One thing that the good people here love is a procession and any excuse will do to have one. So when Palm Sunday came along, we had a ready made excuse to have a procession. In the Town of Castanheira we started at 8 am in the poorest part of the town in the community of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe and we made our way to the main church of St. Anthony in the town centre. This took two hours and then we finished with Mass in the main church.
Along the way different catechism classes performed small dramas with a religious or moral theme. Most of them dealt with the protection of life; be it born or unborn, young or old. This was the Lenten Theme for the whole of Brazil this year. “Choose a life!”
Some of the other pictures at the end are taken in some of the far away communities, outside of the town.
Along the way different catechism classes performed small dramas with a religious or moral theme. Most of them dealt with the protection of life; be it born or unborn, young or old. This was the Lenten Theme for the whole of Brazil this year. “Choose a life!”
Some of the other pictures at the end are taken in some of the far away communities, outside of the town.
The church of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe and its hall decorated with palms.
Some of the local women with their palm.
On little lady all dressed up in her Sunday-Best for Palm Sunday.
Our "Very Own Jesus" leads off the procession.
The procession takes place along the dirt roads of the neighbourhood. Thank God it did not rain until the afternoon long after the procession was over. The rains are staying with us a long time this year.
The local clergy with hats for protection from the sun.
One of the catechism classes performs a play along the route about protecting life, unborn and the elderly.
Another catechism classes with their volunteer teacher.
Making our way in to the main part of the town on a newly tarred piece of road.
Another catechism classes performs a dance drama in the town square.
After about two hours "Our Jesus " leads the crowd to the main church of St. Anthony where we continued our prayer by celebrating Mass.
The church decorated with Palm.
Palm Sunday was also celebrated in the far away communities. Here is the gathering outside of the church of São João Batista (St. John The Baptist). This is our furthest away community at 70km, but on the dirt roads and with the present rains and floods and muck it takes about two and half hours to get there.
These three youngsters were helping with the palm when I arrived.
The procession into the Church of São Lourenço (St. Laurence)
After Palm Sunday Mass in São Lourenço.
They have just recently tiled the inside of the church and plastered the walls and installed the lighting, but no electricity has arrived in this community yet. They are definitely people of hope and isn't that what Easter is all about!
