Holy Week is always busy. This one was no different. But with
a twist.
The Friday before Palm Sunday we began with the parish
stations of the cross, which I wrote with an emphasis on youth, since the
Honduras Bishops have selected as this year’s motto, “Together with the youth,
we announce the Gospel of life.”
Hundreds showed up for the stations and we walked through
Dulce Nombre, ending with Mass in the church. We began about 9:30 and ended
about 2 pm. It would have been a little shorter but between the end of the Stations
and the Mass, Padre German heard confessions.
The text is available in
Spanish; I hope to translate it
sometime in May.
Saturday, I went to Santa Rosa to pick up a priest from the
national seminary who was going to be with the parish for a week, helping in
San Agustín and the surrounding communities. Father Jacob Lugo was in for a
busy week.
He stayed with me Saturday night and then I took him to Dolores
for the Palm Sunday procession and Mass. After Mass, we ate at Dulce Nombre and
he had a chance to talk with our pastor, Padre German. Then I took him for the
procession and Mass in San Agustín. I stayed until the end of Mass and a
meeting with the council there. He had a busy week there.
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| Father Jacob in Dolores |
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| The procession in Dolores |
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| Father Jacob in San Agustín |
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| The procession in San Agustín |
Monday afternoon, I met with the catechists in the town of
Dulce Nombre. Many of them work during the week and haven’t been able to attend
our training sessions. It went well.
Tuesday we had a retreat for the youth of the parish and had
over 60 young people.
Wednesday, in the afternoon, Padre, several communion
ministers, and I went to Delicias, Concepción, for the blessing of their new
tabernacle. It was proceeded by a procession and stops at three altars on the
road between Cerro Negro and the Delicias Church.
Holy Thursday, I went with some folks from Plan Grande for
the Chrism Mass in Santa Rosa. I served as deacon for the Mass.
After lunch, I headed for Concepción, where we had Mass. I
ended up preaching. Then, I went to
Dolores, where I led the Celebration of the Word with Communion and washed the
feet. This picture is courtesy of Profe Arnaldo Chávez.
Friday morning, I went to accompany the Stations of the Cross
in Mar Azul. In the afternoon I led the liturgy of the Passion with the
veneration of the Cross and Communion in Debajiados. Thinking about the
veneration of the Cross, I decided to bring the Mission Cross I had been given
at St. Thomas Aquinas when I was sent forth in 2007. It had been the cross of
the founder of the St. Thomas Aquinas parish and it has been hanging in my home
since I got here. It was so fitting to bring it and I will probably bring it on
Good Friday every year.
Holy Saturday morning was spent practicing for the singing
of the Exultet, the Easter Praise, sung at the Vigil, and baking - two loaves of bread and a pan and a half of cinnamon
rolls. The house smelled great.
The Vigil was quite the celebration We were supposed to start
on a hill in town with the Easter Fire about 5:30. We started about 45 minutes
late.
We got to the church and it was filled to overflowing.
I sang the Exultet and flubbed it – partly because the light
was no poor that I had major trouble reading the text and the music. But God was
praised.
Youth from San Juan Concepción dramatized two of the
readings.
But the highlight was the rite of baptism of the catechumens
which we did just outside the main door of the church at the bottom of the
steps. About 36, mostly young people, were baptized. It was amazing. Father German is not a minimalist in terms of baptismal water!
Mass continued with the first communion of the newly baptized
and the first communion of some young people under 14 who had been baptized in
their village of El Higon before Lent.
I didn‘t get home until about midnight.
Sunday morning I sent to La Colonia San José Obrero near El
Limón Dulce Nombre. As part of the celebration I gave the community an image of
Saint Joseph the Worker which I had found when I was in the US in March so that
they would have an image for their novena before the May 1 feast of St. Joseph
the Worker.
After the Celebration I asked if there was any sick person
who might want to receive communion. A middle-aged woman suffering from cancer lived
nearby. Padre German had come a short time ago and had married the couple (who
had been living together for thirty years and had about eight children. When I
arrived at the house I was taken to her bedside. A niece and a grandchild were sitting
there talking with her. Soon a large number of her children, her spouse, a
sister, and a few grandkids and other relatives gathered around the bed. I
spoke with her for a while. She was very alert and we talked; at one point a
joke brought a smile on her face.
We then had a short celebration using that part of the
Easter Gospel which talked about the women going to the tomb. We prayed for
her, for her family, and for all those who took care of her. Then I gave her
communion. I then invited those present who wanted to receive to come forward.
Her husband and about four others came. We ended the little celebration with a
blessing for her and those present.
This was for me a real Easter moment, a celebration of life in
the face of celebration, the gathering of a community around a seriously ill
member of a family, a sharing of the Eucharist.
I left and then headed for Gracias, where I arrived just as
the Dubuque Franciscan Sisters there were finishing their meal. They had saved
enough for me to be delightfully filled – even with a new dessert which Sister
Nancy had made – a variation on the Samoa Girl Scout cookies.
I stayed the night with the sisters and had time to eat a
good dinner (which included egg salad sandwiches with my bread). It was great
to be with these great women. Three are from the US and they have two novices
living with then in the house in Gracias. Two members of their community were
away, one in the US and the other, a Honduras sister, at a four-month special
program at a Jesuit spirituality center in Guatemala.
The meal and the time with the sisters was a delight - a perfect way to celebrate the risen Christ - with a Franciscan community in the midst of the poor.
Monday, I waited for Father Jacob in Gracias to give him a
ride to the seminary in Tegucigalpa, since I need to get some materials from
the national catechetical office. It was
great to have a companion on the journey and we had some great conversations.
I stayed overnight at the seminary and drove back home to
Plan Grande.
I made a few stops. I didn’t eat much just ice cream and
lemon pie at two different places in Siguatepeque. But I bought a few things.
In Sigua (the shortened form of Siguatepue) I bought two
plants as well as bread, cookies, ice cream, cheese, and yogurt at the Mennonite
store there.
I stopped at a vegetable stand on the side of the road about
five kilometers before Esperanza. I almost always stop there for strawberries.
But today the woman also had peaches, grape tomatoes, potatoes, and – I could
not believe my eyes – ASPARAGUS! It was the first harvest day and she only had
one pound, harvested today. I bought it, even though it was about four dollars.
I love asparagus and had never seen it here. She told me she would probably
have some each day for about two months, but it’s too far away for me to go and
buy it.
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| My treasure trove |
I continued on home and stopped for coffee outside Yaramanguila
and found a large cup of coffee. (I did have a cup – but not that large one.) The store had a tomato jelly and a guayaba marmalade which I bought.
I got home and prepared dinner – rice, asparagus, and eggs.
Another little bit of heaven.
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