So, picture this. I’m chatting with John Morton at the Blessings Brunch during MSIA’s Conference in July 0f 2003 and he mentions he is going to be in Italy in October for an open seminar. And the dates overlap with my vacation in Rome with my husband. Imagine the coincidence. “Yee-haw,” as we say in the Midwest.

We join up with John and staff in Rome in a cozy restaurant for lunch. GREAT meal, if you can imagine great Italian food with no pork, garlic and onion. John is going off to see St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, and we ask if we can tag along. John graciously says yes. The group has quickly expanded to nine people, and we jump into three cabs and off we go.

Portions of St. Peter’s was built by Michelangelo in addition to his Sistene Chapel ceiling painting and designing the Vatican guard uniforms (still in use today). He tore down the work of several previous architects and started on the mammoth dome at the age of 72. We stand outside and enjoy the huge fountains, meant to cleanse one before entering.

John points out the enormous size of the church—615 feet long with 11 chapels and 45 altars. It just goes on and on, with all sorts of niches, but in the shape of a cross. Kerry Wire of NOW Productions starts to cry. “Every time we walk into a different area, I feel like I am seeing another room in Heaven. It’s so beautiful.” John heads straight to Michelangelo’s Pieta, which Michelangelo completed at age 25. It’s Mary holding the dead body of Jesus created out of white marble. It’s so shocking that it is so lifelike.

We head over to Bernini’s last work, the Monument to Pope Alexander VII, completed in 1678. The pope sits among, Truth, Justice, Charity and Prudence. The red marble is incredible how it drapes like cloth. John looks small compared to the size of the statue.

John spent a lot of time looking at The Throne of St. Peter in Glory, over the main altar. It’s done by Bernini and uses alabaster rock cut very thinly to act as stained glass. John pointed out that the depiction of the Holy Spirit looks like it is flying at us, with the rays of light coming out from the dove. And then John pointed out that the four pillars that are part of the main altar canopy are similar to how we picture the MSIA Sound Current. Bernini created the “baldacchino” out of bronze, and there are serpentine columns, not similar to straight columns. It was very powerful. Everything in the basilica was amazing and seeing it with John was so special. I was raised Catholic, and my family are Italian immigrants. So to walk through Rome with my teacher and honor my ancestors was fabulous.

As we walked away from the Vatican, we passed a beggar. John gives him a substantial bill. He said that I might consider giving money to beggars, as he finds them very sweet and that he receives a blessing every time he does. I asked about how to tell if people really need help, and I heard him say that it has to do with being present and being in the moment of what is needed. And there is a great lesson in tenacity in this: John said that if you asked a hundred times and only received once, you’d still be doing very well.

Our next stop: Italian ice cream, called gelato. John has coffee flavor, and says that he doesn’t think he’ll be able to fully enjoy it anywhere else, as this is how coffee ice cream was REALLY supposed to taste.

For Barbara Wieland’s article and photos about traveling with the Traveler in Italy, click here.