We’ve Only Just Begun…The After Party

     After all of the excitement in the Square, we headed back to the College.  There, as I walked in, I was asked to serve the prayer service that we would have to pray for our new Holy Father as he had just asked us to do.  In excitement me and one of the others who had been asked to serve ran down one of the halls and jumped bumping hips (as football players do to celebrate a touchdown - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlEhKi14kaw...see around 8 seconds) and ran off to get our albs.  We returned to the sacristy a little more subtly and received our instructions.

     This was a very powerful experience.  Again we had 250+ in the chapel all gathered to beg God to bless our new pope, that he might be docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and lead the Church in the direction God desires it to go.  The first thing that jumped out as we entered the chapel is that in the dead of Lent, the altar cloth and other decorations were a brilliant golden color.  In this season of penance and sacrifice, we rejoiced in the election of Pope Francis.  We processed in with incense, candles and the crucifix and were led in prayer by our rector.  The Blessed Sacrament was exposed and we prayed in silent adoration for 10 minutes.  Then, the choir led us in chanting the Te Deum, an ancient song of thanksgiving.  The Blessed Sacrament was then reposed and we exited the chapel.

     After this most appropriate way of thanking God for giving us a new pope we continued the celebration in the Student Lounge.  As “King STUAC,” I had the great privilege of announcing that we would have a free night (everything in the lounge was paid for by STUAC – Student Activities Committee).  This of course brought most of the house down to the lounge to enjoy a drink and snack (we hadn’t eaten dinner since we were supposed to eat after the release of what we thought would be black smoke).  There, the rector more informally led the community in thanking God for giving us Pope Francis as our earthly shepherd.  He then gave the College’s first (unofficial) toast to the Holy Father after which we all joined in singing Ad Multos Annos.  The joy at the College was visible.  We didn’t really know what to do.  What do you tell someone when a new pope is elected?  Congratulations?  Good job?  We didn’t know, but we were all happy and even though it had just happened in the last 2 hours, we were already recounting how it all went down in our particular part of the square, what each of our individual experience was like.

     One of the most moving parts of the night came when our rector said that the cardinals were making their way back to the College.  Many of the students went to welcome them back.  It turned out that about 100 of us lined up along the walls of the hallway where they would come out of the Red Room through which they entered the College.  As we were standing there waiting, we began to do different cheers, slow claps and the like.  The energy was palpable, and you could see the joy in people’s face.  We chanted for the rector and for the different priests that work at the College as they came by.  The loudest cheers came for the Jesuit priests as one of their own was now our pope.  Finally after about 20 minutes of waiting the Cardinals arrived and began coming out through our line of seminarians.  As they did, we chanted their names and gave monstrous rounds of applause.  They were really taken aback by this.  I heard from one seminarian that his cardinal was really moved by this experience.  Seminarians cheering like at a soccer match (we were in fact modifying cheers that we use at our soccer games to fit the cardinals names) for the men who had just elected the next Successor of St. Peter.  I have never experienced anything like that before in my life.  Of course, Cardinal Dolan took it all in stride.  He was so impressed that he informed us that he would sponsor a free night in our lounge the following Sunday for St. Patrick’s Day.  That night, the cardinals were like rock stars to us!

     After the cheering and arrival of all of the Cardinals that were staying with us at the College they were divided up to different rooms to conduct interviews.  I stepped into the interview of Cardinal Dolan for a listen.  It was great to hear from him (which was reiterated later at a talk by 4 other cardinals) that the conclave was a tremendous time of prayer and discernment for the Cardinals.  He assured the faithful that the Holy Spirit really guided the cardinals in their selection and that the prayers of the faithful from around the world were felt and very much appreciated.

As Pope Francis begins his Petrine Ministry, I am so thankful that I have had this opportunity to be in Rome for such an historic event in the life of the Church and indeed the whole world.  I am glad that I have had this opportunity to reflect and get down on paper how the events of the last few weeks touched my heart.  My love for the Church has grown so much through witnessing these events and it is my hope that these reflections have been an opportunity to share that love with others so that they too might grow in love for Holy Mother Church.  Let us pray for Pope Francis and for all of the cardinals that they might continue to grow in love for Jesus Christ.  It is only through love for Christ that they will be able to effectively lead us, the faithful in our journey toward our heavenly homeland.