Christy Bissally bent over her desk in the quiet classroom, pressing her pencil into the center of a flower made of purple construction paper.
"Let angels guide him through his actions. Let love always be in his heart," she wrote in small neat letters.
Christy, a sixth-grade student at St. Agnes School in Catonsville, was writing a prayer for Pope Benedict XVI, who arrived in Washington yesterday afternoon for his first visit to this country as pontiff.
Elsewhere across the state, Roman Catholics have been making banners, renting buses and studying the pope's teachings to prepare for his visit.
Several thousand parishioners from churches across the Baltimore Archdiocese will attend papal Masses in Washington and New York. And many who stay behind are doing their part to mark the pope's journey through prayer and, in the case of one Catholic elementary school, a party to celebrate his 81st birthday today.
Catholics say that they are eager to hear the words of Pope Benedict, a quiet scholar who is markedly different from his charismatic predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
"Benedict is, in a way, an educator, a professor, a teacher," said Deacon Christopher Celentano, a seminarian at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Roland Park who will be ordained in June. "I believe he's going to have a great message and a strong message for the American people and the American church."
Getting to hear that message in person has been a a challenge for local church members. About 2,500 of the archdiocese's half-million Catholics won tickets to attend a Mass celebrated by the pope at Nationals Park tomorrow. An additional 1,000 received tickets to a papal Mass at Yankee Stadium in New York on Sunday. Others will vie for a glimpse of the pontiff at smaller parades and prayer services.
Along with other members of the Knights of Columbus, Andrew Gleeson of Lutherville will travel to Washington this afternoon with his wife and four children to attend an evening prayer service at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
"I think it goes a long way towards strengthening your faith," Gleeson, 41, a manager at Eddie's grocery store on Charles Street, said of the pope's visit.
Those fortunate enough to score a ticket to the Mass at Nationals Park will face another challenge tomorrow --- leaving the Baltimore area in time to make the 10 a.m. service. No additional MARC trains have been scheduled, but the Washington Metro will be running extra cars and selling commemorative passes.
