Pope Francis and me.

I actually just had the most incredible experience of my life: mass at the Vatican celebrated by the Pope. I grew up in a Catholic household, and going to mass was always extremely important in my family. I consider myself to have a reasonable faith life, but I am often the one dosing off in mass, not paying attention and frankly, not caring. On our walk to the Vatican for mass today I truthfully was thinking more about how cool of a sight it was going to be to see and not at all how being there would affect me. I was shocked that when my eyes first fell on the Pope, those same eyes filled with tears. I had no clue I would be so emotionally moved! The whole mass was in Italian, but I could actually follow along pretty well. The rhythm of the mass is the same, and I could tell by the responses what part of the mass it is, even though I couldn't understand a word. It was absolutely incredible. That's really the only way to describe it. The whole time I just kept think about how blessed I was to be there, and how so many people deserve to be there above me. Standing there, in a sea of people, in front of the Pope and the other clergy and the Vatican, I felt like the smallest bit of something really big. It really hit me on our walk back when I saw actually how many people were there. I seriously have never seen so many people in one place desperately trying to catch a glimpse and be a part of it all (and I was at Lolla). It's hard to explain, but it definitely was not what I was expecting. We were fortunately close enough to get great pictures of the Pope with my camera! The mass was held outside to hold the amount of people coming to see Pope Francis, but I am looking forward to going back and seeing the inside.

Don't worry- I said a few prayers for you all while I was there :)

Much love!