after Bozoum, news from Bangassou: Journey to Easter

Friday, April 19, 2019

Journey to Easter

Journey to Easter

There are only a few days left until the great feast of Easter.

Friday 12 April we began the great pilgrimage of young people. Every 2 years, around Palm Sunday, we organize a large (and long!) Pilgrimage for the youth of the Parish. This year we went to Bahoyo, a small village 48 km away, on the road from Bozoum to Bouar.

We were about 300 pilgrims: children, young people, mothers, fathers. We gathered in the church, and after a short prayer we left. Fortunately the sky was overcast, and so had better walking conditions. We did a part of the journey in prayer (Via Crucis, Rosario, songs ...) and at a good pace we arrived in the village of Bouforo around 6.15 pm, about 4 and a half hours per 24 km!

Here the pilgrims spent the night, welcomed in the various canopies, houses and under the trees, and after a quick dinner, a brief rest awaited them. I drove back to Bozoum for the night, and returned to Bouforo the next day at 5.30am. We left together, and after an hour and a half in the savannah, we took the main road again. The sky was still overcast, and the rain was approaching, it reached us at 8:30 when we were near Kounde. We walked in the rain for 2 hours, and we were completely wet when we finally arrived, around 10.30 in Bahoyo.

Here the kitchen team was already at work, and among the schools and the chapel we were able to at least change ourselves and to put something dry on it (for those who had it available).

The afternoon, after a bit of well-deserved rest, provided a time for Confessions. And the next day, Sunday, the great Palms procession, which winded through the village.

Saturday at the end of the morning we returned to Bozoum, also to be present for the Confessions. On Sunday morning we also celebrated the Feast of Palms. Like the inhabitants of Jerusalem, we acclaimed Jesus and in procession we entered the church.

Mass was deeply felt, also because it introduced us to Holy Week.

In the afternoon, with 2 trucks, the pilgrims returned to Bozoum.

For all a great Easter journey!

"God died and we killed him: this phrase is taken almost literally from the Christian tradition and we often repeated something similar in our Viae Crucis without feeling the terrible gravity of what we were saying. We killed him, enclosing him in the stale shell of habitual thoughts, exiling him in a matter of sentences or archaeological preciousness. When the storm has passed, we will realize how little our faith was full of foolishness. And yet, oh Lord, we cannot help but shake you, God you are silent and sleep, and cry out: wake up, don't you see that we sink? Wake up, don't let the darkness of Holy Saturday last forever. Let a ray of Easter fall even on our days. Join us as we move desperately towards Emmaus, so that our hearts may light up near you ”. (Joseph Ratzinger)

Happy Easter!