Easter Triduum - Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday

The Easter Triduum continued to be fantastic. On Saturday night we went to Mass for the Easter Vigil. As usual, it started outside with a fire. This fire is used to light the Paschal Candle which is used througout Easter, and then for Baptisms and Funerals for the rest of the year.

The Service of Light

After this, everyone processed into the church in darkness. Then each person lights a smaller candle which has been lit from the Paschal Candle (the flame is passed on from one to another - the darkness decreases as the Light of Christ is spread among the people).

Dad and Mum at the Easter Vigil Mass

Usually at Mass on Sunday there are three readings from Scripture, but at the Easter Vigil there are nine. It takes a while but is so beautiful. In between each reading, a psalm is sung. The music at this Mass was the most beautiful that I have ever heard. We had an organist, two guitarists, trumpeter, a trombonist, violinist, someone on clarinet (clarinetist?) and a wonderful choir.

Paul and Kev

Kev on trumpet - what a clever boy!

The Gloria was sung for the first time since Lent (with one or two exceptions) and the bells sounded for the first time since Holy Thursday. We also sang the Alleluia for the first time since Lent, with no exceptions. There was great joy, as we celebrated the Resurrection of Christ!

The choir - Christ is Risen!!

We all renewed our Baptismal promises, then the Mass continues as usual. After Mass, we spent some time singing hymns of praise.

Kev, Dad, Mum and Hele

This all took about three hours. Then we went back to the ESM for a party. I had so much fun being entertained by Mum and Dad, and Nick and Donna.

Mum and Dad

Nick & Donna, Kev and Hele, Dad and Mum

We didn't get much sleep that night. The following morning we went to St Peter's for the celebration of the Easter Sunday Mass with the Pope. There was a huge queue to get into St peter's Square, but luckily we saw Theresa who has a gift for manouvering through a crowd. Even though we had tickets they wouldn't let us into the seated area. Theresa called Fr Benoit (a friend of ours) who was already inside, so he came and spoke to the guards and they let us in. This was great because otherwise we would have had to stand the whole time.

Mum and Dad at St Peter's

Dad, Hele and Mum at St Peter's

After Mass the Pope gave his Urbi et Orbi (message to the whole world). Then he wished us a Happy Easter in about a zillion different languages. Quite impressive!

Urbi et Orbi

We went to the Centro for lunch, then went out for a gelato and coffee. After this we went to St Peter's Square again, but this time to evangelise with the WYD Cross We sang joyful hyms and spoke spoke with many people who came by. In many cases prayed with them. It was amazing.

Then back to the Centro for dinner, follwed by entertainment which was supplied by participants of the retreat. I was a doo-wop girl with Chidi and Donna as Fr Marc who sang 'Twist and Shout'.

Easter "Festive" Dinner

So, we had another extremely late night. It was one of the most wonderful celebrations of Easter that I have ever had. I only wish that the rest of the family were with us.

Happy Easter...Christos Anesti!

Easter Triduum - Holy Thursday and Good Friday

Wednesday night, particpants of our retreat for the Easter Triduum began to arrive. The best of these arrivals were our dear dear friends from Melbourne, Nick and Donna. It is such a joy to see them again after being away for so long.

On Thursday morning, we went to St Peter's for the Chrism Mass. This Mass is celebreated in all the cathedrals of the world on this day (or another morning in Holy Week) with the local bishop and all the priests of the diocese. We are very blessed to be in Rome, because our local bishop is Pope Benedict XVI and there are soooooo many priests in Rome. Due to the large numbers, the Mass of the diocese of Rome is not celebrated in the cathderal(St John Lateran) but at St Peter's.

Donna, Nick, Hele and mum

Before Mass began, the priests took 20 minutes to process in - there were hundreds and hundreds of them! It was a beautiful liturgy. There are two things which are particular to the Chrism Mass. Firstly, the priests renew their comittment to their priestly ministry. Secondly, the bishop blesses the oils that will be used to administer the Sacraments for the following year.

The procession on the way out was a bit quicker!

Fr Martin in the procession

Today, Good Friday, the students of the ESM dramatised the Via Crucis in St Peter's Square. The ESM is the only group who are given permission to do this. The students created the drama on their own, and it was so powerful. A few weeks ago, I gave three of the girls some quick lessons in sewing, and they made all the costumes. I am so proud of them - they were great.

A lot of people followed the Stations of the Cross. The drama was shockingly real, and many people were obviously very moved. Juan played the part of Jesus and he did such a great job. Makeup was used to paint wounds on his body. He played the part so well that by the end of it, he really had cuts and bruises on his arms, legs and feet.

