Wednesday started
at 4:49am. We were going to the papal audience, but in order to get good seats,
we had to be the first through security and therefore the first in line. The
metro started running at 5:30, so we left the hotel by 5:15 to catch the first
metro. We were all so excited! We got off at Termini to switch Metro Lines and
we were all running down the escalator because the train was waiting at the
bottom. We literally threw ourselves onto the metro because we didn’t think we
were going to fit. But like true dedicated FUS students, we crammed even more
of us onto the metro. I literally could not move. If I wanted to, I probably
could have picked up my feet and not fallen onto the floor. In any case, when
we got off at Ottaviano we took off running. We slowed to a fast walk but we
made it to the line that was already forming and we were pretty close to the
front.
After we got there
at about 6:15, it kinda dawned on us that we had to wait for security to open
up at 8:15. We were all standing in a huge group trying to make sure that other
people didn’t infiltrate our group. There was this lady who was leaning against
my back like I was a stone pillar. She just put her full weight on me and kept
leaning. In any case, security opened up the outer gates and there was a mad
dash to the metal detectors. There was so much pushing and shoving that my feet
couldn’t keep up with my upper body because there were too many legs in front
of me. The crowd basically just pushed me along. So then we stood there for a little while
longer until we actually went through security. Then it was a mad dash to get
the best seats. Franciscan got up right against the rail and a few rows back so
we were in a good spot.
Everyone was so
excited and we all just stood in our spot waiting and waiting. There was a
Swiss guard in front of us that some of the girls took pictures with. Finally,
at 10am, the pope came out in the pope mobile. Everyone was cheering and waving
and clapping and waiting for him to come down our aisle. He turned the corner
and drove down near our side. He was looking towards us when he drove past and
then he stopped just past us to hold a baby. It was totally awesome!
Then he kept
driving around and eventually everyone sat down for the audience. He gave his
talk and then all these bishops translated it into different languages. It was
pretty amazing.
After the audience,
Rose, Hana, Shannon, and I walked around and they ended up buying shoes. I
bought some scarves and then Shannon and I got gelato while Rose and Hana went
into the Pantheon. Then we realized we needed to book it to make it to Mass on
time so we practically ran to the metro while Shannon and I were eating gelato.
We got on the metro and when we got off, Rose and Hana took off running to the
Lateran while Shannon and I tried to find a bathroom. We came across and little
pizzeria and the waiter let us use the bathroom. Then we ran across a few crazy
busy streets (we still can’t believe we didn’t die in the process) and ran up
to St. John Lateran for Mass.
When Mass was over,
I was taking a few pictures and then I looked over and saw Rebecca walking
towards me! I knew she was going to be there but it was still so shocking and
exciting to actually see her in Rome! It’s something we’ve always talked about
doing and the fact that it was actually happening was so awesome! Rebecca and
Sara took Anne Maria, Maggie, Maura, me and Shannon to Santa Scala which is the
church of the holy stairs where there are the stairs that Jesus walked up when
he was led to Pontius Pilate. We didn’t go up the stairs, but we looked and
then left to go to Santa Croce in Gerusalemme which is the chapel of the
Passion Relics. We saw a thorn from the crown of thorns, a nail from the
crucifixion, splinters of the true cross, the finger of Thomas that went in
Jesus’s side, and part of the cross beam of the good thief. After we visited
that chapel, Shannon and I said good bye to Rebecca and Sara and walked around
the corner where we took off running so that we could make it back to Santa
Scala to go up the stairs before it closed. It was about a 7 minute walk, but
we ran most of the way and by the time we got there we were out of breath and
sweating. We made it in and started ascending the stairs on our knees like the
other pilgrims. There was only about 5 other people, so we could go at our own
pace. We had a handout with prayers to be said on each of the twenty eight
steps so we prayed those prayers and then left.
We went back to St.
John Lateran to take pictures and then we went and saw the baptistery. Shannon
and I decided to go out to dinner so we went back to the pizza place where we
had used the bathroom and had pasta for dinner. We took the metro back to the
hotel and packed up our stuff before heading to bed.
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