Home-made palm crosses, online masses and togetherness in Goa

Lisa Monteiro | TNN | Updated: Apr 6, 2020, 08:09 IST

Most churches live-streamed masses for the third consecutive Sunday

PANAJI: Celebrating Palm Sunday within the confines of their own homes, the faithful took to crafting crosses from palms in their own gardens and placed these on front doors, as well as participated in the holy mass. Churches live-streamed masses throughout the state for the third consecutive Sunday.
Ulyana D’Costa and her family in Betalbatim began the day with a wash and early breakfast before they huddled together at the main altar at their home, listening to mass presided over by the Archbishop of Bombay Oswald Cardinal Gracias.
“We held palm leaves in our hands, while Fr Oswald blessed the palms, and my father sprinkled Holy water on us and on the palms. We then proceeded to listen to the mass,” D’Costa said. Her mother folded the palms into a cross which was then placed on a wooden cross and hung at the entrance of their home over which they sprinkled Holy water. Although she misses going to church, D’Costa says the experience of watching masses live-streamed together, has united the family. “Before the lock down we would all wake up when we wanted to and attend different masses. Now, we find it’s a good way of praying together as a family,” she said.
The Archdiocese of Goa marked Holy week this year without many of the traditions and ceremonies like distribution of blessed palms on Palm Sunday.
In Benaulim, Melanie Vaz put two palm fronds on her door, “as a sign of solidarity with our Christian brethren”. “Yesterday someone generously gave me a scrap of palm leaf which I used to make four simple crosses for myself, and one each for my sons to place at their altars. Later when they dry up we will use them as book-marks for the Bible,” she told TOI. She blessed the palms with Holy water and watched the mass by Redemptorist Fathers online. “We had a simple vegetarian lunch with the family, as it is still Lent. It was a very soul-satisfying day,” she said.
In Assolna, Lida Joao and her sister placed a wreath adorned on a leafy candle stand with pink creeper flowers and two varieties of palms on Saturday. On Palm Sunday, at their family chapel altar they recited the novena at 5am to the Holy Helpers, which is invoked during a pandemic. “At 7am we sat with our laptops in front of our Resurrection statue and participated in the mass presided over by Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao,” she said. She went on to put a potted red acorn-shaped flower pot on their front boundary wall which also has the Holy cross. She also placed a green vase with peace lilies. The family commenced the Holy Week with strictly vegetarian food and in the evening recited the rosary and placed lit diyas on their front gallery as well as the boundary wall, obeying the clarion call of the Indian Prime Minister.
For Gabriel Pereira, from Mapusa, Palm Sunday was spent making arrangements for groceries to help 28 families in the residential complex where he lives. “I have been celebrating Palm Sunday and the entire Lent this way, as the supermarket in the complex is shut. The owner has supplied us with essentials and committee members have started distributing essentials to the apartments. I prefer living the word of the Church through such work of random acts of kindness,” he told TOI.