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Many Catholics ‘keep watch’ Holy Thursday

LAURA DODSON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 03.11.08

An ancient tradition inspired by Jesus’ request of the Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane — “Remain here and keep watch with me” — is very much alive in Florida. On Holy Thursday evening, many Catholics travel from parish to parish, visiting the Blessed Sacrament on an altar of repose or exposed following the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

“I do it every Holy Thursday — it brings my Lent altogether,” said Rosemary Mason, 76, a member of St. Mary Parish in Pensacola. “After Mass at St. Mary’s, I hit the road right away. I have spiritual music playing in my car and I pray the entire time. Sometimes I spend only 15 minutes at each church. The sacrament is venerated in different ways at each parish. I see some of the same people and it always makes me feel so good.”

The tradition Mason embraces probably originated in Rome, where early Christians visited seven pilgrim churches: St. John Lateran, St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, Holy Cross-in-Jerusalem and until the jubilee year of 2000 St. Sebastian Outside the Walls, which Pope John Paul II replaced with the Sanctuary of the Madonna of Divine Love.

Details of the practice seem to vary from nationality to nationality, family to family, and place to place. For instance, the requirement that seven be the number of churches visited has faded for some because of geographical realities and the switch from morning to evening Mass on Holy Thursday. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is available only for the hours before midnight, and in much of Florida churches are too far apart to make visiting seven feasible in that time frame. But the faithful do what they can.

“When we were young, Mass was in the morning and we had adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all day,” explained Father Fausto Stampiglia, theologian to the bishop of the Diocese of Venice and pastor of St. Martha Parish, Sarasota, who was born and raised in Italy. “We walked in line from church to church as a family and prayed — for a special intention or a deceased member of the family.”

Father Stampiglia continued, “We made “sepolcro” — a sepulcher upon which the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. We planted wheat in dark places — the basement, wine cellar or grottos — so the wheat would grow for a short time and would be all white. We decorated with the wheat and candles — there was a mass of white around the Blessed Sacrament. Here in Sarasota, we have seven churches nearby, so people can drive and make the visit.”

Rita Bostwick, director of religious education for Our Lady of the Springs Parish in Ocala, participated in the tradition both in her Polish neighborhood in Central City, Pa., and in Poland. “At home, retired members of the military dressed in their old uniforms and guarded the reposed Blessed Sacrament. In Poland, they built an elaborate tomb for Christ on which they placed the monstrance covered with a veil. We visited as many churches as we could to remember, adoring Christ and thanking him for his death on the cross. The three apostles all fell asleep, but we’re keeping watch with Christ in the garden.”

Isabella Portillo, a parishioner at Espiritu Santo Parish in Safety Harbor who moved to Florida six months ago with her family from Caracas, Venezuela, said, “The church altars there are full of flowers and the environment is one of sacred silence before the Blessed Sacrament.”

Portillo is 20, the oldest of five children, and with her family is looking forward to “visiting as many churches as we can” here in her new home. “It is a way to express our gratitude for what Christ has done for us,” she said.

Father Joseph Fowler, vice-chancellor for the Diocese of Pensacola, associate director of vocations and parochial vicar of St. Paul Parish in Pensacola, was educated at Gregorian University in Rome where he visited the seven pilgrim churches. It was so meaningful to him that he has continued the practice with the seminarians in Pensacola.

“We begin at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in a shuttle bus donated by St. Rose of Lima Parish. The youth minister drives and we meditate on the last words of Christ and sing psalms. Last year there were 10 to 15 of us. We conclude with Benediction at St. Paul’s at 11 p.m. This is a good way for the seminarians to see different ways to celebrate the same devotion. There are 40 to 90 Vietnamese chanting the rosary the entire time at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. It’s a beautiful expression of the different cultures and to see some of the beautiful churches. The seminarians really like the devotional life of the church. They love these rituals, which are old and new at the same time. They’ve been popular for ages.”

Patrick Meleney, 20, is a sophomore at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, majoring in theology and hoping to be a youth minister or high school religion teacher some day. “My family’s been very involved at St. Clare’s (Parish in North Palm Beach) my whole life. My mom, brother and I try to visit seven churches every year. We start at St. Clare’s after Mass and end there for Benediction. I always find it interesting to see the other churches and how they venerate the Eucharist. It is great to make that the focus leading up to Good Friday. The church experience doesn’t end after Mass — it continues on throughout the evening.”

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Many Catholics ‘keep watch’ Holy Thursday

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