so they committed themselves to the will of god

There is a long, beautiful hallway that leads from St. Peter’s basilica to the Sistine Chapel. For years I imagined it without the tourists crunching their way through – just as it was when Michelangelo walked to work every day to climb on that scaffolding with his brushes. The walk, the hallway, and the Sistine Chapel were the only places that I didn’t take pictures when I was in Italy. It can’t be captured. Now the conclave is meeting and the stained wooden doors to the Chapel have been closed, and I wonder what those men are thinking among all of that beauty. Are they thinking preservation, doctrine, politics, faith? I don’t know. I wonder if they look around them, above them in that small room, and for just a moment sanctification seeps into their hearts; if grace, that warm quip of free and unmerited love takes hold - and they are quiet.

In honor of this moment in history, choosing the 264th successor to St. Peter, I’ve decided to post a few pictures from Italy.