A very happy surprise

As part of our Lenten liturgies at the parish we are holding Solemn Vespers each Friday evening at 5:30 p.m.

The time would work well, we thought, since we have the Stations of the Cross and Benediction at 7:00 p.m. on Fridays during Lent. People could come to Vespers, have an hour to grab a bite to eat and return for Stations (thinking that those who came to Vespers would more than likely return for Stations).

I expected about twenty people to attend. Maybe. So I printed up twenty-five copies of the program.

I donned my cassock (which is not uncommon), surplice and violet stole and cope and our music director brought out a small hand harp and plucked the tones at the beginning of the Psalms while we chanted them unaided. We even used incense during the Magnificat.

We used simple chant tones for the Psalmody and for everything, really. We chanted the Our Father in Latin (well, all right. I chanted it in Latin while others tried to find their way).

At the beginning of each Psalm there was, naturally, a bit of difficult catching on, but by the fourth verse of each Psalm, everyone was on the same page, so to speak.

I am delighted to say that we had thirty-five to forty people in attendance! I was quite surprised and elated!

How did the people respond?

We have our parish a very dear and elderly nun who rarely has an expression on her face. It isn't that she doesn't care or isn't happy, she just isn't easily excited or upset (as best as I can tell). She's a sweet woman, really.

I'm told that as she left the church her face was rosey and she carried a big smile on her face and said simply, "That was beautiful!" I could not agree more. God be praised!

I can't wait to see how many we people we have next week. It just goes to show that what I said earlier today is true.

Vespers at St. Paul's

The Holy Father presided at Vespers in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls on the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul to mark the centenary of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. Thanks be to God, I received a ticket to attend the celebration.

I had hoped to arrive at the Basilica about 2:30 p.m., three full hours prior to the start of Vespers, to use this time to take pictures of the Basilica since it is the one most difficult to reach. This particular Basilica is my favorite of the four "major" ones, the others being St. Peter's, St. John on the Lateran hill, and Saint Mary Major.

At any rate, I actually arrived at the Basilica about 3:00 p.m., due to some delays caused by shopping, and glad that I arrived later than intended. I hadn't taken into account, you see, the possibility of the Basilica being closed before Pope Benedict XVI's arrival.

When I reached the front gate of the Basilica about one hundred people were already waiting outside and there we stood until they finally opened the doors at 4:00 p.m. After the mandatory bag check I finally crossed the threshold closer to 4:15 p.m. with no real time or chance to take pictures.

Five years ago when I was in Rome I attended Mass on this same Feast and had a profoud spiritual moment. I have written up an article about it and will link to it later today, having forgotten to do so before I left for Rome.

Since I left the hotel before my priest-friends (because I wanted to take pictures) I looked around for a good place to sit, most of which were already taken. Glancing around I saw Fr. Guy Selvester of Shouts in the Piazza - whom I bumped into quite a few times in Rome (Fr. Selvester introduced me to Fr. Jay Toborowski of Young Fogeys) - sitting right on the aisle. He kindly offered me the seat next to him and I sat on the second seat from the aisle. When the Holy Father processed by he was, perhaps, five feet away.

Despite the pushing and shoving - present at all Papal events - that stole from my lens a couple of terrific shots of the Pontiff, it was an event worth attending. I was able to snap a few pictures worth looking at (this experience told me it might be time to consider investing in a new camera with great zoom capabilities):

Being right on the aisle, Fr. Selvester was able to take a couple of excellent pictures without the elbow jabs I suffered.