Jesus takes up His cross

The women of Jerusalem weep for Our Lord

Jesus is placed in the arms of His Mother

After the Via Crucis was finished, the cross was placed on the ground and everyone was invited to spend some time in prayer and veneration. It was really wonderful to see how many people came to kiss the cross and to just sit and pray. While this was going on, the students spoke to many of the people who came to watch - they explained to them what was happening, and about the importance of Good Friday.

People pray in front of the cross

After lunch (more bread and water!!!!), we celebrated the Liturgy of the Cross, where the Gospel of the Passion of Christ was sung (Kev was the narator...he was wonderful). It was very sad to meditate on how much Jesus suffered for us. There was also a sense of great joy because this act of love won the victory over evil!

Kev's Birthday

Today Kev turned 37!

He woke up this morning to find some books that he had bought for himself, which I wrapped nicely to create an element of surprise. All the books were on or by Von Balthasar....wow. I thought that this wasn't very exciting so I also bought him some dvds that I wanted!

We had planned to have a nice breakfast together with mum and dad, but we didn't have time. So Kev and I both had a breakfast separately 'on the go'. When we got to work we realised that the students had prepared some decoration for the corridor and Kev's office door.

The students birthday decorations

After a hectic morning at work, we met up with mum and dad for lunch. They took us to a very Italian restaurant around the corner from work. The food was delicious.

Lunch for Kev's birthday

After lunch, it was back to work for us - this is probably our busiest week in the year, with the Easter Triduum. After dinner, the students began to sing Happy Birthday to Kev, and they presented him with some dessert with a candle in it.

Kev and his birthday cake

Then they performed a little play, basically making light of his Australian accent. The girls then sang a lovely song to the music of, "I found my thrills". They changed the words to, "I found my home, in ESM Rome". They put a lot of effort into it and it was very sweet.

Happy birthday my darling Kev!!

My parents arrive!

On Sunday morning my mum and dad arrived from Australia! It was a great day - it was mum's birthday and also Palm Sunday. They flew in to Rome at 6:00am and made their own way from the airport to our place. They got there at about 8:30am. It was so nice to see them after 14 months.

We had tickets to be part of the Palm Sunday Procession at St Peter's, but we were supposed to be there at 8:15am. Mass was going to start at 9:30am so that didn't leave us much time to get there- we had given up on the idea of carrying palms. Mum was still keen to try so we went straight to St Peter's. We got there at 9:15am but we decided to try and enter the Procession, expecting to get knocked back. We made it through to the right section, and then saw all the ESM students waiting in line with their palms. They got so excited when they saw me that they started yelling out. A man came over and told us to stop screaming. Then he made mum and me go to the back of the line because we didn't have palms. So we did as we were told but another official followed behind and gave us palms and let us go back to our group. The procession began and we walked through St Peter's Square and then made a cirlce around the obelisk. Then the Pope arrived and he was just in front of us. After a reading of the Gospel, we then processed again to the Sagrato area, just next to the altar in front of the entrance to the Basilica.

Pope Benedict XVI

Two of our students were asked to do readings for the Mass - I was very proud. They were not the only ones to be seen on tv. The cameras just loved our group. The Mass was very long but so beautiful.

Two of our students - inspired by the homily

Mum and me

Some of the ESM students with palms at St Peter's

Mum and I walked home and spent the afternoon with dad at the apartment. They brought me some photos that my brother Alex had sent for me. Now I can frame some photos of our darling nephews Mikey and Timmy. We had take away pizza for dinner while watching some dvds. Everyone went to bed early.

Kev got back from Slovenia at about 9:30pm.

Retreat in Florence

Last Friday, I took the students to Florence to participate in the Emmanuel Community's National Retreat. Kev couldn't come because he had a gastro-thingy. We took the train to Florence, and then took two buses to a retreat centre in the hills outside of the city. (I only lost one student, and only for an hour or two).

View from the retreat centre

Once again, it was wonderful to catch up with so many people. The people in the Community in Italy are really lovely.

The whole group caught a bus into the city at night for a special Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation. I was surprised when they unveiled a 'cut-out' of the founder of the Emmanuel Community, Pierre Goursat.

Bernard in a head-lock

The next day we went back into the city. We were all having a marvellous time.

Hele and some of the students.

In the afternoon we had a mission in Piazza Repubblica. If you read the last post, you might remember that all the members of the Emmanuel Community all over the world were also participating in a retreat. So, on Saturday, the Community ran missions in hundreds of cities all over the world.

Mission in Piazza Repubblica

I didn't get much time to see the sights this time, but we walked past the Cathedral many times, and I just love it. It is so massive, and surrounded by other buildings, that it is impossible to capture the whole thing in one shot.

