On the first day in Rome we visited what friends had described as "the bone church" also known as Chiesa Di Santa Maria Della Concione.
Attached to this church was a newly established museum recording the history of the Franciscan order. My favorite quotes:
I discovered that they are known as the Cappuccini because of their style of dress:
I really wanted to ask him if he'd been to the bone church too...
Walking through the row of crypt chapels, with walls and ceiling decorated in patterns/displays of bones was a mixture of disturbing and thought provoking.
One of the plaques among the bones reads:
‘what you are now we used to be, what we are now you will be’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capuchin_Crypt has more info and a photo.
This Benediction I read today is the challenge I'd like to leave with you:
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships - so that we may live deep within our hearts. May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people - so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war - so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world - so that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor. Amen. (Franciscan Benediction)
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