Day 15 - dimanche

13 fevrier 2011

Today was a little cooler – the sun had a difficult time making its way past the clouds, and there was a steady breeze. I went to the 10:30 mass at Notre Dame de l’Assomption. Kate Wong (from Hong Kong) accompanied me. We met up at the school at 9:50 and made our way to the church. It is only a 15-minute walk from school, so we stood outside for a little while. As we sat down, another woman from the school sat down with us. Kate has met her, Rosa, because she lives in the dorms. I think the pastor of this little church is quite a good homilist. His face is kind and lively, and he makes the people chuckle frequently. The music was low key. The mass that they sing is mostly in Latin/Greek, so I’m learning the Kyrie, Gloria (refrain), Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. The even sang the Celtic Alleluia this morning, so I threw in the harmony the second time around – that always gets heads turning, but I’m not sure if they like it or wonder who is so bold to do such a thing!

Rosa is about my age or a little older. She is originally from Brazil but has lived with her husband in several countries around the world. Now she and her husband call England home. She is here for eight weeks. She has a good friend who lives in Nice, but she did not want to live with her because she did not want to speak Portugese, just French.

After Mass, we all decided to find lunch together. We walked down to Rue de la France, about 2 blocks from the waterfront. There are lots of restaurants there. Rosa knew of an Italian place there. It was very good, and we each took home the remaining half of our dishes – lunch tomorrow.

Kate and I worked on our dialogue for a bit at the student residence. Rosa made us Costa Rican coffee. It was a lovely afternoon.

At 3:30, Kate and I headed to the church of St. Pierre d’Arene to hear a recital of love songs. Now, I was hoping it might be more serious music, but in reality, it was the older, popular love songs. The church was abuzz with anticipation. The altar was set as a stage, the pillars were colorfully lit, and there was no place to sit. We ended up on the step-ledge of an altar alcove. Others filled in around us. We could not see the stage.

When the music began, the people were very happy. They were invited to sing along, and they did. There were a few melodies that I recognized, but the songs sounded so “natural” in french. After about 45 minutes, I knew I had to get up from my spot, and I was ready to go. The prête-chanteur (priest-singer) had a very nice tenor voice, but I had had plenty for today.

Kate and I headed toward the beach. The gulls were flying very low and close to land. There may be some bad weather coming. Despite the chilly air, we each got an ice cream cone to walk along with back to school, and then home for me.

It was good to get home to a warm pot of Earl Grey tea and a couple of cookies.

My evening task was to read/translate the story on the front of the church bulletin. It was lovely, and I want to share it with you:

This is a story of two friends who were walking through the desert. At one moment, they began to fight and one slapped the other. The other was saddened, but saying nothing, wrote in the sand: “Today my best friend hit me.” They continued walking when they found an oasis, so they decided to bathe. But the one who was given the slap began to drown, and his friend saved him. When he recovered, he wrote on a stone: “Today my best friend saved my life.” The one who had hit him and saved him asked: “When I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now you have written on a stone. Why?” The other friend responded: “When someone hurts us, we ought to write in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it on a stone, where no wind can erase it.”  (Learn to write your injuries in the sand, and to engrave your joys in stone.)

Dear reader, here’s wishing you a reason to engrave a stone today.