Parish of Santa Maria Maggiore
(St. Mary Major)
via Dante 23/25 - 85010 Pignola (PZ)
Archdiocese of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsiconuovo
Don Antonio Laurita - Parish Priest
Parish office - via Dante 23
open workdays 9 to 11 a.m.
email: mariassdegliangeli@gmail.com
phone: 0039 0971 430008 (also to book a visit to the Parish Museum)
TAX CODE: 96002180766
IBAN: IT 28 J 07601 04200 00013119854
Postal Current Account : 000013119854
MASS TIMETABLE
HOLIDAYS
11:00 MAIN CHURCH
S.ROCCO 18:30
11:30 PANTANO 18:30
Working days
S.ROCCO 18:30 (at Main Church from 3rd Sunday of May to 3rd Sunday of Sept.)
PANTANO 19:15
The Parish Priest is available daily for confession or interviews after each evening Mass
ArticlES
HOLY WEEK
“It is the most celebratory week of the liturgical year; it recalls the passion, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. These are days of prayer, silence and meditation in which the Christian community relives Christ’s sacrifice for humanity.”
It is a special period of the liturgical year when we can stay close to Jesus to relive together the most difficult days of his life on Earth. It begins with PALM SUNDAY to end with the Easter Vigil and is full of celebrations.
In those days the Church reflects on God's love for the world, a love so great that it led Him to sacrifice his Son to save us from sin and death. During this week we are called to gather frequently in church to listen to the Word of God that narrates the moments of salvation, to pray with gratitude to the Lord to celebrate the Eucharist, which is the sacrament in which we find the bread and wine, that is, the body and blood of Jesus, offered for the forgiveness of sins.
The first event that is remembered is the Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem: Palm Sunday, in which we celebrate the joy for Jesus' arrival in the holy city, seven days before the Lord's Passover.
In the Holy Scriptures it is written that the Son of God arrives in Jerusalem riding on a donkey, a gentle and peaceful animal, while the crowds welcome him waving olive and palm branches and shouting: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom that comes in the name of the Father David! Hosanna in the highest heavens".
This event is called MESSIANIC because the crowds recognize him as the MESSIAH, and welcomed Him with enthusiasm. However, those who applauded will then condemn him to death.
The priest reads the Gospel that narrates this episode, which is usually commemorated with a short procession in which the faithful carry olive and palm branches and raise festive songs. Later, the olive trees and palms are blessed, and everyone will take them home after the celebration of the mass.
Inside the sacred buildings and on the altars, vases full of olive branches are placed, as a sign of peace but also of hope, and palms, a symbol of eternal life and resurrection.
The liturgical color of this Sunday is red, just like the cloaks laid out on the ground by the crowd as Jesus walked, but mainly like the blood shed by Jesus for the love of humanity.
His entry into the city is also a moment of hope, because a new alliance between God and men is about to be fulfilled. Every day we can welcome Jesus with joy and hope in prayer, during the mass, reading of the Holy Scriptures; but every day we can practice GENEROSITY AND CHARITY, so that OUR HEART CAN BECOME A SMALL JERUSALEM THAT WELCOMES JESUS WITH TRUST.
HOLY THURSDAY
On the morning of Holy Thursday the Chrism Mass is celebrated in the cathedrals, presided over by the bishop, and during this mass the priests renew the commitments of their ordination.
In this celebration, the holy oils are blessed:
- the oil of the catechumens, used for baptism;
- the chrism, used in confirmation, priestly and episcopal ordination
- the oil of the sick
Holy Thursday marks the end of Lent and the beginning of the TRIDUUM OF THE PASSION, DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF THE LORD, more simply called the EASTER TRIDUUM.
During the evening mass, the Church remembers the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist: it is called MESSA IN COENA DOMINI. The priest reads the Gospel that narrates the Last Supper, that is, the last Passover of the Jews celebrated by Jesus with his friends in Jerusalem.
That evening he instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist, told Peter that he would deny him and Judas that he would betray him, then to everyone's amazement he took a basin with water, wrapped his loins in a towel and washed the feet of his apostles.
Likewise, in every church, the priest washes the feet of 12 people sitting around the table; in our community the priest washes the feet of 12 children who will soon receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. At the end of the liturgy, thanks to the May feast committee, blessed bread was distributed, as a symbol of the bread shared by Jesus with the apostles and a symbol of the body of Jesus.
The rite of the washing of the feet is rich in meaning: with it Jesus teaches humility and service and demonstrates his immense love for humanity. Just as the Son of God placed himself at the service of the Father and humanity, the apostles will also be called to serve God and the world, spreading the Gospel; but we too are all exhorted to help our brothers and sisters. The washing of the feet anticipates a greater gesture: the gift of Christ's life for the salvation of the world.
Jesus knows what Peter, Judas and the other apostles will do and forgives them. Forgiveness is a precious teaching for everyone: he forgives to show us that it is always possible to forgive. Giving something or giving yourself is an act of love and Jesus came to earth precisely to tell all of us that THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT IS THAT OF LOVE!
