Jeff and I got married 11/13/04. We went to Rome and Sicily on our honeymoon. Before we left for our honeymoon we called the Archdiocese of Boston and reserved two tickets to a papal audience at the Vatican. Newly married couples (within 3 months of getting married) can get special tickets allowing them to sit in a "bride and groom" section of the auditorium and receive a special blessing from the pope. I had been to the Vatican before and I new that I would need to look like bride, so I brought my veil along for our trip.
The morning of the papal audience Jeff put on a suit, and I put on a cute burgundy dress with a cream colored sweater, and my veil. When we got to the Vatican we showed the usher our tickets and he lead us further and further up towards the front of the auditorium, which holds thousands of people. As we got up closer we saw the bride and groom section and couldn't believe that it was right next to the stage where Pope John Paul II would be sitting! However, just before we got there the usher showed us to a different section. It was behind a barrier. We told him that he was mistaken and that we were supposed to be with the other brides and grooms. He pointed to me and said, "No, you are not in white." I looked at the other brides and they were all in their GOWNS! We stood behind the barrier in disbelief! SO close, yet SO far away!! Jeff stood there figuring out what we were going to do, and I went to the ladies room to fix my veil (it was crooked).
While I was gone another bride and groom were put next to where Jeff and I were sitting, but they were dressed in "proper" attire. Jeff asked them why THEY weren't in the correct section and they said it was because they didn't have their marriage license (you're supposed to have it to prove you're a newly married couple, within 3 months, and they had been married for 3 years). Well, they must have done or said something because the next thing Jeff knew, they were with all the other brides and grooms. When I got back from the bathroom Jeff was still frantically trying to figure out what to do. He was looking to see if he could find a lady in a white coat, white ANYTHING, that I could put on to look like a bride. And then, the miracle happened.
All of a sudden a woman appeared next to me with a white lace tablecloth in her hands, and she was trying to get the attention of the girl who had been previously standing next to Jeff. It turns out she was the girl's mother (the couple and her parents were all on a vacation together). We later found out that the girl had brought the tablecloth from home because she was thinking of wearing it as a mantilla, but then decided not to at the hotel. Her mother brought it to the auditorium anyway.
The mother had been sitting in the back of the auditorium, which again holds thousands of people, and was praying the rosary asking Mary to please open the doors for all the couples who were having trouble getting in to receive a blessing. While praying the rosary the woman felt prompted to come up to the front to see once again if her daughter wanted the table cloth. The girl said no but then looked to Jeff and I, and then looked at her mother, and excitedly said, "Give it to her!", as she pointed to me. The girl then looked at me and while motioning with her hand in a circular motion said, "Take the cloth and wrap it around you!" Jeff and I were like, "HOLY CRAP!" We looked at the woman and without having time to explain, asked her for it and promised to give it back. At that point I wrapped the white lace table cloth around my dress, covered the top up with my cream colored sweater, and approached the usher. He paused, and thought (for what seemed like an eternity), and then said we could go up!
Had it not been for this family bringing their table cloth from Texas, the devotion of a woman to Mary, and an answered prayer, I wouldn't have this awesome story to tell you, and we wouldn't have had the INCREDIBLE HONOR of kneeling right in front of Pope John Paul II, now St. Pope John Paul II, and having our marriage blessed by him.
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