Oh Holy Day

The Church

Never had Brendan or I been to a mass where we got to see men who had been studying to be priest, get their reward for passing the first step. Pretty rare right? (I don't know the exact religious words for this day, so bare with me)   But my grandparents are pretty religous people, and very involved with the church; they go to church every day, give communion to people at their homes who are sick, go to every retreat, sing in the choir, anyways you get the picture; their pretty involved.  My grandparents told us of this mass that was going to happen, and we said why not, never done that one before.  We got there a half hour before the mass started, and there were no good seats where we would be able to see what was going on, it was packed!  My grandpa being so invovled, also has the keys to the church and every door possible, so we just went in the back and got out some chairs for us.  The mass begins, and there's about 40 people singing, and playing instruments, and about 20 priests, and 9 men that are studying to be priests and anxious to get their first reward after 2 years of studying.

The mass continues and one by one, their names are announced, and they say they were born, and what country their off to next to continue studying;  Some are going to Rome, others to Brazil, and others to Columbia.  The men studying then go up in front of the church and recite what values they will uphold, the priests that are at the altar, then  give the men that are studying their first priestly outfit (not really sure what the outfit is called but it's long and black and they wear that little whitte cloth around their neck.)  This part was so neat to see;  the men were so anxious, excited, and some were crying.  Their parents hadn't seen them in 2 years, so this was also an emotional time for their parents as well.  After the mass ended we headed over to the seminary and had some pig, chicken, hand made tamales from the indians of the town, (Guaritas) and of course beans and rice!  Many people came from surrounding towns, including other men that are studying to be priests,  to to be at the ceremony.  That night 5 men studying to be priests, spent the night at my grandma's; Bren and I are also staying at my grandma's so we ate breakfast with them and all the priest we met the day before and that day were so funny and always up for a joke, which was very cool to see.

The 9 men that received the black robes.  My grandma bought them the cake so she's in the picture too.

There's the cake my grandma bought