runlikejoy

Displaced Stay At Home Californian in rural N. Carolina

The Many Faces of Joy

The Many Faces of Joy

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Favorite Easter Story

Everyone must have a favorite Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July or Easter story.  Here is mine:

One year in the early 90's my Korean Aunt and I were travelling around Europe.  It was April.  It was Sunday.  We were trying to travel on trains by night and do our sight seeing during the daytime to save money on hotels but it was hard on me and after 2 or 3 days of doing this we would have to get a place to sleep because I was falling apart.  It was after 2 or 3 days of this type of travel that we ended up in Rome.

I got a map at the train station and we hoofed it to Vatican City because that is where you are supposed to go to see stuff although at the age of 21 I pretty much didn't want to see anything that had to do with paintings, sculptures or chapels that had famous paintings on the ceilings.  As we came into the open area in front of St. Peter's Basilica we couldn't help noticing that there were thousands of people.  It was a madhouse.  And there was some type of program going on, some dude in a white robe with a funny hat was talking.  He was tiny - at least from where I was standing.

As the speaking ended and the crowd began to disburse I tapped a woman on her shoulder and asked her if it was a concert or something?  She looked at me like I was the dumbest person she had ever seen and she said "it's the Pope giving Easter Mass!"  I answered, "Oh, cool." 


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