The Roman sunrise….was… ah, forget it! I’ve been busy.
Some photos from the last couple of days.
Some lunch on Holy Saturday in Trastevere.
What everyone needs.
Roman artichoke.
Cannelloni
Lamb.
Crossing the Tiber.
Before the Vigil.
About this blog…
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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Thank. you Fr. Z for all the photos throughout Holy Week and Easter, they were a great joy to see.
Question: Will be. any chess puzzles again? Know you have been busy to say the least and the puzzles are always a spiritual exercise of sorts for me.
Buona Pasqua, Fr. Z! Things look absolutely wonderful in Rome. Have a most blessed Easter Octave.
The reddish-violet made me think they were doing ‘62 Palm Sunday, but the triple candle says that it’s Pre-55 Holy Saturday.
Awesome photos Father Z. Felt as though I was there.. and surely wish I could have been. Proud to be Catholic.
My daughter attended the Triduum there! She is in Rome for the semester with Christendom College. She and her friends visited altars of repose on Holy Thursday, but she said she wept when she entered Trinita to make their last visit of the evening because it was just the way we do it at home at our Latin mass parish.
She also told us that the Vigil was the most beautiful she had ever seen. She said “There were trumpets and I almost died!”
Wonderful clip of the blessing of in incenses for the Pascal Candle from in front of the church, Father. Thank you.
I attended a pre-1955 ICKSP Easter Vigil on Saturday, (midwest USA) and it was so windy where we were, they had to use a closed processional candle lantern for the candle lit from the new fire so it would not be blown out during the procession into the church. At the first Lumen Christi, the church doors were still open with most of the congregation still on the steps outside, and the wind almost blew out the candle lit from the fire as the subdeacon attempted to use it to light first candle of the tricereo.
It almost seemed symbolic of attempts to extinguish the Light of Christ during the first centuries, and even in these days, and yet, faithful men were able to prevent that from happening.
Soon the congregation was inside, and the doors closed, the wind blocked, allowing the liturgy to proceed uneventfully after that.
An incredibly beautiful liturgy, and deeply meaningful.
Thanks for all of this!
I don’t know how many cultures have ‘Easter Trees’ but those artichokes could be taken for a much more splendid one than the playful Lego model I just encountered.
Wishing you and all a Blessed Easter Octave!
Now those sumptuous images of juicy artichokes compels me to relate some anecdotes about my Italian Godfather. He was 100% Italian and 100% my baptismal godfather, regardless of what that parish puts now on the duplicate certificates. His name was Joseph.
Uncle Joe designed vegetables and other organisms for a living. He was a scientist for the USDA. Among his originals: the “Imperial Star” artichoke variety. My mother tells me that it’s currently helping to feed the poorest of the poor in Darkest Peru. Of course, Uncle Joe’s “lab” was glorified California farmland in the Colorado desert, and so he spent a lot of time working with heavy machinery, and encountered the legacy of César Chávez as well.
After Uncle Joe passed away a few years ago, I did some family research on his own family. It turns out that they were from a particular region in Italy, where, no doubt, generations had lived for hundreds of years or more. His immediate ancestors had donated a bell, or set of bells, for the carillon in the local Catholic Church. I mean, these were huge bells. It must’ve been a monumental achievement to cast them and fund their manufacture and installation. I was quite impressed by this legacy of his.
Uncle Joe was more or less a secular guy, and his widow, being my godmother, hasn’t particularly encouraged me in the Catholic faith; nonetheless she still attends social activities at her nearby parish, and I like to believe that she prays for my intentions, as I pray for hers. I’m so thankful to Uncle Joe for being my inspiration and a lifetime as an exemplary father, husband, and loyal civil servant.