A Georgia Girl in Germany

Before heading to St. Peter’s Basilica for midnight mass with Pope Benedict XVI, we continued our tradition of the kids each opening one Christmas Eve gift. I figured they wouldn’t be coherent enough when we returned afterward to open the gifts. The Christmas Eve gifts are typically the same for each of them -- this time they all received gloves...although Zachary seemed perplexed since he didn’t think he needed new gloves.

After opening the gifts, we headed to the Vatican. We bundled up against the cold night air since we had to wait a while in the square before we could head inside St. Peter’s Basilica for mass. Zachary and MacKenzie even paused long enough for me to take their photo in front of the Vatican’s Christmas tree.

The kids were all tired, which is understandable since they don’t typically stay up until midnight. Benjamin was the first one to crash out. He started out laying across his chair with his head in my lap, but since we had to stand and sit quite a bit I ended up holding him before mass was over.


Zachary and MacKenzie managed to stay awake at least until mass began, although they quickly faded. MacKenzie’s holding her copy of the 66-page program. Every word spoken and every note sung was printed in the program...in many languages that I can’t even identify.

The basilica has the capacity to seat more than 60,000 people, and it filled up pretty quickly! We actually had pretty good seats in the left (south) transept where we had a direct view of the left side of St. Peter's baldacchino. The baldacchino is a large baroque sculpted bronze artwork located over the high altar, the large canopy of which was intended to mark in a monumental way the place of Saint Peter’s tomb.

The four columns are 36 feet high, each composed of three metal pieces. Their twisting shape hints to the ancient Solomon's Temple and to the vaulted canopy over the high altar of the old St. Peter's Basilica (the fourth century church that preceded the current basilica). The columns are crossed by nature-inspired motifs including evergreen leaves, lizards and bees, which were part of the Pope's coat of arms and are also present in the basements.

For the upper part, a “dolphin's back” shape was used to make it lighter. It includes gilded statues of angels and putti (pudgy human babies, often misidentified as cherubs), while the horizontal beams have Baroque-style waving drapes.


Cameras weren’t allowed inside the basilica, so I didn’t bring my large SLR camera, but instead snuck in MacKenzie’s somewhat smaller digital camera. However, many people had pocket-sized digital cameras that quickly came out when the pope emerged (above). I didn’t want to risk bringing mine, since I wasn’t sure how strict security would be with it and didn’t want to take a chance on not getting inside for mass because of my camera.

Zachary slept through about half of the service and woke up for the "hallelujahs" midway through. MacKenzie slept through most of the service and woke up in time for the benediction. Benjamin slept through it all...every last minute of it. Fortunately, they were all three awake for the Christmas day papal blessing in St. Peter's Square.




What a wonderful feeling to be able to cuddle with my youngest baby in St. Peter’s Basilica while listening to the pope perform Christmas Eve midnight mass -- very soothing. Benjamin must have thought so too since he barely stirred, even as I repeatedly stood and sat during the service.

These are the best photos I was able to get of the pope during the mass... with MacKenzie’s camera zoomed in as much as possible (yes, I now have my own pocket-size digital camera). The pope is blessing two young children as part of the service in the photo below.

Only two segments of the mass were in English -- a reading from the book of Isaiah and a reading of the letter from Paul to Titus.

Bless his heart, Benjamin was so tired by the time we returned to our hotel (around 3 a.m.) that he crashed out on the floor just inside our room...still clutching our room key!

Labels: Benjamin, Christmas, Italy, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary