Memories (or lack thereof) of a Papal Mass

Have you ever written such a long comment to someone that you just decided to write your own post?

I was reading Abigail's post about her choir getting to sing back up vocals for a song her choir director wrote inspired by the upcoming papal visit. It was recorded and everything! It inspired her to want to create something new in honor of the pope coming to town. As I read I thought papal visit - upcoming? I've heard rumbling about the pope coming to the US but for some reason have not internalized the information to the point that I realized it is coming up - VERY SOON! As in April! All of a sudden, I'm very excited about this event. It will be so wonderful to get to know the pope a little better through his visit to our country.

Abigail was mentioning how everyone in D.C. is hoping for tickets to the papal mass. D.C.'s not the only place where people are clamoring for tickets! My friend called me a few weeks ago and told me in a panicked voice to turn on the news because a news van was at a nearby church and she wasn't home to watch and see what was going on. Sadly, we've learned around here that it is never a good thing when there is a news van in front of a Catholic Church! Anyway I sat and watched the entire broadcast and towards the very end came the story about the Diocese having such and such many tickets and how you have to have your pastor write a letter about why you should get them etc. They were just doing a live shot at our church and interviewed a couple of ladies who had applied.

It started me thinking about how I got to go to a mass that Pope John Paul II celebrated in San Antonio when I was 14 years old. Sadly, I really don't remember anything about it. In fact, I got most of the following information from my dad! He had the honor of being a Minister of Holy Communion (passing out communion) at the mass. The picture is of a ceramic ciborium (vessel used to contain the Blessed Sacrament) that he was given to pass out the Eucharist. He got to keep it - isn't it beautiful? The other ceramic piece in the picture with hands was his "security" tag that showed he was authorized to do this. He has always been impressed with the fact that the pope can consecrate the host "long distance"! He was about 50 -100 yards away!

It's really sad to me now that I don't remember this experience. I would give anything to go to a papal mass now!

In the meantime, the closest I've gotten to going to something that requires tickets was this...