And yesterday was a very exciting day, because I got to go to the Papal Christmas Eve mass at the Vatican! It was at 10 pm, not midnight, but close enough. It was almost a whole day event, too, because we got there at 5 pm to wait in line. With the weather we had last week, I was a little worried about the potentially very frigid 4 hour wait, but it turned out to be ok. Apparently when my parents left they took the cold St. Louis weather back with them, and it was more like in the 40s or possible even low 50s yesterday--basically it couldn't have been better. It rained a bit off and on, but that didn't matter, because we were warm. Good company and conversation helped the wait to go pretty fast, and before we knew it we were in the basilica! We got very good seats, pretty close to the front. I've never seen St. Peter's so bright on the inside--turns out it DOES have lights, they just usually never turn them on. It was fairly bright while we were waiting before mass, and then when mass started they turned on more lights, and then at the Gloria even more lights came on...it was incredible.
Oh, and in case you heard the story about what happened to the Pope, here's my insider's account: I didn't see it happen, ha. It happened right when he walked in, so he was still in the back of the church, and we were near the front. But we definitely knew something was going on because we heard everyone gasp/scream, and the music stopped, and the guards sprinted down the aisle and everyone was standing on their chairs...and then a little while later everyone cheered, and the music started, and mass went on as usual. We didn't find out til afterwards what had happened. But we watched some youtube videos today, and it was SCARY, even though I knew personally that he was fine and got up and went on with mass like normal. It's just not something I ever expect to witness, I guess.
But other than that, mass was absolutely fantastic. Here's a picture of Katie, Evan, and I afterwards!
Unfortunately, Waffle Houses don't exist in Rome, so I wasn't able to participate in that particular tradition after mass this year. But this morning, my friend Evan's dad cooked pancakes for his whole family, and they generously invited Katie and I to join them. It was delicious! Then we all went to St. Peter's again, for the "Urbi et Orbi" blessing at noon. Papa Benedetto gave a fairly short address in Italian (I bet it was about Christmas...but I didn't exactly catch it all), and then said even shorter things in dozens of other languages. It was very cool.
The Pope is up there in that center window (I promise!) You don't realize how huge St. Peter's is until you see scale figures...
This is the long-awaited Presepe in St. Peter's Square, finally unveiled last night!
The rest of the day felt kind of special, but not exactly like Christmas. I watched most of "A Christmas Story", and walked around the city with Katie for a little while, and then we went out for dinner and got our favorite splurge dessert, tartufo (a fancy sort of ice cream). And I was thinking, the only way I knew it was Christmas this year was from the religious aspect. I didn't have the other Christmasy things and typical family traditions--no game tournament, no ham with cheese sauce dinner, I didn't even wake up and open presents today (except yours, Laura--thanks again!). It was almost a regular day, except we were celebrating Jesus' birth. And that felt the same as always, with the usual reflections that go along with it. (Though I think I reflected more on Mary and Joseph's, especially Joseph's, individual roles in the story than I had in the past). I guess I learned that while the family traditions are nice, they aren't really necessary for it to be Christmas--the Church feast is the same either way. Sort of. With that being said, I definitely did miss being home and will appreciate it very much next year. But I'm glad I have the experience of this year too.
Tomorrow I'm leaving with Katie for our two week tour of Europe! So not only did I celebrate Christmas in Rome, I will get to celebrate it equally as much in about five other cities that we'll be in during the Octave, starting with Wroclaw and Krakow, both in Poland. I'm pretty sure I've listed out before where all I'm going, but just in case...after that we'll be in Brussels and Bruges, and then meet up with a bunch of other archies and a couple other friends I know from ND in Paris for New Years, then Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Berlin. I'll come back to Rome for about 3 days, and then we're off to Egypt for a week! Should be pretty awesome! I will definitely have lots to write about when I get back. Til then, pray that we have safe travels!
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