The memorial mass

I decided to skip studio in order to go to the memorial mass for John Paul II yesterday- it was the first class I think I've skipped voluntarily (I've slept through a couple!) and it felt really strange to ask my professor if I could skip! He said sure, I could take the skip since I haven't used it, but later he changed it to an excused absence since other teachers gave that to the students who went with me. We left from studio and met up with a seminarian named Chris, who's from Indiana and went to Harvard. He had gotten us tickets and we arrived about 2 hours before the mass started, so we went in and got really good seats. The mass started at 5:30, so we got a good 2 hours of afternoon sun, which felt very good, but the sun went behind St. Peter's right before mass started, and when the wind picked up I was glad I had brought my jacket (I got to break out the leather)! The mass was in Latin- I'd like to say it was a Tridentine mass, but since I've never been to one before, I wouldn't be able to say. They handed us out a booklet with the Latin printed on it and the Italian translation next to it as well, so between Chris translating and the Italian, I understood almost all of what was going on. I thought the neatest part was the Gospel, which was chanted in Latin. Now, I'm sure there are people I know to whom this is normal (Mary Liz and Elise!) but I've never heard the gospel either chanted or in Latin, so this was new to me and I enjoyed it. The reading they picked was from the gospel of John (I think) where Jesus while on the cross gives John to his mother as her son, and tells John to care for Mary as his mother. Pope Benedict really impressed me by comparing Pope John Paul II to John- trying to live next to Mary with her as his mother and looking up to and aspiring towards Jesus and the cross. I thought it was an apt comparison and one that I would have never thought up myself! I felt bad for Benedict though- he knows he has very large shoes to fill and they are shoes of his friend to top it off. The other night at the vigil I thought he would come out and lead the rosary, but he just came out to his window and prayed along with everybody- and I think it was because he just wanted to remember his friend along with the rest of the people who were there. It really struck me because I always have the picture of the Pope as a leader in my mind, and there he really looked uncomfortable in his robes up in the window, like he just wanted to be an ordinary person down in the square. Having the mass must have been rather difficult too.

I also managed to mail out my Easter cards to my Wild Women and good ole 9316! Family, enjoy! I'm addressing the one card to both you guys and Mommom because I didn't feel up to making another one. We're entering project crunch time now... so I'm logging out. Ciao!