Papal Audience with Pope Benedict XVI

Early this morning we woke up at 6:30am to get the best seats possible for the papal audience with Pope Benedict XVI. We ended up just three rows from the front sitting among a sea of devoted nuns and monks visiting from around the world. Being raised as a catholic, I felt as though as I was fulfilling some sort of pilgrim duty by taking advantage of the opportunity. It was really cool to see Pope Benedict in person - opportunity of a lifetime. The papal audience attracted individuals, groups, clergy and newly weds (wearing their wedding attire to have Pope Benedict bless their marriage)

The event started with a Gospel repeated 7 times each in a different language. This was read by various cardinals originating from those countries. Then, Pope Benedict would give a different public statement to each of the various cultures present in the audience. During this time, those in the audience that were part of groups were announced. We were suppose to sing to the Pope during "Students from the University of Delaware in America," however we weren't allotted much time to commence the song... would've been nice to sing for the Pope, but that's alright. This was the longest part of the papal audience just because they announced all the groups from "x" country before the Pope would read a page long statement to that cultural community in their native language. There were TONS of different cultures present which made the speech take very long and obviously I was unable to translate all the languages so I was listening to speech that I couldn't understand. Languages included Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish... I think I lost track after that.
The papal audience ended with the "Our Father" prayer - in Latin! I said the prayer by reading the Latin prayer card - but I'm sure I didn't pronounce the words correctly.

I was told that Pope John Paul would walk in down the aisle to greet the people and that at the end of the audience, he would walk around and give out blessings. Thoughts? Comments? Pope Benedict did not walk down the aisle - he walked off the left side of the stage and at the end one by one cardinals, bishops, the sick, and then everyone else could line up immediately after.

After the papal audience, we went to see the St. Peter's Basilica. As I continue to repeat throughout this blog - words cannot describe the beauty and awe you feel when you enter that amazing building. The building looked as though it could've been completed yesterday with the wonderful and shiny marble statues and decorations. The large windows located on the side of the basilica shed in tons of light that enhanced the natural beauty inside. At one point, the suns rays reached into the basilica so directly that it looked like the light of God was shining right into the side of the cathedral. The whole thing was breathtaking...