THE ALTAR OF REPOSE
On Holy Thursday, at the end of communion, Jesus, truly present in the consecrated host, is not placed back in the tabernacle, but is carried in procession on a previously prepared altar, decorated with white flowers, wheat seeds germinated in the dark that symbolize the passage from the darkness of death to the resurrection, the bread and the lamb, which represent JESUS THAT SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF OUR SINS.
On Wednesdays, the catechism children bring to church the little sprouts that have been cared for and grown in the various groups. Little plants that grow with love like our children and that crown Jesus along the path of the altar of repose. “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them…”
This altar is called the altar of repose because on it rests, or is exposed, the Eucharist, that is, the body of Christ.
On the evening of Holy Thursday, churches remain open until late at night, to give the faithful the opportunity to visit the altars of repose and to pray in front of Christ, truly present in the Eucharist.
Normally, before these altars, one kneels and says a prayer of praise and thanksgiving: "let the Most Holy and Divine Sacrament be praised and thanked at every moment", then people recites three times the GLORIA, the prayer meant to profess faith in the Most Holy Trinity, that is, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
From 10 pm to midnight, one meets in church for adoration led by the parish priest.
the catechists
Yesterday…in the fight against illiteracy…today victims of computer illiteracy
Once upon a time there was the Bibliobus. Starting in 1949, the Ministry of Public Education in collaboration with the Education Superintendents began a campaign to fight illiteracy, starting first from the province of Salerno, the largest in the entire national territory, together with that of Potenza, and including in the early years also the province of Matera. Shortly after, the campaign was extended to other Italian regions. In practice, two buses were set up, with a well-studied project, transforming them into perfect travelling libraries, hence the name bibliobus, equipped with special educational and audiovisual aids available at that time (we were at the beginning of the fifties and just emerging from the Second World War). The bibliobus allowed, both from the outside and from the inside, an excellent display of books of various kinds in the squares of the towns visited, arousing in the population of all ages from elementary school children to the elderly, vast interest and participation. Furthermore, there was a selection of texts of absolute validity, pertaining to professional and didactic training but within everyone's reach, coming from publishing houses like Hoepli, Edagricole, Lavagnolo, Ramo editoriale degli agricoltori.
In this way, not only an immediate interest was stimulated but also the understanding of the need to be able to read, write and calculate. The richly illustrated technical and professional texts aroused the curiosity of the potential reader, who, even though he did not know how to read or write, by stimulating his logical and rational connections led him to leaf through the book, which thus became in his hands a work tool, a utensil indeed.
What happens today instead? We navigate on search engines, but this does not absolutely mean research; we use “apps”, we follow media paths that are quite insane, almost unconsciously driven by “influencers” who love stimulating the curiosity of the Internet user but certainly not in the sense that Plutarch assigned to the term, that means a stimulus to knowledge, thus revealing themselves as perfect masters of stupidity in its most exact lexical meaning!
Surely the initiative of maestro Antonio La Cava, who with his itinerant bibliomotocarro stimulates the curiosity of children to handle books, is to be preferred; he well remembers the visits of the bibliobus when he was still a boy in his village! The growing computer illiteracy requires to be contained as soon as possible, avoiding to use the media in a passive way. Democracy itself is at stake: it is being distorted by the economic power that wants to keep it under its control.
The upgrade is mandatory and that's enough!
Michele Vista
FAITH and SUPERSTITION
An interesting formation meeting entitled: Faith and Superstition was held at St. Anthony's Church in Pignola on Tuesday, January 14.
The theme was treated with simplicity, clarity and competence by don Rocco Moscarelli, penitentiary of the diocese, who dialogued with Francesca Conte, leader of the adult sector of Catholic Action.
The meeting was part of a training path promoted by the adult group of Catholic Action in which, following the guidelines of associative catechesis, important themes such as the relationship between science and faith, faith and tradition, faith and communication are being addressed
The last one addressed namely faith and superstition was among the most significant also because it was treated during the novena before the feast of St. Anthony Abbot, the saint who made his faith a shield against all forms of temptation. On the other hand, the catechetical journey that A.C. is promoting this year invites us to place mercy at the center of our formation journey, inviting us to make the Gospel of Luke our companion on the journey. In addition, the biblical icon that serves as the backdrop for the catechetical journey of all sectors invites us at the same time to be witnesses of our faith by broadening our horizons in responding, like Peter and the apostles, to Christ's call. So this is the invitation that every associate intends to internalize with these formation meetings, that of being enlightened by the Word and to undertake, together, a journey of co-responsibility.
For this reason, don Rocco Moscarelli's contribution was valuable and significant: with his role and particular charisma he provided us with useful indications to help us overcome all the obstacles that could interfere with our growth in the faith, and one of them could precisely be a distorted perception of faith often confused with superstition.
Don Rocco highlighted this concept by arguing that faith cannot be based only on the emotion of the moment but must be sustained by prayer, the one and only true weapon that can overcome the obstacles of temptations and sustains us in the difficulties. At the same time, faith cannot disregard reason and, in fact, fides et ratio are an inseparable pair. Rather, superstition embraces the irrational and often gives a distorted perception so it is important to understand that growing in faith means embarking on a path full of obstacles but which rests on prayer and Eucharistic participation and is illuminated by the Church in its communal dimension.
Angela Guma
