New Year's Eve Vespers

The Catholic faith has Liturgy of the Hours, which has two main "hinges" of prayer, morning and evening. Morning prayer is called lauds and evening prayer is called vespers. Both of these prayers are done on a daily basis becuase they are felt to be important. Basil the Great said that we celebrate evening prayer so that "we may give thanks for what has been given to us or what we have done well during the day."

On New Year's Eve, St. Peter's in the Vatican was having vespers facilitated by Pope Benedict. Along with a couple other people, I attended in hopes to catch a glimpse of the Pope. It was interesting to be present there, since everything is done in Latin. It lasted about an hour and consisted of mostly prayers and singing. On his procession out, the Pope fixated on a small girl about two people away from me. He went up and blessed the child and was within an arms reach of me! It was unbelievable! The little girls parents were so moved that they were crying. I feel so honored to at least have been that close to the Pope. This is definatly an experience I will never forget!

Kelsey M