Feast of St. Anthony of Padua

Statue and relic of St.
Anthony

June 13th is a solemnity for us in the Holy Land because it's the feast of the Patron of the Custody of the Holy Land. St. Anthony of Padua (or Lisbon depending if you're portuguese). There was a solemn Mass at the parish church of St. Saviour which is the seat of the Custody, and the parish of St. Anthony in Jaffa celebrated it later in the afternoon.

The statue and relic of St. Anthony was brought out onto an altar near the sanctuary in St. Saviour's church. It was splendidly done by our korean sacristan Sr. Concettina Kim, a sister of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master congregation. St. Anthony is very popular among the arab christians, and little children on the day of their baptism and the feast of St. Anthony, wear the franciscan habit as a sign of St. Anthony's protection. I think this is due to the legend that St. Anthony once revived a dead boy. Few people know but St. Anthony was a young friar whom St. Francis of Assisi met him and gave some instructions.

The Custos with children dressed
as franciscans in Jaffa

Tomorrow is back to work and Thursday is another holiday - the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. I hope I can have some free time to rest. Today was a nightmare as I had calls and visits that were totally unscheduled. Then in the evening I had to go far out into the City to speak with a chinese group. It was at a hotel on the outskirts and reaching the place is very complicated. Now I'm home .... tired and hoping to go to bed without further disturbance. And being hungry I stopped byArab Fried Chicken to buy dinner. I really like that place ... or rather the food. Anyway my head is very giddy and I nearly blacked out twice. That's exhaustion.

Meantime there's news and a video of thousands of ultra-orthodox jews in New York demonstrating against the compulsory drafting of their youths to the Israeli military service. This is solidarity with the ultra-orthodox jews here in Israel who have not only been rioting the past few weeks but also attacking soldiers.  http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.795270