Loving Africa

This post is all about... me. Actually, that's not true. It's simply more stories, following the course of the narrative, that happened to take place on my birthday. They would be great stories otherwise, but they're even better because it was my birthday.  Hearts are full of continued Easter joy during the octave. The sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes is read at Mass every day, and after the penitential days of Lent and the intensity of Holy Week, we come into a sort of liturgical spring, where the liturgy bursts forth and blossoms. The last day of the octave happened to be my birthday. It started a pretty normal Saturday, with Mass at 8 a.m., followed by breakfast with everyone.  My usual Saturday routine was to work in the kitchen and clean my room. It was also the day that the oblates and candidates would wash and clean the school buses, out on the road in front of the mission. On this particular Saturday, they got one stuck in the mud. I went go watch and laugh at them...

  After writing my last post on Holy Week, it occurred to me that a brief explanation of the liturgy in general, as well as a history of the Institute, would be in order.  The mission's website ( www.friendsofthemissions.com ) gives a history as follows:  "In 1988 the late Monsignor Obamba, bishop of the Diocese of Mouila, gave his predecessor’s episcopal home and surrounding grounds to the then newly founded Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. It became then the first canonically erected house of the Institute, under the name of: Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus Mission. Within a year or two however, Cardinal Piovannelli (Bishop of the Diocese of Florence, Italy) invited the Institute to establish its headquarters and seminary in Gricigliano, a beautiful Italian villa on the shores of the Arno river. "From there, the Institute, being closer to Rome, expanded rapidly, taking the international dimensions it has today. Despite no longer being the headquarters of...

Joyeuses Pâques! Holy Week is that most beautiful week, filled with the most complex liturgies of the liturgical year. The first three days were normal enough, although the Masses in the morning tended to be longer, as the Gospel each day was an account of the Passion from one evangelist or another. On Wednesday evening, we prayed Tenebrae together, part of the Divine Office for Holy Week. The candles on the altar are progressively extinguished as the prayer goes on, ending in total darkness. Veiled for Passion and Holy Weeks, as far as was reasonable Canon Fragelli had left to spend three weeks in the U.S. on a sort of donation campaign. He wouldn't be back until Holy Saturday, which left Canon Sigros in charge of Holy Week. I discovered that, as I sit down and read cookbooks for fun, he must sit down and read the rubrics for each liturgy. He knew exactly how everything was to be done.  Holy Thursday was gorgeous, but hot, much like Palm Sunday. I learned that a hot, sunny morning...

Images in the big chapel veiled for Passion Week My memories of Lent at the mission are quite distinct. It was the "end of the beginning" of my time at the mission. When I look back on it, there is a line in my memory that comes around Easter, which I later realized was about the half way point.  A priest who had been to Gabon told me before I left not to take on any voluntary penances while I was there--life would offer enough involuntary ones! I wasn't sure if that was meant to include Lent as well, but in any case, I did try to "give up English" for Lent and only speak French unless it was absolutely necessary. It didn't work.  The fasting required by the Diocese of Mouila was no more strict than that in the United States. I was honestly a bit disappointed; I wanted the old "no-meat-no-eggs-no-dairy-for-40-days" Lent. But, disappointment and eating what you're served is a pretty good penance, too.  On Ash Wednesday (Mercredi des Cendres), we...