Thursday, July 17

The Keys to Heaven

"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." - Mathew 16:19

While in Rome, I went to Vatican City twice. The first time was with my wife and we first did a self-tour of St. Peter's Basilica and then a very special tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. I went again on my one lone day in Rome and my hope was to climb up to the dome of St. Peter's. Once I got there, I realized how lucky we had been on our first trip when it only took 20 minutes to get inside St. Peter's. This time, the line was at least 2 hours long! I gave up my plan for the dome and instead just sent some post cards from the Vatican Post Office.

I don't know much about the Roman Catholic church, but in our tour of the Vatican, our guide repeatedly showed us symbology of the keys in St. Peter's hand. The Roman Catholic church believes that Jesus gave Peter the keys to heaven and through this authority he became the first Bishop of Rome and hence was the very first pope. The authority of all popes is inherited from this. The Basilica is built over Peter's tomb (and also a pagan cemetary from way back.)

The slideshow here is from all over St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums. The magnitude of the place is hard to fathom or describe for someone else. You can see why the Vatican needed to loot many of the other Roman landmarks for the building materials and art that you see here. Recycling at its best.

1 comment:

Cristen aka Payne D. Spencer said...

We were pretty lucky both times we were in Rome. The first time we went to the Vatican Museum and didn't wait for 1 minute. The second trip we toured St. Peter's and didn't wait at all. I guess that's the perk of traveling in the fall. Less dumbass tourists.