Geralyn Smith was a shy 6-year-old when she shared a miraculous moment with Pope John Paul II, who plucked her from an electrified Madison Square Garden crowd in 1979.

An iconic snapshot captured the scene as His Holiness gazed up into the little girl’s beaming face. Now 42, Smith, of Rockland County, said she’s “thrilled” to be returning for Francis’ Mass at MSG on Friday.

“I’m very excited,” she said, noting she’ll be bringing her mother, Nora. “It’ll be interesting to see the same arena with this pope, and see the excitement.”

Smith still vividly remembers that life-changing encounter. A guard offered her a chance to stand with him up front.

When John Paul entered, “The security guard lifted me up over the railing, to the pope himself,” Smith said. “I remember his eyes were so kind-looking. I was not afraid to go to him.

“I came back to my seat almost in a trance. I vaguely remember nuns wanted to touch me” afterward. For Smith, whose NYPD ­officer dad had died shortly before the pope’s visit, it was more than seconds in the spotlight.

“It brought me out of my shell a bit,” she said. “I learned that good things can happen even after some bad things.”