A visit to Paris from Pope Benedict XVI

After seeing banners around Paris telling about the Pope coming to town......and since he was doing an outdoor Mass on the grassy Invalides esplanade a few blocks from where we live......Lyle got me out of a deep sleep at 7 a.m., brought me a cup of coffee, and told me that this is something we needed to see. On a crisp and hazy Autumn morning we walked with the crowds to find a place to sit. Well, the predictions of large crowds were right. Over 200,000 people came out that day to welcome him and hear what he had to say.

We were too late to sit directly in the middle, but there were huge screens and speakers set up so that nearly everyone could get a view and hear the music.

We heard that many of the youth camped overnight on the lawn, after a huge youth service at Notre Dame the night before. People of all ages squeezed in to find a place and waited hours for the Mass to start. Amazing for a country where only 50% of the population say they are Roman Catholic, and of these, only 10% regularly attend church! This is something President Sarkozy thinks should change, with his talk of "positive secularism" the day before. France has had a strict view of separation of church and state since passing a law in 1905. Many here feel that religion should be a 'private thing' and not talked about nor shared.

On the giant screens in front of us, we could see Pope "Benoit" make his way in the popemobile through the crowds.....

.......and then conducted a Mass, all in French, but we could follow it in the booklets they handed out. What we couldn't understand, however, was his sermon. I did read about it later, though, and what he mainly called the people to do was to give up "idols" that keep them away from God. He emphasized that Europe is facing "disaster" if it turns away from religion. But he also emphasized that the way to get close to God was to make a vocation of serving Him and called for the youth to consider that. There is great concern here that there are so few youth wanting to enter ministry.

I turned to Lyle and asked, "Are they really going to serve Communion to all of these people?" He said, "Watch..." And hundreds of priests went through the crowd and passed out the bread.

WOW! It was all very organized and orderly, and only took less than 15 minutes for the communion. The whole service lasted about two hours, and we headed home.....

......and watched the "Popemobile" go right down our street!

Here is a short video of the music before the service: