Assisi Diary - Day 22 - Santa Maria degli Angeli

While planning a walk to Santa Maria degli Angeli this morning, I decided to attend the 8:00 a.m. mass at the basilica, home to the Porziuncola.  The Porziuncola is tiny; the basilica huge.  At that early hour there already were many tourists on hand to visit and pray in the humble church Francis rebuilt.  One tour group wound its way by the spot in the basilica where Francis passed on from this world to the next.  A couple of gentlemen stopped so that one could photograph the other, standing with his hands held in a prayerful pose, in front of the small shrine recording the October 3, 1226 date of Francis' death.  Notwithstanding the prohibition against taking pictures in the basilica, this seemed an interesting choice for a photo. 
As 8:00 a.m. approached I was sitting before the main altar, and it quickly became apparent that no service would occur there.  I rose and started walking about, checking several of the side chapels, to no avail.  People were crowding into the Porziuncola, but there were no signs of a service there, either.  Then a bell range.  Off to the left of the main altar I noticed people heading to a separate room.  Crossing through the aisles I followed them through a door into a chapel about the size of a small church.  The chapel had seating for about seventy, including quite a few raised wooden seats along the walls, of such intricate design one might expect to see them occupied by bishops or cardinals.  However, on this morning many of them were occupied by the regular congregation.
As people filtered in the congregation grew to about fifty, apparently working people and retirees, along with several nuns.  A nun was playing a large organ and leading the singing, and for the better part of an hour a beautiful service went on, probably little noticed by hundreds of visitors beyond the doors in the much larger basilica.
I've been getting to mass on most days, an opportunity that is one of the real treasures and joys of Assisi.  Whether with an international crowd in one of the larger churches, with a few locals in a smaller church, or with an order of religious nuns or brothers in a convent or monastery, the experience is very special.  Assisi, resting above a large valley and below the Umbrian sky, sometimes seems part way to heaven.
Here's a picture, taken at dusk, that may be called "Waiting by a Church."

Ciao.