San Antonio heat surge

Monday morning we drove to Lidl's on the outskirts for a big grocery shop. It's usually quite busy, but this morning, the car park was almost full, store was crowded and there were long queues at the checkout, like on a bank holiday weekend Friday. 

It occurred to me that residents of nearby Frigiliana may have added greatly to the numbers of shoppers, as today is the last and greatest day of the four day fiesta parroquial of San Antonio de Padova - his feast day in fact. All the shops there would take the day off to enjoy the festivities. Newly arrived holidaymakers would indeed wonder what was going on, if it was their first visit. Word has it that a loud open air disco on the terrace of the 17th century sugar cane factory didn't finish until six in the morning. People sure know how to have a good time here. 

My goodness, what a hot day. It got up to 37C mid afternoon, keeping us indoors, then just as we were expecting it to cool down early evening a strong gusty wind picked up, an unusually hot wind, making the house uncomfortably hot until late. No chance of comfortable sleep tonight. 

Village wedding

Most of the morning was spent carefully preparing for this afternoon's wedding in Frigiliana, making sure I could pronounce correctly the handful of Spanish biblical quotes I'd added into the text. After an early lunch, I drove to the village and arrived at San Antonio Church an hour early. The choir were already rehearsing, getting used to the fine acoustics of the building, just right for the mostly baroque music to be sung. The groom's spritely 99+ year old abuela was among the first guests to escape from the fierce heat of the afternoon sun into the cool calm of the church. I was pleased to welcome her in Spanish, and made an effort to include a few Spanish prayers in the liturgy for her sake. Afterwards, she asked me what Order I belonged to. I think she understood when I said I was a pastor anglican.

Everything for the service went according to plan, well just. The youngest of the couple's children was rather clingy, and definitely a Daddy's boy. Quite naturally, with their parents enthroned in front of the assembly, the children wanted to be with them and so they were for the first part of the service. When it was necessary for the couple to make their vows, abuelo came forward, collected the toddler, who broke into disgruntled tears and had to be taken out. Smiles all around. A wedding for the couple, but in every sense a celebration of the family they have made, loved by all.

After the service, the guests went off ahead of the couple to the reception. In the square outside the church, a suitably decorated horse and carriage awaited the couple driven by smartly dressed caballeros in traditional garb, to take them to join their guests. I slipped away, quite drained of energy by leading the celebration, relieved to return from romance to domestic solitude. I think everyone who was involved made the effort to make this the special occasion it was intended to be. 

I hope it makes a difference to the couple, and inspires them to continue the path they have set out on. Sad to say, I'm unlikley to know the outcome, not because I'm that old, but because celebrations like this, in which so much gets invested, seem no more than ephemeral pastoral encounters, like so many funerals of strangers I've done over the years. It's very much a product of living in a transient mobile society, where the old traditional continuity of relationships in community life hardly exist any more.

All of this raises one question for me - are church communities and their ministers speaking to the condition of people in this changing new world in a way that is faithful to the Gospel? On this I think I could really value a quiet chat with the admirable Pope Francis, who has his finger on the pulse in a most impressive way, to ask him what he'd do if he was still out there on the pastoral front line.