Pope Benedict and His Holiness Bartholomew I at Vatican Mass Liturgy (Links, Pics , and More)

To be updated at Bottom through out the day. The pictures above are but a few. Needless to say there are ton of dramatic photos in the links below

Needless to say a exciting day for our faiths.

For my New Orleans area Catholic readers you will be interested that New Orleans own beloved son, the former Bishop Thomas John Rodi of Biloxi, received the Pallium today as he has now become Archbishop of the Historic See of Mobile Alabama .

Both Pope Benedict and His Holiness Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I opened up the Pauline Year with Vespers last night at At Paul outside the Wall in Rome. I will not post all the links on here as to Vespers but I have complied links and pics as to that event here
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The big event was today where both Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew I along with assorted Clergy both Catholic and Orthodox participated in the liturgy of the Mass on this important Feast of Peter and Paul. I find it signifcant that also this was the day than many received the The imposition of the pallium

A Greek Orthodox Deacon sung the Gospel in Greek . Both Pope Benedict and Bartholomew I both gave a Homily .

Afterwards the Creed was said jointly in Greek- It was the Nicene Constantinople Creed in the original Greek, according to Byzantine practice.

After the Mass, they descended to the Confessio to pray before the tomb of St. Peter (See last pictue in montage below) I believe that both gave a joint blessing to the tens of thousands at the Angelus in St Peters Square

The pictures are breathtaking and some of the most important I have seen from the St Peters since the beginning of Benedicts Pontificate

The Ratzinger Forum has a lot of good photos that will interest you on this page that also includes the news stories tha give highlights of the liturgy and the highpoints of both homlies
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There are many more great photos here that show the joint liturgy courtesy TLM .
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Also check out Father Z's post here that has more pics and some more explanation of what we are seeing. LINK

I will try to put the links to the English Translations of both homlies if when they come out in the next hour or so I think St Paul and St Peter who we honor today are smiling at both our Churches today.

Update 1

Blog by the Sea is a place to watch and she has links up. I would be watching her site because she might have the full English Translation before I do at her post Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Amy Wellborn has links and thought of her own worthy of review by us I was very much struck by her thoughts here when she said in part:

I actually think this morning’s liturgy gives us a good opportunity to consider what liturgy is for Catholics and the Orthodox - the Apostolic Churches. I am not going to distract us from the question at hand - what did you see and hear - for this, because I hope to do something longer later. But simply consider this.
As I have written many times before, it is perhaps time to seriously and honestly consider the messages many of us have absorbed about liturgy over the years. I think many of us think of the Mass essentially as a prayer meeting in which the content of what happens there is provided by us, what we bring - our sensibilities and our needs

This is, naturally enough, a reaction against the popular perception of years past in which the nature of the congregation’s participation in the Mass had perhaps been obscured. Please - this is not the place to rehash those discussions - later! - but as obviously rich as the celebration of the Mass before the Council could be, the Liturgical Movement happened because many concluded that the laity could perhaps be encouraged to connect more consciously with the the presence of Christ in the liturgy, both by increased catechesis and reforming the liturgy itself.
In the past decades, however, what has happened is that for many, that ancient understanding of liturgy has been lost. And that ancient understanding is that the Mass is, among many other things, an entity that (for lack of a better phrase) “holds” the Faith. It is the place and time in which we encounter Christ in his fullness, which includes how He lives and reigns through His Church.
Which is why, I would add, that one of the primary means of evangelization for Catholicism has always been through the liturgy. Concern with the celebration of the liturgy and its symbolism is not “aesthetics” - although, like anything else, it can be misdirected in that fashion, and the point can be lost in obsessions about details - but such is the case with any of us and our interests. But the fundamental spirit is a concern that the fullness of this faith - the faith that we know through Christ and His Church - is expressed clearly, richly and evocatively. In a way that expresses what this Real Presence is and means, part of which involves mystery.

Update II-

Father Z has a good piece about the Creed that was recited today(note Father Z has one blank white space in his entry just keep scrolling down). GO see Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I: together the Creed in Greek

UPDATE III

Both Homilies toward the bottom of this page of the Ratzinger Forum