Palm Sunday mass is celebrated outside in the square itself. There is an altar arranged on the upper level of the steps of Saint Peter's and the congregants gather in the square below to participate in the service. Half of the square (or thereabouts) is blocked off for ticketed guests, while the remainder of the square is open to any visitor who wishes to stand and celebrate the mass. Thousands must have come out on Sunday as the entire square and much of the avenue leading to the square were full by the time the service had ended.
Through C.J.'s oldest friend (who is a Brother at a monastery in Texas) we were able to secure tickets to both the Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday celebrations. We were thrilled to have tickets and greatly looked forward to celebrating our first mass with Pope Benedict XVI.
We arrived a bit later than we had planned - at about 9:00 - for the service which began at 9:30. After passing through security, we headed toward the section dictated by our tickets. After following the first usher up and down an aisle, we were unable to locate 4, let alone 1 or 2 seats for the four of us. That usher left us in the back aisle telling us we couldn't stay there but not giving us much suggestion on where to go. After standing there lost for a minute, and looking around for our next best option, another usher came over to us (they were all dressed in full tuxedos) and asked for our tickets. We showed them to him, and he told us to wait a minute. (Bear in mind, he's speaking Italian and we are speaking English, so there is a lot of gesturing going on). He came back a moment later and motioned for us to follow him. He led us away from the section of seat on the main level of the square and toward the Swiss Guard who were standing to the right (as you looked up at the altar) and controlling admittance toward the upper section where the altar was. The usher said something to the guard and then took us through that checkpoint and up to the steps leading to the altar. He then motioned to another usher who escorted us up to the chairs facing the side of the altar and motioned that we could sit there. We were in shock. Our seats were amazing. We were to the right of the altar (facing the altar perpendicularly) and had an unbelievable view of the altar, papal chair and crowd in the square below.
Just after 9:30 the mass started with the Pope's Procession out into the crowds. The entire mass (including the processions, Passion of the Lord (entirely sung), Homily, eucharistic liturgy, and final blessing/statement in several languages lasted approximately 2.5 hours. (The Pope's homily is only available in Italian at the moment, but when it is released in English you will be able to read it online here: http://www.vatican.va/liturgical_year/holy-week/2009/index_en.htm) Despite the length of the mass, the time flew by. The weather was perfect - it had to have been near 70 - and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The kids were well behaved and being outside provided them many nice distractions that we don't have during inside services.
We took lots of pictures. Here are those... (Sorry about the poor formatting. I think I've added too many shots and blogger isn't letting me organize them well. They are actually in reverse order from how they were taken, just fyi).
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