I Had a Dream

Early Wednesday I awoke to the sound of church bells ringing and Rome beginning to wake up. I had been dreaming a most peculiar dream. I don’t remember my dreams usually, but this one stuck in my mind. In my dream I had an audience with the Pope! I wasn’t the only one, there were a number of people in a line, I was simply one of them. We each went up to the Pope in turn and had a few words with the Bishop of Rome. In my dream I’m not sure if it was the current Pope, or perhaps John Paul II - either way the Pope told me that a journey would be important for my spiritual development, and that I should pay attention to it. Then a band I was in, directed by my old band director Joe Hary, played some kind of a new setting for a liturgical piece for the Pope (though I didn’t recognize what part of the liturgy it was).

Maybe I had this dream because one of the last things we saw last night before arriving back at our hotel was the apartment where the Pope stays while in Rome. Up on the top floor of a building only a few blocks from the hotel is the Pope’s residence! It was a wild dream, and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep after waking up from it… so for the second time on this trip I was up before Beth (and that seldom happens).

Today we go to the Vatican (another reason for my dream?) and in order to facilitate this for the tour group we have an early start. How early? Let’s just say I now have a recording of the bells striking 6 AM, and I was up early enough to figure out when they would strike next. Now off to breakfast and a full day (we may still be able to get to some catacombs today - though not the ones I had originally plans to see, they are closed on Wednesdays… of course).

By the way, the picture at the top of this posting was taken moments ago from the balcony outside our hotel room… I wasn’t kidding about being close to St. Peter’s Basilica!