's not in the book."

Across the type of river, and in the middle of Rome, is the Pantheon. It was commissioned by Julius Caesar! (67 BC?, I'm not going to get any of these dates right), destroyed by an earthquake, but rebuilt a couple of centuries later (167 AD?, Buy a particular heroic guy whose name I can't remember, but who I want to study a lot more. You guys can remind me who this is in the comments.) The Pantheon is one of the very few places to get an idea of what an authentically ancient, Roman, pagan temple looked like. It's a marvel of architecture. It probably remains standing because it was converted into a church.

The highlight of the day was our visit to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Italy, a very young church body, where we were able to be part of one of the very first confirmations. God be praised! Congratulations Giovani!

Please pray for pastor Tyler McMiller, and all the work being done in Italy! It was also great to run into David Preus and Pr. Simone (from Finland to, who I met at the Corpus Christi festival in Gothenburg back in 2019.) What a beautiful time.

We saw some caravaggios, which was really amazing, scattered around the churches of Rome.

Three of St Matthews, the calling of Saint Matthew, the inspiration of St Matthew, and the martyrdom of Saint Matthew.

Crucifixion of St Matthew Peter.

Conversion of St Paul.

“In Caravaggio the light is a character."