Catholic Masses

  • Search for Mass Times
  • Catholic Faith Articles
    • News Briefs
    • Catholic Church
    • Vatican News
  • Online Masses
    • Daily Catholic Mass Online
      • Daily TV Mass from Toronto
      • EWTN Daily Mass
      • CTVN Daily Mass
      • Sunday Mass by the Passionists
      • Daily Mass (In Spanish)
  • Pray with Us
Home Test page Letter from Rome, April 1, 2020: As Easter approaches, the Mother of Sorrows listens

Letter from Rome, April 1, 2020: As Easter approaches, the Mother of Sorrows listens

(Image: Eric Vandeville)

So, Italy just extended the full slate of emergency measures until April 13th — Easter Monday — a national holiday here, called Pasquetta, which translates literally as “Little Easter” and usually involves outings with picnics, cookouts, and (more) feasting.

Not this year.

Usually, this would be the week in which people here would start to shop for Easter: lamb starts showing up in supermarkets and butchers’ windows, giant chocolate Easter eggs go on sale pretty much everywhere, and the colombe — literally “doves” — make their yearly appearance.

Those last, colombe, are sweet breads made from the same batter as the Christmastide panettone, only a classic colomba doesn’t contain raisins. Both can have candied citrus, but a panettone must have it, otherwise it’s not really a panettone. Whatever it is might be very good, but it won’t be panettone, not really.

I remember one year, when my father-in-law procured a whole ewe lamb and had me butcher it all the way down and grill it for Easter. We ate it for days, and I can still taste it, but we never did it again just like that. It was quite a production, all accomplished between my mother-in-law’s kitchen table and their terrace.

Thinking about it now, I see how it really was a foretaste of the great feast in the heavenly Jerusalem, for which all of us long. Then, all our infirmities will be healed, and all our desires instantly sated and instantly expanded, as we see God face-to-face and as He is forever.

I suspect I’ll miss some things this year.

I don’t just mean things like colomba and pizza di pasqua — that last being not what you’re probably thinking if you don’t know what it is, but a savory cake native to Umbria and the Marches that has long since become a regular feature of Eastertide life in Latium as well, which is a favorite of my wife and my mother-in-law, hence one of the things on which we snack on Easter Sunday morning — but I mean them, too. And if you don’t mind my saying it just this way, I’ll miss them even more if I’m able to get them, which I probably will, because stores have been pretty well stocked all though this dreadful business.

My favorite moment of the whole year, every year, is when the bells peal at the end of the Easter vigil, and the faithful sing the Regina Coeli for the first time.

It dawns on me now, that there’s nothing stopping me from singing it out this year, either, which I do pretty well, by the way. That’s not a brag: the traditional chant only has a few notes, which any hack can hit, and a melody that is etched into the mind at the first hearing (ahem, composers of contemporary liturgical music).

Simple music, and simple text: Regina coeli, laetare! Alleluia! Quia, quem meruisti portare resurrexit, sicut dixit! Alleluia! Ora pro nobis Deum! Alleluia! (Queen of Heaven, rejoice! Alleluia! For, the One you were worthy to bear rose [from the dead], just as he said He would! Pray for us to God! Alleluia!)

I recall being struck that Christ’s faithful should call out so, to the Mother of God: Why should she need the reminder?

The answer I’ve given myself — one I’m sure I picked up somewhere and know I’ve shared elsewhere — was that she remains the Mother of Sorrows, so her Son’s faithful feel a peculiar solicitude for her, recalling how she watched her own Son suffer and die for our sins.

Our Lady knew that her Divine Son was to destroy death itself, but that — we know — did not so much ease as multiply her grief, which His resurrection did not so much erase as transform, and so into something so like itself as to be unrecognizable.

All that heightens, rather than mitigates her joy, and ours, and if the thought of what I’ll miss this year at Easter is worse than the missing it, so is the memory of sorrow even a tonic for the most perfect rejoicing.

I can’t wait to sing this year.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


Catholic World Report

Apr 1, 2020CatholicMasses

Share this post:

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on PinterestShare on EmailShare on LinkedIn
Boise bishop bans ‘ad orientem’ Masses in new liturgical instructionPro-life leaders: N Ireland legal abortion thwarts protection for vulnerable
You Might Also Like
 
With political shift, El Salvador steps toward an uncertain future
 
Did you know the Immaculate Conception is patroness of the United States?

You must be logged in to post a comment. - Log in

CatholicMasses
2 years ago Catholic News, The DispatchCatholic Church, News Briefs, The Dispatch32
Find Mass Schedules Near You

CatholicMasses.org allows you to search for Catholic Churches to find Mass times near you!

This unique feature helps while traveling.  Now along with Mass times, schedules and Catholic news you can also watch daily Catholic Mass online with your friends.

Try our free resource to “find Roman Catholic Churches near me” today!

St Alphonsus Liguori praised the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the best way to Honor God.  Join us as we celebrate Mass daily from various parishes around the world, online and offline, and please visit daily to pray with us as we recite the Rosary, offer daily scripture, readings, devotions and Catholic focused news. We bring you daily Catholic Mass from various parishes around the world and Catholic news.

Today’s Mass
Daily Mass Videos
  • Catholic Chicago
  • CatholicTVNetwork Daily Mass
  • Daily Mass from Toronto Canada
  • ETWN Daily Mass
  • Eucaristia en Vivo – Spanish Daily Mass
  • General Catholic Videos
  • Live video from Lourdes France
  • Masses from the Ascension Priests
  • Misa Hoy (en español)
  • National Shrine
  • News from a Catholic Perspective
  • News from CFN
  • Pope Francis and Vatican News
  • Rosary
  • Sunday Mass by the Passionists
What’s New
  • Archbishop Tatamai: ‘Synod confirms traditional Melanesian process’
  • Pope Francis in video message: Human trafficking ‘disfigures’ human dignity
  • Priest kidnapped in Haiti; captors demand ransom
  • Prague: Synod Update: The unity of the Church can only be understood in relation to diversity
  • European bishops call for release of Nicaraguan bishop due to stand trial for conspiracy
About

Providing up to date online access to information exclusively about Catholicism.

Visit our site map | Privacy Policy | About Us Page.

Streaming Catholic Mass Online

Watch Catholic Mass Online Today.

Find Churches Nearby
Email-Subscription

Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest news and event postings.

2019 © Catholic Mass Search - Search Catholic Churches and find Mass times while traveling.
Privacy Policy | About Us Page.
Truemag theme by StrictThemes
Change Location
Find awesome listings near you!