melted smoosh

  Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! The strife is o'er, the battle done The victory of life is won The song of triumph has begun: Alleluia! Happy Easter Monday! Holy Week and the Easter Octave are my absolute favourite times of the liturgical year. growing up in a devout non-denominational evangelical home, my most consistent experience of Holy Week was that we went to church on Palm Sunday, and then again on Easter. there were a few years where we participated in a Seder service to commemorate the Last Supper, sometimes including foot washing. one memorable year, we celebrated this memorial dinner with friends who lived on waterfront property. they had constructed a small wooden cross and placed several votive candles in glass holders on the cross. we each privately wrote down some sins on small pieces of paper, folded up the papers, and placed them into the flames of the candles to burn. then the cross was launched out onto the waves, bearing our sins with it. (I very well could be r...

the last day of our Spain trip was an ambitious one: our flight back to Rome didn't depart until 9 PM, leaving us plenty of time to catch a charter bus to spend the day at the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat, approximately 30 miles northwest of Barcelona. we were especially looking forward to hearing the renowned boys' choir sing their daily recital; the choir school dates back to 1223. in addition, the monastery is home to an especially revered sculpture of Mary, Our Lady of Montserrat (also known as the Black Madonna or La Maroneta ).  however, things were off to a hairy start as actually finding said charter bus proved nearly impossible. i had come up with a flawless scheme to check out of our Airbnb, drop our suitcases off at a luggage storage place, and board the bus with plenty of time to spare before departure at 8:30 AM. since the bus departed from outside the main train station, it didn't occur to me that we would have trouble finding it -- but as the minutes t...