Festival Weekend, Part 2

For Part 1, click here.

On Saturday we woke up later than usual, and before the Pirate had even gotten out of bed we got a phone call from the coordinator of the music team saying that Padre wanted them to play for the noon mass. This surprised us since we hadn't even known there would be a noon mass, but we rushed through our morning chores and went down to the church. Apparently this mass hadn't been publicized to the local parishioners because it was primarily for the people from the surrounding ranchos & poblados (small communities).

The church was all decked out in flowers, many more than usual.

I saw two older women, very proper, both with fashionable hats on, sitting in the front pew with a group of people, apparently friends of Padre's from elsewhere. They had come in before the others and had spent quite a long time kneeling in prayer. At the end of the mass, Padre greeted his friends, who had come from Guanajuato, and had one of the older women come up to tell us why she was there.

A year ago she had been with a group of Padre's friends who came here to help him celebrate his 15th year of being a priest, but she was unable to walk. I'm not sure what infirmity she had, but I believe it was some sort of cancer. While she was in our town she prayed for Nuestra Senora del Pilar to intervene on her behalf, and promised to return if she was healed. Well, our Lady did intervene - the woman was healed, and that's why she was back this year, to give thanks for her healing!

After mass was over, the Pirate went to find whoever was in charge of the sound system for the evening mass in the plaza while I watched the altar servers practicing. Then we raced around town to get our grocery shopping done before we had to return to the church for the Big Event. The bishop would be there because we had a large group of children and adults being confirmed.


The music team got all set up off to the side of the stage:

The plaza filled up:

And the mass started. There were rain clouds overhead and it started to sprinkle, but the rain held off through the entire mass. However, the sky was quite dark, even considering that it was early evening.

Our bishop is an excellent preacher, and the homily he gave was a clear call to the confirmands to receive the grace that God offers them to reach out to the world as servants of the Kingdom of God.

Then, of course, the rite of confirmation:

The music team played a song during communion in which a verse was sung, then the Pirate played his guitar without singers, then the next verse was sung (this was to draw out the song over the entire time of communion, which of course was unusually long). The women around me all remarked on how lovely his playing was, and they were right! Instead of his electric guitar, which he usually plays, he had his old favorite, the acoustical Hummingbird, and the sound was wonderful. He has a special gift of worship through his instrumental playing and it's quite obvious to all who hear it.

We got home early enough (8pm) that I was able to write the first post in this series. Next up: the cabalgata on Sunday!

I'm linking up with Wanda forWeek Ending with this post, although I have one more post to write to finish describing this very full weekend. Come back tomorrow for my last post!