Josh and I watched some of the coverage of the Pope's visit to America this past week, and it was really interesting to see all of the hoopla. We watched parts of the mass in Yankee Stadium- who knew that communion could be served to 58,000 people in 15 minutes? Wow, talk about express service. (I just want to go on record as saying that in these reflections I mean no disrespect to the Pope or the Catholic church- I did find some things funny, however.)
We were watching the mass yesterday afternoon with Josh's parents, who were in town for the weekend. Somehow Howie managed to commandeer the TV remote and continually muted the Pope during his homily, and also changed the TV twice to Animal Planet and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Our son is sending a message at a young age that he's a Protestant.
We also found the term "Popemobile" hilarious. The Pope came out into Yankee Stadium in his little car/golf cart, and the news people kept referring to it as the "Popemobile." At first I thought they were just kidding around and saying that as a joke. I thought, "Wow, that seems a little disrespectful." But they continued to say it over and over again- that must be the real name! I love it.
We were flipping through channels last night and saw the Pope's departure ceremony at JFK Airport, and as he walked out onto the tarmac and up the stairs to his airplane, I heard organ music playing and it didn't just seem like the TV station was playing that as background music. It seemed like the organ was live at the airport. Josh and I thought maybe the Pope has a full-time organ player following him around at all times. The organ player rides on a wheeled cart with his organ to ensure that the Pope can hear organ music at every point during the day. We wondered if the Pope gets a little tired of organ music. "Guys, I like other kinds of music too! I'm getting sick of this music all the time! I mean, does he have to play nonstop all the way back to the Vatican? Does anyone have any aspirin?"
2 comments:
Betsy,
I'm surprised that you did not know that the Popemobile was called the Popemobile. It's bullet proof too!
My wife and I loved this one. We laughed through the whole last paragraph about the organ player. I can totally see a dedicated pope organ. I wonder what the requirements are for the organ player. Does he have to listen to every homily? Does this position get you fewer years in purgatory? I mean, that has to be a high position since he is around the pope the whole time right? I wonder if he is trained as a body guard too... What's your job? Oh I play the organ for the pope and I cover him any time he is out of the popemobile.
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