By 6 AM this morning I couldn't sleep anymore, as thoughts of all that had to be done today flashed through my head. So the best thing was just to get up and get going. A couple of documents still had to be prepared on the computer, there were Masses at 7:30 AM (for the community), 10:00 AM (for the school - another confirmation with crowds of parents, kids, and hand-waving Brothers keeping them all organized), and at 6:30 PM Mass (for the Brothers who arrived later in the day, and a Mass that I was responsible for), plus there was a practice with Br. Rodolfo for the festivities tomorrow, a meeting of the full Liturgy Committee to finalize opening-day plans and see what could be done about the request for a 25-minute prayer next Friday, a choir practice at 4 PM, and the evening Mass itself. So here are only some highlights.
This is a picture of the "tent" entrance into the chapel. It's larger than shown here, but the effect is quite nice. The parents and kids at the Confirmation Mass seemed to like it, with some parents posing their kids beneath it for pictures. All in all, it was worth the effort. We'll see what the Brothers think.The practice with Rodolfo went well. He's a fine organist who is able to play an accompaniment simply from the melody line. That makes things much easier for me, because it means that I don't have to find the music for anything that folks might want to sing at a future service.
I stopped by the confirmation, just to see what the place looked and sounded like when it was full. It was a typical Italian festive event. The Brother in charge was talking loudly into the microphone, trying to get people to sit down, settle down, and get serious. They just kept visiting one another, going outside for a cigarette, and keeping an eye on the entrance just in case the bishop actually was there.
It was only when the Brother announced the beginning of the Mass that people really settled down quite quickly. Then, here came the modern procession - first the photographers getting pictures from every angle; then the videographers trying to get the dramatic movement shots, then the 20 or so kids being confirmed, and then the bemused Italian bishop appearing quite at home and content at the end of this entourage, accompanied by someone in what looked like academic dress. Maybe they were throwing in a graduation for good measure.The Liturgy committee meeting at noon was very helpful to me. All of the Brothers whom I had asked to attend did so, and they were on time. I suppose that it's a characteristic of these particular Brothers, ones who are used to meetings, to know that showing up on time is as important as showing up at all. We worked out the mechanics for the opening ceremonty and went over some new details regarding the opening Mass. Regarding next Friday's prayer service request, we decided that we would counter-propose a shorter, simpler prayer that either began the session or that would be spread throughout the 3-hour session.
We will address specifics about it on Wednesday. In the picture here are Br. Tim Coldwell, the Secretary for Formation at the Motherhouse and the English language liturgical liaison, and Br. Paulo Petry from Brazil, the Visitor, who is the Spanish language liaison for the committee. He took up my guitar and played around with it for a bit; with some success. I may tap into him later.The afternoon included a number of preparations for the choir rehearsal in the Main Chapel - setting up chairs, bringing in an electronic keyboard, hunting for an extension chord and a plug (finally found one when I crawled right under the the shelf that holds the relics of the Founder), putting together the music sheets, and so on. I was happy to see that almost 20 Brothers showed up, and for the next hour we had a fine practice. In fact we sounded so good that afterwards I made up a new instruction sheet for Br. Rodolfo, telling him that we would not be using the organ for some of the musical selections, since the choir sounded so good and would lead the singing.
Soon afterwards it was time to prepare for the evening Mass in the JPII Chapel. When 6:30 PM arrived, it looked like we had just enough chairs there (about 70). But then the late-comers started drifting in ... first 5, then 10, then 20.
Soon we were dragging in chairs from all over the place. When we finally settled down, there must have been 90 - 100 Brothers in the room. It was a bit cozy. The Mass was in Italian and the readings were in Spanish and French. The music was in Italian, Greek, and English. Welcome to Rome. But everything went off well, I think, considering what it could have been like if we had not had that morning Mass also.The dinner afterwards was another fine affair, with lots of greetings and introductions all around. At times you could hardly hear yourself talk. But the energy in the room was great.
Tomorrow will be the bear of a day. But I think that we're as ready as we can be. Now to bed and see if I can put all this out of my mind for a couple of hours.
