...and...

...walking to various meetings, it was a joy to visit some of the great GREAT churches of the city. The New Cheese (oh, work it out - it's what the students at the English College call it) never fails to impress, and I have always liked Santa Maria in Transpontina in the Via della Conciliazione which is such a restful stop in the heat of that wide and crowded road. And the church of Sant' Andrea is, most usefully, opposite a new internet centre where I tackled some emails...in St Peter's I prayed - along with a lot of other people - at the tomb of beloved Blessed John Paul II and entrusted a number of things to his intercession...in the Square, a plaque marks the place where he was shot back in 1981. Look high up for the image of Our Lady with the "Totus Tuus" inscription and follow a direct eye-line down from there. In gloriously pouring rain I stood by the plaque but couldn't quite reach it because of the system of railings designed to keep in check the long queues of people entering St P's...the next day I returned in blazing sunshine and found a gate open, knelt to pray...