Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the Papal Mass at Nationals Stadium. It was an awesome experience that I cannot well put into words.
It was an exercise in organized chaos. Thankfully everyone had assigned seats, or I cannot imagine the mess it would have been. We took Metro in, and the green line was so utterly packed that Lauren and I were not sure that we would fit into the car, and from what I gather from my mom, it only got worse, though she was apparently only a few minutes behind us. The Metro people were nice in a busy way, directing people towards the right platforms, and helping when the special tickets they sold for those going to the Mass had issues. There were a surprising number of issues with what where essentially day passes.
At the ball park, it took people so long to get settled that I do not think all that many (relatively speaking) people took much notice of the procession of bishops into the stadium. There were so many of them. I wonder how many of them are "only" auxiliary bishops. There were a handful of bishops in gold with what looked like (to my eyes, without binoculars, and not seeing it on the TV screen) crowns. Were these cardinals, or eastern rite bishops? I am unsure. Also, there were priests down on the field in full vestments, and others only wearing an alb and stole, what is the difference? The deacons were distinguishable, naturally, because they wear their stole diagonally. Also, some of the non-priest/deacon people (presumably seminarians) were in black cassocks, and others in red/scarlet. Is there a significant difference, or was it just representative of the role they were playing in the day's events?
During the Mass itself, at Communion, many (but not all) of the Communion stations had yellow umbrellas that volunteers in their red jackets held somewhat but not really over the priest or deacon's head. What was the thinking?
The Pope spoke very good English, but between my lack of skill at accents, and the degrading effect of the speakers, it was a little bit hard to understand him at times. I am thankful that today I was able to download the full text of his homily.
But really, with all these questions and comments, I am not at all getting across my emotions. I am so very glad that I was able to go, that I did attend.