BUT I would like to say that a week and a half ago I had the most enlightening experience of my entire life, I go to see the pope, TWICE.
The first time I saw his holiness was on saturday night at a rosary reading for University Students of Roma in the Papal Audience Hall. Myself and two of my classmates decided we wanted to go earlier in the week. The problem with this of course is that we needed tickets to get in. Now the tickets are free yes, but I mean it's the Pope, which means the vatican had not had tickets to give out for at least a week and a half. So we figured, well what the heck, lets just show up and hope for the best.
So we show up to the entrance, just outside the south colonnade of Piazza del San Pietro, and are trying to think of a way to get tickets. Then out of nowhere, our prayers were answered. A group of older american college students see us looking a bit distraught, they come over to us and ask us if we need tickets. I was in shock at this point and had forgotten to say the all important word, "yes." So while I was looking like an idiot, one of the girls next to me answers the question rather enthusiastically, "yes, yes we do!" The man hands us three tickets as we thank him rather emphatically! It turns out he and his classmates are just regular good old cathlics from the one and only University of Notre Dame! hahaha yeah that was great finding that out!
Once inside I began to realize that my cloud 9 high was not going to ware off because we were sitting only a few hundred feet from the stage where the pope was going to be lead the rosary! Seeing Pope Benedict XVI in front of us was just utterly amazing, red Prada shoes and all!
The next day needs no preclude like the night before because I did not sleep much that night, due to the realization that I had just seen the pope! Sunday morning however is much of the same story as we get to the piazza 2.5 hours prior to mass without tickets and only a hope and a prayer of getting any. As we approach the tens of thousands of people already waiting in line we start to think, this is not gunna be as easy as last night. That was until one of the quieter girls in the group walks over to a tour group and simply asks if they had extra tickets, GENIUS!! The little old lady tour guide comes out of the crowd wth a big smile on her face and opens up an envelope full of tickets, WE DID IT AGAIN! WE GOT TICKETS ON A HOPE AND A PRAYER!
It only got more surreal as time went on, because it was once we started moving in line that we again realized something amazing. We were one of the first ones in the piazza and could get completely inside San Pietro for mass. Oh and I forgot to mention, it was a canonization mass! HA! We got inside San Pitro, on a day Pope Benedict was leading mass, for a canonization mass! Down right amazing!
I have now truly experienced everything that a catholic can possibly dream of while in the vatican. I have seen the Sistine Chapel, seen the Vaticani Musei, seen Michelangelo's Pietá, and have seen the pope, twice.
San Pietro truly is the most holy place on earth and I can honestly say that I have since been truly enlightened after such a wonderful holy pilgrimage. I can now say that the reason I am in Roma is not for school or for travel. It is to come full circle in my faith, and be reborn in my personal relationship with christ and the holy roman catholic faith!
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