A youth's first-hand account of the papal youth rally

This sent to me last night by an overjoyed Megan B., of Hyde Park, New York:

"Hello! I’m a long time reader of your blog and I wanted to give you some more details on the papal youth rally, which I was able to attend today.

First of all, it was absolutely amazing. It was like a giant 4th of July fireworks event, or county fair (including long lines for food!)

One of the things they didn’t show on TV (I don’t know if they mentioned it) was that there was also a prayer chapel and confessions available. The prayer chapel was a white tent with a gold tabernacle, a life-sized crucifix and big picture of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. All day they had prayer services like meditations, songs, the rosary, and dance. I was with a group that did two prayer services, and people just kept coming in and out to pray.

Also, I’ve never been to a world youth day, so this is the most brothers, sisters and priests I’ve seen in one place! There were tons of priests/seminarians in cassocks everywhere. I also saw the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Sisters of Life, Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist (from Michigan!) and Mother Theresa’s sisters, the Sisters of Charity. I saw regular Franciscans, and also Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, including…Fr. Benedict Groschel! He passed by my area in a wheelchair; it looked like he was going to the VIP section.

It was also so amazing to see everyone’s shirts. Almost all the schools/parishes had personalized shirts. Some had the Christ our Hope logo, and the year and their parish name, there were jersey style “Benedict 16” shirts, I "heart" B16 (styled after the I love NY logo), “I’d rather be studying theology,” “I love Jesuits.” It was amazing. It really made you realize how many people there are that love their faith.

Besides the marriage vocation video, they also showed a clip of “God in the Streets of New York” by Grassroots Films. They also showed an interview with a friend of mine, sharing an experience of living the Gospel in daily life, specifically through sports.

Overall, the vibe was really great. The MCs were good, and they kept dangling Kelly Clarkson in front of the audience, but honestly, I think all the other Christian artists did a better job of psyching people up. What better way to prepare for seeing the pope than singing “Jesus Freak” with TobyMac, or the Apostle’s Creed with Third Day or “Here I am Lord” with Matt Mahr. The last one was the only song that everyone sang along with.

Once the pope arrived, we all just couldn’t stop cheering. I think we ran overtime because of that. The seminarians were the worst—I don’t know if you could tell, but the pope actually stopped at one point to let them finish the song they were singing—I think it was a Gregorian chant. The pope was definitely happy to be there.

Also, everyone got a good bag with:

• a bottle of water
• emergency poncho (which we used to sit on, since there was no rain)
• a white or yellow bandana (you can see them in the pictures)
• a 2-for-1 admission pass t the Cathoics in New York dispay at the museaum of the City of New Yorka prayer card for the pope's visit
• a "Come Follow Me" vocation prayer carda brochure and card about vocations to the priesthood
• the program book, which had the songs that were song with the pope, including "Happy Birthday" in German (you didn't think we all knew that, did you?)"

Thanks, Megan, for your wonderful account!