The Feast of All Souls and First Vespers with the Pope

On November 2nd our community here at the General House traveled to St. Lawrence outside the walls to Campo Verano, probably the largest cemetery in Rome which adjoins the Basilica.

The cemetery itself is actually divided into sections: one section being Jewish, the other Christians and another where victims of WWI are buried. It is interesting to remember though that back during early Christianity it was next to impossible for a christian to be buried in a Christian Cemetery as the land itself cost money that most of the practitioners didn't have so most of the time early Christians were either buried in Jewish cemeteries or pagan cemeteries. It wasn't until the beginning of the 2nd century when Christians finally had a plot of land to call their own which is now called St. Callistus.
November 2nd being All Souls Day, a Catholic Memorial where we commemorate the faithfully departed, is the busiest time for the cemetery where many of the memorials and graves are adorned with flowers. Statues can be seen holding roses and you see in the photo to the left, sites are adorned rather bountifully. 
 A rather amusing part of the trip was the aerial attack and invasion of thousands of starlings. They came out of nowhere and screamed across the sky until they claimed refuge to a poor pine tree that sagged at the amount of weight it had to support. I saw them again the next day circling my room at the General House. I think it's an omen or Michael Bay is in town filming Transformers 4. Nature can sense a disaster.
Finishing my day at Campo Verano I stopped by the statue shown on the right adorned with candles and flowers.

Last Friday, the Pope held a first Vespers for the start of the Academic School Year for Pontifical students in Rome. Vespers started at 5:30 and I arrived at 4:00 was still in the back of a rather long line. A friend of mine apparently arrived 30 minutes earlier and was much further along however still not able to get front row or at least near the front row once inside. I was pretty much near the back when I finally got to my seat. I unfortunately couldn't understand a single thing he said during his homily as I unfortunately still need to brush up on my Italian. Hopefully the next Vespers I attend I will be able to glean a bit more, perhaps one day even understand the whole thing. *gasp*.