Pasqua

Holidays are always hard away from home.

They're even harder when you're almost 5000 miles from home.

Contemplative. Though I suppose that's a good word choice for this Easter. Or any Easter, but this one has a decidedly different feel to it than any other I've celebrated.

Mass at the Vatican was an incredible experience. Indulgence aside, it was something I knew I had to do. How can one not be in Rome for Easter and not go? The rest of my program is off on spring break (I leave for lovely Londontown on Tuesday) but I wanted to stay in town, even if that means going slightly stir crazy in my apartment. I've gotten a lot of writing done, which has been nice, but it's been weird being alone all the time. A J.D. Salinger I am not.

But back to Mass. We arrived at Saint Peters around 7 am, grabbed a cappuccino to go and stood until they let us into the square at 8:30. After a mildly mad dash to the front of the square we found ourselves in the 9th row, near the center asile. The front steps were covered with flowers and though the sky was dismally grey, we all watched what seemed like an endless stream of priests and Swiss Guard set up. Benedict himself arrived after a large marching band around 10:30.

It's odd, maybe because I attended Catholic School for so long, but I have a hard time seeing the Pope as a prominent figure in modern politics. I think I've been desensitized to him, PJPII's picture was always hanging in every classroom at JIS, less so at De, but still, I think of him as this weird spiritual leader, a very abstract concept.

So when he rode in on his little cart/car thingy and the entire square thundered with applause I was, I suppose confused isn't the right word. It was unsettling. I guess the Protestants were right when they talk about Catholics paying allegiance to a foreign prince. But if I dwell on it too much I get uncomfortable. So I won't.

Mass itself was mostly in Latin so at least we were all pretty confused together. And my confused I mean I was in my element, spitting off that Agnus Dei in a way that would have made even Brother David proud. It was beautiful.

After Mass Benedict went up to the balcony at the front of Saint Peters to address the crowd. He began in Italian and then went through pretty much every language know to man (which, admittedly, was really cool) giving his Easter blessing. AND THEN HE ADDRESSED THE CROWD IN ESPERANTO. It was a wtf/this is so cool moment. Because there are like 2000 native Esperanto speakers WORLD-WIDE people. It's basically pointless now but they included it. Which is weird because Catholics aren't that inclusive as a bunch.

 7 am (crooked) flowered main stairs

 The crowd

Benedict giving his blessing

It was well worth everything that was involved. Even for the guilt inducing 25 year old nuns (who you just cannot say no to) who actually hand you the tickets at the office you pick them up at. My mother finds that whole story funny enough to tell I think the entire state of Minnesota, so I'm sure when I return to to the great white north in less than a month (eek!) I will often have to laugh when people point to the nearest closet and say "Why don't you go in there and have a nice good confession with a preist from home, then come back when you're done and I'll give you the tickets."

Anyway, I got an indulgence out of the whole thing. I didn't even have to pay for it. I guess that whole counter-reformation thing actually did some good.