(Above)Inside of Tiqti Chapel
The title to this post translates roughly to: We are a Parish Family United in Mission. It is a phrase we use to describe my parish, San Carlos, here in Bolivia. Last year we were focused on the idea that we are all on mission. I may have shared this in an earlier post, or email newsletter, or just in individual letters.
This theme was more deeply focused and examined on an all day retreat that about 100 people from my parish participated in last year in May. We traveled to the Franciscan Retreat Center in Tarata, which is about an hour away. We participated in workshops that put us together in mixed groups from the parish. Our final workshop we joined with people who have similar work, and prepared statements on what we were willing to commit to for the next year.
Lintel of Doorway into Retreat Center
A week or so later we had a special mass we were all pledged to work as missioners in the parish. I wrote at the time of the irony that I felt to have traveled all this way to be a missioner and yet everyone in my parish was now missioners!
The third Sunday of Lent this year, culminated the year of focus on mission. All the churches in the diocese were invited to the International Fair Grounds in Cochabamba for a "Fiesta of Fraternidad". All the churches were to suspend their masses for the day and everyone was invited to mass at the fairgrounds. I would guess that there are over 500,000 Catholics in the Cochabamba area. They planned for 7,000 people to come and over 10,000 were in attendance. Crowd wise I felt it was far larger than SOA protests!
We were invited to spend the whole day celebrating and creating community. It was a bit like a Clearwater Revival (without famous artists!) There were areas for folk dance performances, theatre performances, concerts, kids play areas, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and more. Each church staked out an area to gather their people, some just to eat lunch, others their personal celebrations, dances and music. There was even a mariachi band that played one song, of the Mexican Folk Dances I learned to dance to out in Colorado!
There were various contemporary catholic rock bands and it was great to see so many folks dancing about and singing to the songs. It amazed me to see so many different groups of nuns; I believe a majority of who were in their habits.
Archbishop Tito was the main celebrant at the mass, there was a representative from the Vatican present. Padre Honny from my days in Sacaba was on the main altar too! There were dozens of other priests concelebrating the mass. It was the quietest Bolivia mass I ever went to. You could hear children [playing in the distance, and the birds twittering in the trees.
Archbishop Tito besides giving a sermon related to the Sunday readings, which focused on thirst of all types and incarnation of Christ, made connections to the theme he wishes we would work towards in the coming year(s). He challenged us within our parishes to create various groups that would create space for fraternity, and within those brother/sisterhoods to be communion or body of Christ to each other. We are to move into the 1st phase of the pastoral plan that orients our road to permanent mission of our parishes.
During the mass a group of people "brought symbols of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit" forward. I was waiting for the first symbol, when someone raised up a styrofoam cut out of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Then seven people released seven white doves. They flew round, split into groups, and one group of about 4 doves returned to the rooftop of a tent near the altar, guess they didn't want to miss the rest of the mass!
All in all I think it was a great day that should be repeated at least once a year. Positive notes, absence of commercialism, alcoholic beverages, and usual Bolivian trash (the young folks were picking up what was dropped.) People really seemed to enjoy themselves and there wasn't time to see everything!
