Lost in Yonkers with Pope Bendict XVI

I attended today's Youth Rally with Pope Benedict XVI in Yonkers, NY--if someone my age can attend a youth rally! Getting there was indeed half the fun! Traffic wasn't too bad considering how much of it there was! So as I sat in traffic I said a prayer to the Blessed Mother asking her to get me to the rally in time. No surprise, I made it! At the merchandise booth a Yonkers police officer asked me how traffic was. I told him about my prayer and it's good result. He got a nice chuckle out of it.

The rally was tremendous. If you watched the coverage, especially on EWTN, you saw the main field with the stage at one end and the media at the other. Up the hill from there across a one-lane path was another field with the food and merchandise concessions. There was a large TV screen there, but no audio. Next to that field there was an adoration chapel and several areas with priests hearing confession.

Security definitely tightened up once the Pope arrived. People who left the main field to get food, for example, found that they couldn't get back. Since the video screen didn't have audio I could only hear what drifted over from the main field. Even so Pope Benedict was clearly enjoying himself. I'd say he smiled more than I've seen in any other event so far. And I thought Kelly Clarkson did a fine job singing Schubert's "Ave Maria".