Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

Sanctuary of St. Savior Church with
the relic of St. Francis below the
statue on the left

Today is a solemnity for us. Mass was sung at our place but with only 10 celebrants because most others decided to join the Custodial Mass at St. Savior's at 10am. It's good once a year to see the franciscan family united for this celebration ... singing the ancient hymns composed for this feast. And to see the franciscan family made up of so many races: europeans, africans, asians ... St. Francis must be proud of this.

Rosh haShana ends tonight. Hopefully security will relax a bit so we have more freedom of movement. But in 10 days time it will be Yom Kippur so security will be raised again. Better enjoy the brief respite now by buying and stocking up on necessities before roads are closed off and shops close for business.

Today we had a nice surprise ... or rather, I had a nice surprise. An old classmate Sr. Gabriela Kim came to visit. She's korean and now 75 yrs old. We studied together in Jerusalem 25 yrs ago. Time surely flies. I only had half an hour to chat with her but it was good to catch up. Rosario, our other classmate is now economy of our school. Other classmates include Corrado who is now bishop of Pavia; Usama who is married here in Jerusalem and a tourist guide, Javier who was vicar general in Spain but died suddenly in 2009 at age 45, and Marino ... no news of him.

The reliquary

I still had to work today despite the solemnity. There's too much to do and even 2 of our volunteers decided to come back to work. I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday and on the way to work, I met Sr. Sophie with Sr. Noel. Sr. Sophie asked if I had eaten lunch and I said no; she said to wait and she'll bring dinner for me. She did .... another roast chicken!!! What a nice treat for the feast day!

My shoulder is not getting better. Last night, Paul our indian student helped put analgesic balm on it as I can't reach it with my left hand. This morning he helped again. The analgesic offers a bit of help ... relieving the pain for a couple of hours before it wears out. I can't take oral analgesic medication as it reacts with my other medication. Doc warned me against it. Hope a miracle will happen today ... the pain is causing me to have headaches.