April 1, 2007 We want to share with you the highlights of our first Palm Sunday in Italy.
As many of you know, we are fairly recent converts to Catholicism and so many of the traditions are new for us. Our first Easter as Catholics was memorable. First there was the Palm Sunday mass with the crosses made from palm leaves, the reading of the Passion of the Lord and needing to say those terrible words "Crucify him." That certainly brought it home for me.
The Easter Vigil mass was a beautiful experience full of more traditions that brought together every thing we had learned in our RCIA classes. We chose to also attend the Easter morning mass that year because we didn't want to miss out on any part of the experience. We were a little surprised to see children coming into church with their Easter baskets! Even more surprised when at the end of mass they took them up to the front of the church and had them blessed! I'm sorry to say that I didn't take the time to find out what that tradition was all about.
Another part of being Catholic is to make a confession at least once a year. As most of you know, I am almost perfect, but still..... So this year, I worried that we wouldn't have time to go while in San Diego so I asked our priest, Don Franco, if the visiting priest (for confessions) would speak English and he said he did. So, off I go with my Italian Order of the Mass book which has a short version of the confession (just in case) and the Act of Contrition in English because it wasn't in the book. The first thing I say to the priest as I entered the room was does he speak English? No. Then he asks me if I speak Spanish? No. Portuguese? No. Latin? No, solo inglese e un po' di Italiano! Oh well. I sit down and give my confession in halting Italian! When we finished I started saying the Act of Contrition in English and after about the first two sentences the priest started talking to me! He tells me that he had been in Brazil for 20 years and when he came back to Italy he had almost forgotten Italian! I later told Don Franco that the other priest didn't speak English and he said it was OK, because God understood it!
Now we are learning even more traditions in this new country of ours! Several weeks ago we were given a paper at church that had dates and street names on it. This was to let you know what day Don Franco would be coming to your house! Fortunately, we were able to ask our friend Elena who is from Malta and speaks perfect (British) English what that was all about. She told us the priest comes and blesses the house and the family during Lent. He will also leave an envelope so that you can make a contribution to the missions. When Don Franco arrived he had two altar boys with him. One was the son of the people we are buying the house from and the other was the son of the people who have one of the bars in town. We had a paper to follow and there were 6 prayers to be read and we took turns (in Italian, of course). Afterwards, the boys were looking at the pics of the grand kids and Don Franco was very interested in our computer!
Now, in last week's church bulletin we read that at this Sunday's mass there would be a blessing of the olive branches and the eggs! This time I decided to find out what this was all about. I searched the Internet for "blessing the eggs" and found out some interesting facts that just served to confuse me more! According to everything I read, years ago during Lent one was unable to eat meat, dairy, or eggs. So on Easter morning the people would bring in their food to be blessed before breaking that fast! That food should be consumed on Easter. Okay, so far so good--but why on Palm Sunday and not on Easter Sunday?
The first person we ask is Carlo. When do we bring the eggs? He confirms it is Palm Sunday. How many do we bring? It's up to you. What do we bring them in? A basket. Are they cooked first? Yes. Why are they blessing olive branches and not palms? He said it could be either. OK, so now we think we know what we are doing.
That afternoon Veronica, our neighbor, comes over with 4 fresh eggs. She said they had been laid just that morning. We need to take them to church on Sunday for the blessing. So I ask her if we take them fresh? She tells me they won't be fresh because that is 2 days away! OK, I worded that wrong--do we take them cotte or crude (cooked or raw)? She tells us raw. Now we have 2 different versions of what to do!
On Saturday when I was coming back from my walk, I was hailed by a woman who lives across the street. She wanted me to come in to visit! So I ask her about the eggs. She told me that you bring them to church (raw) on Palm Sunday when they are blessed. Then we cook and eat them on Easter Sunday. When asked how many to take she told me it depends on how many you can eat! She confirmed you take them in a basket--but we still wonder what kind?
On Sunday, we settle on 3 eggs to take and use an oval shaped basket to take them in. Larry cuts a few branches from our olive tree and we nervously head out to the service, which is to start at our war memorial. Fortunately, a man who lives on our street was also going and he had several olive branches, but no eggs! At least we know the olive branch part is correct! Larry asked about the eggs and he told us you put them on the altar and they are blessed at the end of mass.
There were many people waiting at the memorial all with branches in their hands. Some had huge branches and others had small ones like ours. When we get closer we see there is a pile of branches for those who don't have their own trees. Don Franco read the Gospel and we said the Lord's Prayer and he blessed the olive branches. Then a procession was made to the church. Due to the side we stood on for the blessing we were at the tail end of the procession. Clearly, there would not be enough room in the church for everyone to sit down and we ended up standing through the whole service! We didn't see any eggs on the altar when we first got there and worried again that we had misunderstood, but Larry finally spotted them on the side altars. He took ours up and placed them with the others. Some baskets had many eggs and some had only a few. Ours fit right in.
The mass included the Passion of the Lord and the parts were read by the youth of the church. There was no shouting of "Crucify him" by the congregation instead it was said by the young people. It was difficult enough for me singing the responsorial psalm "My God, My God why have you abandoned me?"
I look forward to the Easter mass with its songs of acclamation and joy. And to hear the true statement--He is Risen. He is risen indeed!
tiful mosaics and stained glass windows. Then he got in line to give his confession! There were 30 confessionals and some had signs that they spoke English and French. Here are two of the photos.
ry given to the daughter when she married a son of the king of Naples. Studies have proved that the materials and the type of structure have never been available in this area and were common to Nazareth. It was very inspiring to be in that special place. No cameras were allowed, but here is a photo of a postcard which shows the inside. The wall where the altar stands was the opening to the grotto that was the rest of the house. The altar and much of the art was added in the 1500's.
