Like everyone else I have many dreams. But some of the dreams I didn't even knew I had, and when these kind of dreams become reality, it's more than amazing. In the wake of pope's resignation this week, I decided to go back into the past (ha! two months) and share my unknown dream that came true - in December I was in Vatican with my choir and on 2nd of December we were at General Audience of pope Benedict XVI. where he personally addressed us. And as I was standing there and the pope spoke directly to us in Slovak and then as I was signing Tu Es Petrus to him, I wondered - how did I get here? How did I, a person who is not even remotely religious, get here, in front of the pope and with this amazing group of people.
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| Official photo of Psallite Deo at General Audience - this is what pope saw... |
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| ...and this is what we saw |
I would call myself a passive Roman Catholic. I know the Catholic church and I feel at home with the religion but I could hardly call myself a devout believer. But I am a devout lover of music AND choir music and, fortunately, a longtime friend of our choirmaster. And so I am in this choir of young people, some of them five or ten years younger than me, (ex)students of Catholic school and now my best friends for life.
Our choirmaster, or Maestro as we like to call him, studied Organ music in Rome for two years. This unassuming guy is incredibly talented musician and unbelievably awesome person. Thanks to him and his huge number of contacts in Rome and Vatican city, we had this once in a lifetime opportunity to sing at the aforementioned General Audience. BUT! That's not all. Being so talented and great choir ;) we sang the Sunday mass at 6pm in St Peter's Basilica and we had a concert at ...Ihavenoideawhatthenameofthechurchwas... kidding... kinda.... aha - Church of San Pantaleo.
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| After Sunday mass at St Peter's Basilica |
As Roman Catholics (plus me) we visited the most important and beautiful churches around Vatican and Rome. And as regular tourists we went to see the Sistine Chapel. What was out of the ordinary, when you know somebody who knows somebody and that somebody is pope's sacristan, you get to see Vatican city from a different point of view. And you may even go to the Sistine chapel alone, with nobody there but you. And you may even have the chance to take few (riiiiight, few) pictures there, even though it's forbidden. And you may even have a chance to sing there. (You know that story you know your grandchildren will absolutely hate to hear because they will hear it million times? Well, THIS is going to be my story.)
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| Sistine chapel |
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