The Roamin' Roman

Benvenuto! You have happened upon the blog of a wandering Catholic American college student studying for a year in Rome, the Eternal City. You will find here my pontifications, ruminations, reflections, images, and ponderings on my life in Rome. Ciao!

Friday, November 11

Mass with the Holy Father

It's been a busy day - but boy was it worth it! The Mass this morning was splendid, it could not have gone better. All seven of our seminarians here served at the Mass, and did a beautiful job. Boy do they have some stories to tell! All of them had their special moments with the Holy Father, a few of them even got one of his trademark grins.

I can't really even begin to describe what the experience of this Mass was like for us, but I guess I should at least attempt to relate something... All of us were able to receive Holy Communion from Pope Benedict, it was only an instant of my life, but one that I will remember forever and a day! :) I remember getting into line behind the other girls, and following them out of the pew, and approaching the Holy Father - I couldn't see him too well of course, because of the line in front of me, but I could hear his soft voice saying "Corpus Christi". Then, I got to the point where I was next in line, and spontaneously genuflected as I came up to him holding our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. This was fine and I don't regret showing that respect to our Lord, but it made it kind of awkward unexpectedly - because the Holy Father had a Host ready for me when I came up and I came up RIGHT in front of it - I couldn't even see the Holy Father's face, just Jesus. And then I hear his soft voice say "Corpus Christi" to me and well, somehow I managed to say "Amen" and open my mouth without too much hesitation, but boy do I bet I had an odd expression!! Oh well :) Jesus is Jesus, and I received Jesus today (Body Blood Soul and Divinity) from the hands of his Vicar here on earth, the shepherd of His flock. Deo gracias!

I took some photos, but unfortunately it was kind of dark for photography, I was a bit too far back from the sanctuary due to all the cardinals, bishops and clergy, and I'm a bit too short to see over people... So in order to get photos I had to raise the camera way over my head and try to focus and take the picture without shaking too much. I was only moderately successful, but at least we (the guys especially) will have some photos for memories - at this point it seems that the L'Osservatore Romano photographer didn't take any photos during most of the Mass itself... though he did get great photos of us receiving Holy Communion from the Pope. There is another photographery service that apparently was taking photos too, we're going to check there tomorrow and see if they have any other photos.

2 Comments:

  • At 7:38 PM, Blogger Perry Lorenzo said…

    I can't thank you enough for your telling of your experience of this Mass, as well as for your photographs which are just splendid! You and your friends give me a lot of hope and joy! Thank you for sharing your experience!

    Perry Lorenzo www.perrylorenzo.blogspot.com

     
  • At 3:13 PM, Blogger CDE said…

    Hi Mary,

    Sounds like you're having many unrepeatable experiences over there in Rome. Thanks for blogging about it all. Great pics!

     

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