Cute Overload, as always!
I haven't done any blogging today because I've been upset about the execution. I'm surprised that it bothered me so much. I guess it's because they (the Iraqis and U.S.) were in such a damn hurry to kill the man. That really troubled me. However, the life of a priest is a busy life, so I haven't spent a lot of time stewing. Mona and I went and rehearsed with the Coro de Jovenes. We practiced the Christmas Carols for tomorrow morning's service, and then Stille Nacht in four languages, which they will sing at the Watchnight Service tomorrow night. I have spent a great part of this week focusing on the Watchnight Service; it's a pretty big deal here. I really like it because the majority of the folks attending usually go to a party after church, so they are really dressed-up! I think I'll bring the camera tomorrow night and grab some fótos of the great outfits. It's a bilingual service, and our Assistant, Revdo. Luís Cáceres will preach. This is his first opportunity to preach at the Watchnight Service. The real challenge of this service is planning everything just right so that Luís and I are behind the altar for the post-communion prayer exactly at midnight. The entire city of Panamá just explodes with fireworks at midnight, and once I give the benediction and we sing the final hymn, we all go out the door to watch the fireworks. Mona and I learned our first year here that no one in Ciudad de Panamá goes to sleep before 5:00am on New Years, and with the amount of firework activity which took place in our neighborhood on Christmas Eve I don't think we will have any luck getting to bed before 3:00 am! What are your plans for New Year's Eve?
4 comments:
My plans for tomorrow night? Spending it by myself in the rectory because we are supposed to have freezing rain tomorrow night and I don't want to be driving back up 180 miles from a U2charist downstate. It will be a super quiet night with no firecrackers, just cats and myself. I will also write a sermon for the Feast of the Holy Name since we have eucharist at 10.00 AM that day.
FIREWORKS! They've not stopped since Christmas...tomorrow night it will look like civilwar (which may break out again anyway because the Government litterally ran out of money)...yep, there is NO MONEY (paper or coins) about/in circulation and people are screaming, the cashmachines are empty the banks have lines around the block and one can only get around $150.00 equivelent at a time because they are PRINTING MORE MONEY and it's not ready yet! They have been reissuing torn/filthy old bills! Can you believe it? Nobody here can because "it's unprecedented"...not even small coins? People think all the money is tucked away in Panama (I'm not kidding) along with some fairly horrid former public officials (like President Serrano Elias). Anyhow, I've overnight guests from the Capitol City and we are all going to a fundraising gala that should be fun (it was last year)...it should be fun, that is, if they paid for the food and the waiters already...because there IS NO MONEY! I have some hidden in a shoe...don't tell anyone because I wouldn't know what to do (if they found out)...also, I think I can draw U.S. dollars on my U.S. dollar account if things get nasty and desperate in a week or two...people say dollars will be in circulation soon! People are not pleased around (bien grumpy)here (especially in the campo) and they aren't a really shy/humble and forgiving lot (they only pretend to be) when it comes right down to a no chavo/no pan outlook!
I wonder if I could exchange one of my good watches for a couple of loads of arroz to share with my neighbors during the upcoming famine/revolution?
I'll tell you Padre...I agree with you...there was a great crime done today and I can't quite put my finger on the depth of danger the world is currently in...it seems to me that God is revealing TRUTH and we've all been "called" to start behaving or else...it's the loving one another part...God means business on this point!
It means, of course, I'll have to start hugging the likes of rednecked anti-LGBT bigots...I wonder if I can pull it off? Seriously, it's hard to do what God Commands us to do...I guess that's what it's all about.
BIG ABRAZOS!
Leonardo Ricardo in Reform School Mode (or at least getting ready to be willing)
Hey Padre - I spent New Years with my neighbors. We all brought some dishes and some alcohol, and enjoy one another's company.
The kids (all six of them, two of mine, and four neighbor kids, aged 5 mos to 9 years) all stayed up to hoot and holler in the new year and we had fire works.
My next door neighbor made home-made sangria and plied me with it all evening long (and I was drinking muuuuch slower than he wanted me to!) A glass of bubbly on top at the end, and well..today I have a tiny hangover! Yuck.
My neighbors, God love them, are all pretty conservative people. My neighbor's brother is gay, and has lived with his partner for about 20 years. So, religiously, they are pretty liberal minded (I've recently begun dragging ALL of them with me to the Episcopal Church - we are all ex-RC! I'm like the Episcopal Pied Piper)
Anyway, I was really thinking of you, because, talk turned to the execution of Saddam, and how he deserved it, and how many people he had killed, etc. And all the Bush retoric had been bought into by my beloved friends, hook line and sinker.
I should have argued with them about, but, I didn't want to sour the evening, and the man is dead.
So, instead, I prayed for all of us this morning, and I prayed for Saddam. He was an evil man, and he did terrible things. But, to take his life? What have we really accomplished?
Blessings, Amigo!
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