Saint Anthony and more

San Antonio El Alto

Today is the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua, a favorite saint in many parts of the world. In our parish, there are more than eight churches dedicated to him as primary or secondary patron. So Padre German has been busy these days. He even celebrated one Saint Anthony Mass on Saturday night!

Yesterday I accompanied him to San Antonio El Alto where the feast was celebrated with Mass, tamales, and Saint Anthony’s bread. I got there early and walked with the people in procession with the image of St. Anthony, hymns, and - of course - fire works.

I had accompanied Padre German in the morning Mass in Dulce Nombre but he had four other Masses yesterday. 

Today I accompanied him to Mass in Quebrada Grande and Piedras Coloradas – with more Saint Anthony’s bread and tamales. He had three other Masses today.

Piedras Coloradas

Saturday was a busy morning for me. I tried to get to the meetings of the four zones of the parish to talk with them about my diaconal ordination. I managed to get to two meetings. The third place I ran across them as they were leaving and we held a short meeting. The fourth meeting had ended before I got there – but I met some people on the road and had a extemporaneous meeting in the road; I then went to the town and met the coordinator and one person who will, I hope, pass on the information. We’ll work on this at the meeting of the parish pastoral council this coming Saturday.

This past week we also have had lots of rain in the evening or in the late afternoon. The days are warm – even hot; but the heavy rains have come and brought us much needed moisture.

Driving out in the countryside yesterday and today I saw many men clearing fields and planting corn. I pray the rains continue so that there is a decent corn crop this year.

In Quebrada Grande I was surprised to see and smell some coffee fields still with flowers - alongside coffee cherries in formation. But they are up high and so have a later harvest season.

Tomorrow I'll be going to Santa Rosa to meet with the young man being ordained priest at the same Mass as my diaconal ordination. Then in the evening I'm off to Delicias, Concepción, to meet the youth group there. Hopefully it won't be raining hard and I'll be able to get home after the meeting.

with some folks in Piedras Coloradas