Meeting Pope Francis

For the last couple of months I have been begging lots of people who we know in 'high places' to get Kev and me to meet the Pope before we leave. Our trusty friend Msgr Sarno came through for us. He wrote a letter to the Vatican requesting that Kev and I attend the Pope's Mass at  Domus Sanctae Marthae. He was actually expecting a negative response because only employees of the Vatican can do this. For some reason, they said yes.

On July 1st, at 7:00am we had Mass with Pope Francis! We had only had three hours sleep because of the party with the students the night before, so we were fairly tired. Just before Mass started, the priest who was organising everything asked Kev if he would give him a hand with the offertory. We assumed that he meant the offertory procession. Actually, he was assisting at the altar. 

Kev helping out with the offertory

He got to hand Pope Francis the hand towel. 

 Kev serving at Mass with Pope Francis

The Mass was so beautiful, reverent and prayerful. As usual, the Pope preached so well - he is truly an inspiration.

After Mass, the Pope came and sat down with the small congregation (about 40 people) and prayed for some time.

Pope Francis praying after Mass 

(Kev and I are third row on the left, the Pope is on the right)

Then he went out of the chapel and greeted each person. We spoke with him for just a couple of minutes. Actually, the pictures might make it look like I was doing all the talking. You can't always trust what you see!

We asked him to pray for us and he gave us his blessing.

Blessing from Pope Francis

Then I managed to get a few more words in....

He asked us to pray for him. Then our time was up!  He is such a warm, friendly, fatherly (not to mention cute)  and joyful man.