The cathedral of Florence

After this, we went back to the retreat centre for a massive dinner, then back into the city for a theatre sorta thing (in Italian). It was not my cup of tea, so I prayed my Rosary while watching. We got back quite late. It was a short sleep because Daylight Savings began on Sunday. After breaky, we went to Mass. Then we had champagne and nibblies outside in the beautiful sunshine, before moving inside for lunch. We were not sure of how to get back to the station, because the bus stops are not positioned opposite each other (for opposite directions) like in normal places. We managed to find our way and got to the station in plenty of time.

Hele with the students

The train ride home was most enjoyable. One of the students had a book of fairy tales which she lent me. I asked who would like to read to me, and one of the other students kindly volunteered. He read to us for about 90 minutes. It was so funny because he gave the characters different accents, he even managed to give Rumplestiltskin the voice of Yoda. We got back to Rome at about 8:00pm, and I was so pleased to see my Kev again after three days apart.

Paris

Kev and I found out a few weeks ago that we were both on the Advisory Committee for the Emmanuel Community. How very special! So, last weekend, off to Paris we went for our first meeting.

We tried to do the right thing by travelling with Ryanair which is much cheaper. That is, until you add the high cost of getting to and from the remote airports that they fly in and out of. They are the worst airline of all time, and we hope never to use them again. But enough about that....

We arrived at the Committee meeting on Saturday morning. We were a couple of hours late, but just in time for morning tea - we are very clever! The meeting went for one and a half days. It was good to find out more about the plans of the Community and to be able to contribute our thoughts. We also got to catch up with lots of people, and to promote the ESM.

We stayed with Claire and Damian, who were the Directors of the ESM before us. It was so good to be able to see them again and to share the joys and sufferings of life at the ESM. Little Priscilla has grown so much, and we saw Raphaël for the first time. He is so so cute.

Claire and Raphaël

Damian and Priscilla

Since arriving in Europe, we have already had two extremely quick visits to Paris, but never had time to enjoy it. This time we decided to stay an extra day and actually see some sights.

On Sunday afternoon, we went for a leisurely stroll and came across the Eiffel Tower! We thought about going up to the top, but decided against it - too much money and effort.

Kev with a funny thing on his head

Kev and Hele in front of Eiffel Tower

It was a beautiful day so we lay down on the lawn and read our books in the warmth of the sun. (Someone fell asleep...he was very tired).

Then we went to Rue de Bac, where The Blessed Virgin appeared to St Catherine Laboure and asked for the Miraculous Medal to be struck. We stayed there and prayed for a long time. Then we went to a nice little park and prayed the first part of the Emmanuel Community Retreat. (As a little side note, the Vatican has approved a year of Jubilee for the Emmanuel Community to celebrate its first 40 years. All members of the Community around the world are following the same retreat that will last for one week. It consists of different prayers and meditations each day).

Nice little park

Then we went back to Claire and Damian's for another time of catching up and fine home-cooked food.

The next morning we continued in our relaxed manner to wander around the charming streets. We had crepes for lunch. We thought we should!

We stumbled across Trinity Church, which is the parish church of the Emmanuel Community in Paris.

Trinity church

Then we went to visit Sacre Coeur. I had been there before but it didn't fail to impress me again.

Basilica of Sacre Coeur

We also visited some funky parts of Montemarte.

People painting and selling their work

Hele and Kev in an artsy spot

We went to an exhibition of Salvador Dali. His art is quite strange, but I like it.

One of Dali's Melting Clocks

By this time, we realised that it was getting late so we quickly made our way to the bottom of the hill, paused to take in a few more glimpes of the basilica and surrounds, then caught some trains and a bus to get to the airport for our return flight home.

Fancy steps

Hele and Kev in front of Sacre Coeur

We arrived at Ciampino Airport (Rome) very late, so there were no buses. We approached the taxi rank and prepared ourselves for the usual negotiations. The taxi drivers hang out in a group while waiting for customers, so they all like to get in on the discussion. As usual, we had to remind them that the price to the city is supposed to be a flat-rate - they always seem to forget about that fact. We managed to agree on the price, but he wouldn't take us all the way home. He let us out at a piazza near the Vatican just before midnight. We walked around St Peter's to a bus stop, and luckily we didn't have to wait long for a bus. We got home at about 12:15am.

Allegria

There is a competition on the internet for this year's World Youth Day song. Our friend Miguel, from the Emmanuel Community in Spain, has written a great song called 'Allegria'. Kev is on backing vocals!!!!!!

Listen to the song, post your comments, and vote for it before May 1st ! If Alegría is elected, it will be the WYD's official song. (That's how you run a competition!!)

The song is currently in second place. To listen to it, click on the link: http://madridmeencanta.org/ficha.php?id=101714044 . I really really want it to win, so if you like it please vote for it by clicking on 'votar'.

Let me know if you can hear Kev's voice!