Greetings!Happy Easter Week! It's Guest Blogger Day! Below is one of my Easter presents from a fellow priest named Fr. O – no, not that Fr. O, another Fr. O in Rome. The day after Rome felt that earthquake he jotted of this note to let us know that all was Okay. I (and this is for Fr. O’s benefit) Rolled On Floor Laughing reading it. I asked if I could post this on Monday Diary to have a day off and he gave the thumbs up. Enjoy.
Dear family and friends,
Some of you may have heard about a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit about 70 miles outside of Rome last night. I just wanted to let everybody know that everything is fine here in Rome. The quake apparently killed about 14 people at its epicenter in L'aquila, but here in Rome we basically just felt some rolling tremors for about a minute. It kind of scared the (poop) out of me at the time.
It woke me up out of a sound sleep at 3:30 a.m., so I was pretty disoriented. The first thing I noticed was that my bed was shaking, and my mind immediately jumped to St. John Vianney, who was sometimes accosted by demons while in his bed. My heart started racing, and I jumped out of bed, only to realize that my floor was shaking also, as well as the scaffolding outside my window. I was actually relieved to find out that it was an earthquake and not a demonic attack! I stood there for several seconds, trying to decide what my next move would be. I probably should have run outside, but I wasn't thinking too clearly, and the tremors were not getting any worse. Nothing broke or fell over; just a bit of rolling motion for about a minute or so. Enough excitement for one night.
My other piece of excitement yesterday was that I got to distribute Communion for the Pope's Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter's. It was a gorgeous day, with St. Peter's Square jam packed with people.
Hope you all have a blessed Holy Week!
And this came during the Triduum.
I did something last night that you would have loved. We had the Mass of the Lord's Supper here at the Casa at 6 p.m., followed by a light supper. Then I went out with a group of guys to visit the altars of reposition at a bunch of churches in the area. I think we went to about 9 different churches. There were pilgrims all over the city, and small groups of people in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament at every church we went into. It felt sort of like "trick or treating," except you get holiness instead of candy.
Happy Triduum
2 comments:
I have heard that on Holy Thursday, the churches of Rome have a "friendly competition" to see which one can create the most beautiful altar of repose.
Ah, you answered the question my father and I were pondering. I was telling him about the beautiful Easter Vigil Mass at St Sebastian and asked if he knew the significance of the start time. Now I can share the answer with him. Thanks!
Post a Comment