Sunday, April 1, 2018

Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square

Color guard enteting
Our entrance on Easter morning
Easter morning dawned clear and sunny in Rome. We decided to try to go to the Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square. I was a bit fearful of the crowds but it turned out to not be a problem. We were able to get through security in plenty of time. Just as were were going through security the color guard passed in front of us. There was still plenty of space in the square when we arrived. We were close enough to be able to see the speakers in the distance but also right in front or one of the jumbotron TVs. The service started soon after our arrival. The large crowd was very attentive. I tried to understand the message that was in Italian. I told Mark's family what I thought was the gist of the message and I was pretty close when I read it in English on the Internet. Pope Francis had 3 points:
1. God surprises us. It has been that way from the beginning of the story of salvation with Abraham: one surprise after another. 2. Responding quickly to God's surprises. God’s surprises demand an immediate response. Peter and John ran to the tomb. The shepherds on the night when Christ was born ran to see what the angel had revealed to them. 3.What about me? “Do I have a heart open to God’s surprises?" The experience turned out to be very positive and spiritually encouraging. - Nancy


Waiting for the service to start

Our view of the Pope under the red canopy

Leaving St. Peter's Square. The crowd had gotten larger during the service.


2 comments:

Marta said...

Your Italian is molto bene! We had an awesome day on Easter. We were all pleasantly surprised by the crowd.

N said...

wow......... so so so great that you could understand the sermon! And what an uplifting sermon.... God surprises us. El Dio supristo a usted. Is that what he said? And i'm so glad to see that Mark dressed up for the Pope