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April 21, 2009
Blogger Luncheon
Sorry the photo is of the wrong time of day - but the church on the horizon is Ss. Domenico e Sisto, the chapel of the Angelicum, the Dominican University. Catho-Bloggers may be able to guess who I'm talking about - yes, I got to take Fr. Philip Neri Powell to lunch! I really did live just the next hill over, but we were both busy. I'm thinking about a book, he's almost finished with one. Here - go preorder Treasures Old and New: Traditional Prayers for Today's Catholics, Fr. Philip's reflections on novenas.
I even got to tell him about a novena practice he hadn't come across - the Flying Novena. Many years ago and not so far away I was visiting Saintes Marie de la Mer, the great fortified Romanesque church on the French Mediterranean coast with Tom Lyman and an Emory group. It was some kind of holy day (perhaps St. Mary the Egyptian? Wikipedia claims for Saint Sarah, but I'd prefer something better sourced) for the Gypsies. Lots of ladies were coming in one door, heading for an altar, saying a prayer and lighting one candle, heading out a different door, coming back in the first door, and repeating.
I asked "What on earth are they doing?" Tom told me they were doing Flying Novenas. Since they wouldn't be able to come to the church for 9 consecutive days, the usual way one handles these things, they were packing it all in.
Father Philip Neri was sceptical about the licitness of this devotional practice, but then he's a Dominican and that's what they do.
We had a lovely lunch - pasta and laughter. It doesn't get much better.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at April 21, 2009 7:24 PM
Comments
The flying novena exists among the Irish Travelers at St. Paul's Parish in Memphis. SMA, OP can vouch for it. The Travelers are some sort of Irish gypsies.
Posted by: JSTB at April 21, 2009 9:19 PM
Ah, yes...skeptical Dominicans! Enjoyed lunch tremendously...though I should have passed on the beer so early in my day. My 2.30 class was a bit difficult...ahem.
Thanks for the visit! Fr. Philip, OP
Posted by: PNP, OP at April 22, 2009 10:18 AM
According to Father Andrew Apostoli of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a great devotee of the flying novena. He says it got him onto a flight out of New York on a very snowy day recently! (He told us this at an Advent retreat on Long Island last year).
Posted by: Lourdes at April 23, 2009 5:17 AM