Blessing of New Church of Santa Rita

Earlier this month I did something that I will probably never do again. Since we have no bishop here, I put on the bishops hat for a day and consecrated and blessed the new church of Santa Rita Linha 09 (Line / Road number nine). At home this is normally the job of a bishop! A lot of the funds came from our friends in Ireland. Many thanks. This community now has a new church and the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament. Which means they can have communion at their prayer services on the Sundays when there is no priest available.

The rice is on the boil in the parish hall.
The meat is made ready for the BBQ
The entrance and the blessing of the door of the new church.
Enthroning The Word of God.
Blessing of The Altar.
Presentation of The Sacred Vessals and their blessing.
Placing The Blessed Sacrament into the Tabernacle for the first time at the end of Mass. Now the community may receive Holy Communion each time they come together, and not just on the priest's monthly visit.
After Mass the procession around the church with singing and the blessing of the Walls of the new church. Afterwards the procession continued towards the parish hall for the festa.
The final blessing of the people.

The meat is on the barbie!
They serve large portions here!

The Festa was for the old!
The Youth.

The children. Here is the Eucharistic minister and his new grandson.


The altar after mass: with the collection gifts on the ground, which included a hank of bananas, a root plant called mandioca, a bag of dried beans, a box of oranges, and a bag of mamãos (papaya).
The gifts suggest that the community have little by the way of money, which is true, but they contributed to the building of their new church in labour. Our friends in Ireland bought the material.

June News and Views

Here are a few views from life on the mission this month.

It was mothers day, which is a huge event, so these kids practised for weeks in this homage to their mothers and Our Lady, mother of the church.

We had a big cake for mothers day baked by the woman on the right. Everyone at Mass that night got a slice.While visiting the settlement areas we were invited to lunch in a local house, but not before I was given a guided tour of the farm by the father and his two sons.

This construction is not for water but for salt licks for the cattle. With the strong rain the salt needs to be protected, hence the roof.

Relaxing after lunch in the family home. This is their newly built extension to the kitchen. I have stayed overnight in this house while visiting communities.

The neighbour got to the sofa before I did for the all important afternoon siesta.

The church of Santa Rita on the night of the launch of their festa. The dance took place in the hall, which is the wooden building next door. It is about to fall and this community hopes to replace it with a more solid structure and to move it a little bit further away from the church.

The local youth group perform a liturgical dance to welcome the Gospel. This community is very animated and are great singers.

Myself with the Eucharistic ministers in the procession from the mass into the hall with an image of Santa Rita to bless the hall and the festa which is about to begin.

After the blessing.

On a visit to another community, Nossa Senhora Aparecida. There was cake and juice for all. The kids chose to sit in front of the altar.

Fencing here is done by hand and the wooden stakes are of the best hardwood that we would see in the best of furniture at home. The use a clean wire as opposed to barbed-wire for the cattle fence, maybe five or six stands of wire and the holes in the post are bored by hand.

These kids were leaving after mass on some local transport, with a bag of rice for food.

A small cattle truck stuck in the mud which blocked our route home for about an hour. Our jeep was not strong enough to pull them out. The Mother Superior of the nuns looks on.

We called to say hello to a family whose house was burned to the ground, to see how they were getting on, and we met these kids having great fun on the horse saddle. One of them even had an empty beer can, but the mother made her throw it away. It is not unusual to see a cowboy on his horse on the road drinking a can of beer.

I met these two little ones coming home for their wooden school house with this flower for their Mammy as it was mothers day. The were so intent in minding their little gift that the never saw me taking their picture until the last moment. they were minding their flower as if it was the most precious object in the world, and for them it was at that moment of time.

Corpus Christi Procession 2008

The Corpus Christi Procession here starts the night before. The locals come together and create a pathway of art on the road for the Blessed Sacrament. The art work is made from coloured sawdust, something we have in abundance here. The road is closed the night before and during the night the art work is placed on the road. the next morning after an early Mass we had the procession from the church to the town park and back again. Corpus Christi is a bank holiday here so the closing of part of the main street is not to much of a problem.

The kids help the night before with the colouring of the sawdust.

A local artist draws the outline of the large picture on the road with charcoal.

Then different groups set about filling in the design with coloured sawdust. Lime was used for white.

Closing off the top of the main street.

Not too shy for the camera.

Even though it was late at night some of the workers were very cheery.

The colour brown was made from used coffee grounds. A collection point was made in the church the week before for people to bring used coffee grounds.

Our Lady surrounded by the rosary. Her halo was made from broken egg shells and the flowers in her hand were real flowers.

A symbol of The Eucharist.

Washing of the feet.

The next day at dawn outside the main entrance of the church.

Sacrament of Marriage Symbol.

Music.

The Youth Club leave their symbol behind for all to see. Different groups of the parish took part in designing and creating different parts of the ground carpet of art work.

The world and Bible.

Sacrament of Confirmation - Tongues of fire.

A young neighbour stands at the Dízimo art work to give a sense of scale. Dízimo is about contributing financially towards the upkeep of the church. It means a "Tenth" or "Tithe".

Heart in the eye.

The descent of The Holy Spirit.

Around the Altar Table and a view of the road and carpet of art work.

Building blocks of the heart.

The end of the artwork is Jesus and "Siga-me" or "Follow me"

Starting the procession.

Walking along the art work, which is a carpet of devotion by the people for The Blessed Sacrament.

Even at this hour of the morning the sun was high in the sky and I was glad to bask in the shade of The Lord.

Some of the pilgrims on the road.

Following Christ.

Flower Girls.

As the art works ends the flower angels take over to create a path of devotion for The Lord.

Entering the town park.

A moment of prayer.

A blessing for all.

A few minutes after the procession was over, the nights art work is swept up and thrown in the rubbish. A few young helpers here.

The parish jeep is now the rubbish lorry for the morning.