More Silence

Pending Thoughts: Terrible week. Crunch time has come. I have two papers due Tuesday, I am MCing a confirmation on Thursday (I fumble around in Novus Ordo Mass), and I have 15 minute presentation on Saint Adalbert of Prague due on Friday. Not to mention the everyday expectations. This is also merely this week, next week there's more.

The New York Papal trip caught me off guard. I did not plan outright for this weekend because I didn't put much to it. I thought it wouldn't matter much. Sure I would see the Pope, possibly shake his hand. There was also those two 22 hour bus rides. I guess I didn't realize the grandeur of the presence of the Vicar of Christ. I guess it finally hit me when we entered the back of the seminary grounds. They predicted 26,000 people to come to this youth rally. When you experience something like World Youth Day in Germany with 1 million people in one giant field.... 26,000 doesn't impress you so much. Number of people aside, there were people freaking everywhere. I didn't exactly move too much... some of us early on went to buy some lunch and this added to my lack of comprehension of the whole size of the crowd. I tried to take pictures of the crowd, but I couldn't get high enough. Oh well. Of notable performances before the Pope: Matt Maher. It seems that he accompanies me in any spiritual resurgence. When I bought his first cd, "the end and the beginning" I played it over and over. I think one time, while trying to fall asleep, I recited the album in my head word for word. He played "Here I Am"... its maybe some David Haas song, but it hit well with the seminarian crowd around the front of the stage. This has a significant impact on me, because of pure humility of the song. "Here I am Lord, Is It I Lord. I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart." Can anyone say priesthood? Doesn't that describe the priesthood? Beyond that the performances lacked any spiritual impact. A majority of them were Protestant, even they didn't comprehend the presence of the universal church at Her Pope.

Finally the Pope came... with the Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops. His presence truly invigorating the whole crowd, much more so than the musical performers. This cohesion of authority in one person so imbued by the Holy Spirit makes the idea of Catholicism so complete, the words of Christ so meaningful and not lacking any ambiguity. His smiles and care bring about a pastoral quality unlike I've seen. Of course my living years have only had two Popes, but this Pope I feel so much more connected. When he touched on vocations and in particular the seminarians, we all yelped "We love you Papa" and this was so sincere. His thoughts on the personal prayer, liturgical prayer, silence(!), and charity, though heard of before, came clear and new. Catholicism is not about the new and trendy, but what has already been said in the Person of Christ. His words met the ears of a bleeding, wounded, and starving church. Our generation is dying to hear what he said about the importance of prayer in community (liturgy) and the personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has not left the Church in America. My rector noted that while he stood there, his faith in the universal Church and its Savior Christ, was reignited. He stood with the Vicar of Christ and the future priests of the Church, I included. Overall, the Pope re-fired and re-fueled those same fires my rector spoke of. From Matt Maher's "Here I am Lord" to "We Love you Papa" I came to touch that Spirit which is guarding the Roman Catholic Church from the gates of hell.