Back again

Full moon over Mt. of Olives

Back again on blog after 2 days of busy preparations. With the lockdown it has been difficult to even buy flowers for our church for the feats of St. Francis today. I was told to go look for flowers so I spent quite some time around the courtyard and terrace cutting roses and plumbargo to decorate the church and refectory. Roses and plumbargo are the only blooming flowers right now as the season changes to autumn. There's also jasmine but this year they are poorly ... small batches that last only one day. Perhaps it's because of the heatwave  we've had the past month.

Yesterday being the eve of St. Francis' feast, there was the traditional solemn vespers with the Transitus which celebrates the passing of St. Francis. Because of the lockdown, our central church was filled only by our resident friars. Each house conducted its own transitus ceremony in private.

Homemade mooncakes

Friday was the Mid-Autumn festival and luckily I had some mooncakes. The chinese sisters also made northern style of mooncakes. For the past 3 days I've been sharing them with some students during afternoon tea ... something which I never do till now. I was trying to lighten the mood of our students who have been in lockdown far too long. A little break from our routine is good.

By the way, this new configuration of blogspot is absolutely awful. You cannot upload a photo without tons of problems. It takes double the time now to write a blog than before.

Well for other news .... we've reached almost 9000 new infections daily. Before the lockdown wehad only 7000. Looks like it's not working ... police are not able to control the religious crowds from gathering during this feast of Sukkot ... nor the huge demonstrations against the govt last night all aorund the country. Reports say it was the biggest gathering yet.

And one morbid fact .... ultra-orthodox jews are purposely getting infected so they get a free staycation in a 5 star hotel during this 8 day feast of Sukkot. Makes your mind reel what a freebie would risk just for a free vacation ... even if it means one of their family die from the virus. This is what the Bible teaches?  https://www.ynetnews.com/article/SJ00I48XIw?fbclid=IwAR3i39pMuOoYaHsKXpzGxrG-Q96lUcWo9jJwboDOYc5MrdEwiQhknBrjb6k