Easter Mass at the Vatican

AU girls take Easter Mass at the Vatican!

Over Easter weekend I was lucky to be visited by my friend Kelly from school back in D.C. who is spending her semester abroad in Madrid. She had contacted people awhile back and managed to get 4 tickets for Easter Mass at the Vatican with Pope Francis, and invited me along with two other friends of hers. This will be a short post, mostly just to share a few pictures.

Mass started Sunday morning at 10:15 however we left our apartment at 7:00 am not knowing what to expect. By the time we reached the line to get in around 7:45, there were a good amount of people waiting to get in, but not as bad as I had imagined it to be. After passing through security (you have to do this when you enter the Vatican regardless of the day), we were lucky enough to actually get seats in St. Peter’s Square where mass took place.

In front of us

Behind us

8 am at the Vatican

The most interesting/ surprising thing about mass was that it was conducted in several languages. Though the majority of the service was held in either Latin or Italian, different readings or sections were done in several languages including Greek, French, German, English, Arabic, and Spanish. There was certainly an international crowd present, so I thought that was very inclusive and unique that they would do that. I was also able to take communion (it was quite the process getting thousands of people through at once) and that was a great experience. Afterwards the Pope rode around and blessed the square, and actually passed pretty close to where we were standing.

There were tens of thousands of people there, and it certainly wasn’t a typical Easter, however I am so grateful for such a unique experience and that I was able to spend it with friends.