Easter Vigil at the Church of the Sacred Heart

It’s very cold this year, about two degrees Celsius, and the altar servers are shivering as Fr. Kevin blesses the fire and prepares the huge paschal candle. He cuts a cross into it and then the Alpha and Omega signs plus the year 2013, after which he inserts five grains of incense in the form of a cross. The candle is then lit and processed into the warm church – to the relief of the altar servers and the 90 or so people of the congregation who have braved the chilly weather.

The church is in complete darkness but each worshipper holds a small candle and a line is formed as each candle is lit from the paschal candle. People turn to each other, lighting each other’s candle with polite generosity until the church is filled with pinpricks of glimmering light. The cry is repeated:

The Light of Christ! – Thanks be to God!

For the next two hours there will be readings, prayers, acclamations, responses, psalms, a homily, singing in Latin and in English, supported by a cantor, choir and organ. At one point all the electric lights will suddenly be switched on and all the church candles will be lit  – I counted about two dozen church candles; large round ones on the altar, tall thin ones behind, several solitary ones of different sizes, and some single candles high on the side walls that are lit only once a year. The church, blazing with fierce white light is, for just a moment, disconcertingly unfamiliar, until the eyes adjust and the remembered shapes resolve themselves.

The Light of Christ! – Thanks be to God!

Three adults will be baptised at the front of the church, by the main altar, and several more will be confirmed. As they make their responses, some confidently, others less so, the congregation wills them on. And then it is time for the entire congregation to renew its baptismal promises, the responses extra loud and forceful.

Several pews in front of me are a couple clearly new to the occasion, unsure when to sit, when to stand, when to kneel, the length of the ceremony probably more than they bargained for. The man gives up and decides to sit throughout, his companion holds out for longer and then copies him.  I pray for their patience and that they will lose themselves in the sights and the sounds of the liturgy, and find comfort and warmth in the unspoken companionship of the occasion.

Shortly after, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the mass of every day, brings the night to its conclusion.

All over the world the same ceremony is being performed in the same way to the same God - and will be until He comes again.

Happy Easter!

 

Barcelona

Spent the last couple of days in Barcelona doing all the usual tourist sights: Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia and Casa Mila; Barcelona Cathedral; the City and Maritime Museums; the Boquerio Market; Las Ramblas and the Harbour; cable car to Montjuic...and a couple of hours killing time in the Picasso Museum before the Tapeo Restaurant (just down the street) opened for dinner at 7.00pm.

It’s been many years since I was in Barcelona last and there was much that I’d forgotten.

Here’s some highlights.

The Metro is great, clean and comfortable with frequent service and a vast network. We took it to the Boquerio and, after the obligatory breakfast of hot chocolate and pastry, wandered around the market.

It was the variety that impressed most; sure, there were meats a-plenty, acres of fish, lots of veg and fruit, mushrooms, even chocolates...but tree fungus and several varieties of snails?

Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia Basilica is still as dazzling as ever, its multiple towers soaring above the nearby metro station, the interior awash with light, space and bathed in colour from the many stained glass windows. It’s difficult to remember that this is a sacred space when the eye is constantly roving, now registering the detail of a giant clam holy water container, now drawn upwards where the pillars sprout ‘branches’ like concrete trees. It’s been under construction for 130 years and parts of the exterior are still a building site.

By contrast, the mime artists on the Ramblas were at times disturbingly inventive – fallen angels? - and worth a few coins.

Another delight was the acres of Roman ruins from 1^st century BC to 7^th century AD in the basement of the City Museum. The nearest similar item I’d seen before was in the Archaelogical Crypt at Notre Dane Square, Paris, but this was simply staggering...even a vat for dying clothes marked with remnants of the original bluey-green colour - if the guide is to be believed!

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This is becoming a bit of a travelogue so let me conclude with a couple of final favourites. First, in the Maritime Museum, the magnificent 60-meter long replica of the royal galley that took part in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

 

And, finally, the medieval Barcelona Cathedral in the old city with its Gothic cloister with 13 geese (recalling the age of the virgin martyr Saint Eulalia who was murdered in the time of the emperor Diocletan). Remembering more recent martyrs, I lit a candle and paused for a moment at the altar of the Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.

And what of the Picasso Museum, described as ‘probably the most popular museum in the city if you work on official visitor numbers’? Well, it certainly passed a couple of hours before dinner, and Picasso’s teenage development as an artist is fascinating and well illustrated (and some of the Blue and Rose period works are great) but I believe Picasso regressed after 1917 – but then, don’t mind me, I’m just a happy philistine.

Hargausiumei

Har as in bar
Gau as in gown
Siu as in sue
Mei as in my

There, Hargausiumei - easy!

Hargau is a shrimp dumpling, the wrapping is made of tang-flour dough while the filing is shrimp and bamboo shoots.

Siu mei is a pork dumpling, being shrimp and chopped pork contained in a plain flour and egg dough wrapping.

Hargau and Siumei are two of the most popular Chinese dim sum dishes (a bit like Spanish tapas). 'Dim Sum' - literal meaning 'touch the heart' - is a style of Cantonese food served as small bite-sized portions of food in small steamer baskets or on small plates. 

And my name!