Be invited to the Pope's private Mass

with Pope John Paul II. I was 9 and was invited with my family and some other people to attend the Mass in his chapel and then spend some time with him in his private studio in Vatican City. I guess we were invited because we had escaped from Communist Czechoslovakia and had friends among the clergymen in Vatican or something, I don’t know all the details. I only remember he was very very kind and smiling, really a nice person.

I’m the girl with the light blue sweater :)

See, now, the way this works is that a small number of people are invited each morning to join the pope for his personal Mass in the papal apartments in Vatican City. He usually then hosts them at breakfast. How cool is that? To break bread – in both senses – with the Vicar of Christ? I just have to figure out how to get on the invitation list…