It was awesome! I did get sunburned on my face, and it was a
long day, but I'm so glad I had the chance to go.
Here is an excerpt from his homily:
Pope Benedict XVI wrote:"Authority" … "obedience". To be frank, these are not easy words to speak nowadays. Words like these represent a "stumbling stone" for many of our contemporaries, especially in a society which rightly places a high value on personal freedom. Yet, in the light of our faith in Jesus Christ - "the way and the truth and the life" - we come to see the fullest meaning, value, and indeed beauty, of those words. The Gospel teaches us that true freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self-surrender which is part of the mystery of love. Only by losing ourselves, the Lord tells us, do we truly find ourselves. True freedom blossoms when we turn away from the burden of sin, which clouds our perceptions and weakens our resolve, and find the source of our ultimate happiness in him who is infinite love, infinite freedom, infinite life. "In his will is our peace."
Real freedom, then, is God's gracious gift, the fruit of conversion to his truth, the truth which makes us free. And this freedom in truth brings in its wake a new and liberating way of seeing reality. When we put on "the mind of Christ," new horizons open before us! In the light of faith, within the communion of the Church, we also find the inspiration and strength to become a leaven of the Gospel in the world. We become the light of the world, the salt of the earth, entrusted with the "apostolate" of making our own lives, and the world in which we live, conform ever more fully to God's saving plan.
Full Homily
I think the German (or rather, Bavarian) accent makes his English a little difficult to understand. But once you get used to all the
'the's being
'ze's, it's not so bad. I was able to follow what he said. His Spanish ennunciation is much clearer, though I've heard he's less fluent in that language. Of course, that might be because it sounds so much like Italian.
So, anyway, yeah, account of the day. Got up at 4:45 AM. Woke up my sister at 5 AM, because her alarm didn't go off. Left soon after to pick up our friend around 5:20. Arrived at the Park-and-Ride to meet the bus, which was supposed to come at 6 AM. Buses finally arrived at 7 AM, much to everyone's consternation. Parked the bus near Yankee Stadium, and walked (maybe a mile, not too bad). Saw the new Stadium they were building.
(pic) Saw lots of priests in vestments wearing Yankees caps.
(pic) Talked to people in line waiting to get into the stadium. All the seats from Baltimore were in a block, so it was fun to talk to a couple people we knew once we got to our section. We had
awesome seats! We were in the top tier, but in like the 4th row back. I didn't have to look at the screens ever - I just watched the whole thing. Hmmm, we were on the first base side, and the main altar was set up at 2nd base. So, it was pretty cool! (see pic below) They had a bunch of musicians perform in the afternoon (my favorite being Dana singing 'We Are One Body', the theme song from World Youth Day '93 in Denver)
Then the popemobile showed up
(pic), and everyone cheered, and we had mass. The occasion of the visit was the 200th anniversary of Baltimore being elevated from a diocese to an archdiocese (at the time, the entire US was the Baltimore diocese *grin*), and the formation of the dioceses of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Louisville, KY. So, there was a block of seats in the stadium set aside for people from each of those places, and we all cheered when each city was called. But, it was Yankee Stadium - so how often do they cheer for Boston there?
(pic) That also meant that a seminarian from each of those dioceses was an altar server for the mass, and the one from Baltimore is friends with my sister. So, he's in this picture, the lucky guy:
(pic) My sister translated the Spanish portion of the homily for me, and the Spanish-speaking people sitting in front of us turned around and grinned at her. Mass was great, and communion was handled really well. It's difficult to distribute communion to that many people quickly, but they did it (I think in less than 15 minutes). Part of the reason they pulled that off was because they had the priests line the stage/altar holding the ciboriums during consecration.
(pic) It was pretty awesome to see that, especially after he'd mentioned 'living stones' in his homily - it was like having living altars.
(pic)
Afterwards, my sister chit-chatted with the nuns sitting behind us.
(pic) They are an active/contemplative order from France (
Community of St. John), and while they're new in this country, they're a very multi-national group. The pope left.
(pic) We made our way back to the bus, and headed home. Well, with a slight detour. We went over the Tappan Zee bridge, randomly, so it was nice for people to get to see the Hudson River, but a bit out of the way. My sister had baked brownies, so we shared them with the whole group. I spent some time writing, and the rest of the time falling asleep on my sister's shoulder/lap. I still have a stiff neck
.
We finally got back around 11:30 at night, and I crashed. I had to take a nap after work for the next three days, and stand up in front of teenage girls with a peeling face....but it was still worth it
.
(All pictures compliments of my sister; my camera has actual film in it, it's not digital.)
) since I don't have to drive Calgary's snowstorm covered streets but I get to watch the Pope's Visit to America in full. 
