Oh, you did?
Okay.
Anyway, things are gearing up for the visit. The Papal Master of Ceremonies has been in the country the past few days checking out the lay of the land.  Rocco’s got a post here and Fr. Z has a posted a photo of Msgr. Marini with some seminarians from the Archdiocese of NY.
National Catholic Register has started a webpage/blog/resource page for the visit.  It’s really good – Tim Drake is going to be constantly updating with news items.
(Go to the NCRegister blog for links to all of the official sites for the visit, from the USCCB, the Archdioceses of NY and DC, CUA, etc.)
Our Sunday Visitor also has a dedicated webpage. Look for frequent updates – they’ll be doing some things with Facebook, and once the visit starts, their correspondents will be blogging. They have a nice prayer card you can download or order in bulk.
Our Sunday Visitor has also published a pamphlet on the Pope written by some hack they dug up from the snow.
All of the B16-related OSV materials can be ordered from this page.  The last two Pope-related pamphlets I’ve done are also available in Spanish.  Don’t worry, I didn’t do the translations, so they’re trustworthy.
And, of course, members of the secular media are super-busy digging out the “Pope Visits US” templates from what – 1999? – that are labeled “Divisions in the Church” “Like the Man/Ignore the Message” and “Pope Scolds ________” In addition, they’re busy creating a new template they’re calling “Pope Tries to Soften Image.”
(Full disclosure – so far, I’ve been contacted by FoxNews – a few weeks ago. Mostly for background on my views on Da Pope. I doubt I’ll be seeing any airtime with anyone partly because..well, what do I know, and partly because of logistical issues, as I discovered over and over in 2005.  Let John Allen do all the work, I say!)
But anyway, here’s an assignment for you. I’m going to keep this post going – in that I’ll put in on my sidebar after it falls off this front page – because I want it to be an ongoing source, not only for blog readers but, dare we hope, for the media, looking for a sense of what some Catholics, in fact, think of Pope Benedict.
If you care to comment on this post, please muse on the following:

• How has the papacy of Pope Benedict (or even, thinking more broadly, his work and writings as Ratzinger) affected you? What have you learned from him? Has anything about this papacy affected any kind of change in your understanding or experience of faith?
• Have you changed your mind about Pope Benedict in any way over the past few years?
• What do you think are the most striking elements of his papacy so far?
• What is your prayer for Pope Benedict?

Please be honest and charitable in your honesty, especially if you have anything negative or cautionary to say.
And if there’s anyway you can identify yourself, even vaguely by age/previous experience with Catholicism/area of the country of the world in which you live, that would be very helpful!