2017年圣周: 圣枝主日
Holy Week has come again. It has become one of my favorite weeks in China, even though it gets a little tough on the knees.
Sunday morning we were at Houbajia, where the table of branches was set up as it always is, in the courtyard. At our Beijing parish, we have always used a local evergreen tree branches, though our priests often have real palm branches for the procession.
Since we somehow always end up at the very tail end of the processions, I advised Brigid to skip it so she could position herself to see the choir and the priests approach the church door. I wanted her to get a good look of what happened at the door.
The transliteration of Hosanna used here is interesting. 贺三纳 Hè sān nà. Word-by-word it means "congratulate-three-accept." I really do love how much loaded meaning there can be when importing a foreign word into a Chinese word (while it can sometimes be totally meaningless as well).
"Mom, he knocked on the door with the bottom of staff. He did it three times! Well, I actually only saw him do it twice, but I think I heard it three times!"
Better pictures of our Mass can be found on the parish blog.
Then on Tuesday, we had a fairly nice afternoon, the kind of blue sky day we normally would go to some part of the Great Wall if it were a weekend. Instead we decided to tool around the Ming Tombs when Randy left work. His favorite route took us through Yanzikou.
The Catholic Church at Yanzikou had been demolished to make way for a new, larger church building. We had driven past the site a few times, most recently over the Chinese New Year holiday, and I wondered how the parishioners were managing. There were barely walls, let alone pews.
By this week, the church is still not finished, but it now has a door and a sign indicating it is a Catholic Church.
Randy had stopped the car so he could look at a crumbling watch tower on the mountain behind the church. I wanted to peek at the progress of construction, but I didn't dare get any closer than this because I didn't want to interrupt. I could hear singing from inside, alternating between a man's voice (probably the priest, because it had that trained clarity) and a small congregation responding. I admit a tinge of jealousy, this little town able to have this church, a place to gather for frequent Masses, prayers, and just community. It reminded me of what it was like to belong to Nantou Church in Shenzhen. I like our current parish at the Seminary; there are other benefits to attending there. I just miss sometimes that fellowship that comes with living closer to the church and other 教友们
Sunday morning we were at Houbajia, where the table of branches was set up as it always is, in the courtyard. At our Beijing parish, we have always used a local evergreen tree branches, though our priests often have real palm branches for the procession.
Since we somehow always end up at the very tail end of the processions, I advised Brigid to skip it so she could position herself to see the choir and the priests approach the church door. I wanted her to get a good look of what happened at the door.
前呼后拥的群众，高声欢呼：「贺三纳于达味之子！奉上主之名而来的，当受赞颂！贺三纳于至高之天！」
Qián hū hòu yōng de qúnzhòng, gāo shēng huānhū:`Hè sān nà yú dá wèi zhīzǐ! Fèng shàng zhǔ zhī míng ér lái de, dāng shòu zànsòng! Hè sān nà yú zhìgāo zhī tiān!'
The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest."
The transliteration of Hosanna used here is interesting. 贺三纳 Hè sān nà. Word-by-word it means "congratulate-three-accept." I really do love how much loaded meaning there can be when importing a foreign word into a Chinese word (while it can sometimes be totally meaningless as well).
"Mom, he knocked on the door with the bottom of staff. He did it three times! Well, I actually only saw him do it twice, but I think I heard it three times!"
Better pictures of our Mass can be found on the parish blog.
Then on Tuesday, we had a fairly nice afternoon, the kind of blue sky day we normally would go to some part of the Great Wall if it were a weekend. Instead we decided to tool around the Ming Tombs when Randy left work. His favorite route took us through Yanzikou.
The Catholic Church at Yanzikou had been demolished to make way for a new, larger church building. We had driven past the site a few times, most recently over the Chinese New Year holiday, and I wondered how the parishioners were managing. There were barely walls, let alone pews.
By this week, the church is still not finished, but it now has a door and a sign indicating it is a Catholic Church.
Randy had stopped the car so he could look at a crumbling watch tower on the mountain behind the church. I wanted to peek at the progress of construction, but I didn't dare get any closer than this because I didn't want to interrupt. I could hear singing from inside, alternating between a man's voice (probably the priest, because it had that trained clarity) and a small congregation responding. I admit a tinge of jealousy, this little town able to have this church, a place to gather for frequent Masses, prayers, and just community. It reminded me of what it was like to belong to Nantou Church in Shenzhen. I like our current parish at the Seminary; there are other benefits to attending there. I just miss sometimes that fellowship that comes with living closer to the church and other 教友们
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