April 11, 2025Today is the Friday before Holy Sunday. There are some Virgins of Sorrows who celebrate their saint's day. But the Vatican's changes have moved the feast to September 8th, and many celebrate it on that day. It seems to me, and has always seemed to me, that Our Lady of Sorrows has more to do with Holy Week than with the day on which all the Virgins found are celebrated. That of Núria, that of Tura, and before having their own feast day, that of Montserrat. Our Lady of Sorrows is linked to the Passion, and it was very appropriate to celebrate it just before Holy Week begins.
April 13, 2025Today is Palm Sunday. The boys went to bless the palm tree and the girls the palm. The palm tree, erect, standing upright, was more masculine than the palm tree, all woven with decorative floral motifs. Of course, they smelled the same. A white scent, of fermented leaves, of faded sulfur. Gender differences. Now I see fewer and fewer lungs and fewer palm trees. In fact, they're very expensive. And you see more and more laurel and olive branches. Laurel and olive trees are unisex; everyone can wear them. And they say that a couple of blessed bay leaves make the best roasts. There's a painting by Giotto, a fresco, I think from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, where you can see a group of kids perched in some trees, I suppose laurel and olive trees, cutting branches and more branches.Hosanna is the key word for this Sunday. It is the antecedent of that one crucify him which will not be long in coming on Thursday night into Friday.
April 15, 2025Today, Tuesday, is a good day to listen to the Passion according to Saint Matthew by Johann Sebastian Bach. If it's always a profound and satisfying experience, listening to it these days takes on a special quality. For me, it's the most wonderful work of art in the world, of all time. It's a liturgical and aesthetic celebration at the same time; it's storytelling and theater, and, of course, music. The most inspired, serious music, appropriate to the texts. With unforgettable passages, like the aria the contralto sings after Peter's denial, on the night of Jesus's trial. Of the five or six versions I have, today we've chosen the one conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, because this conductor lives Bach in a special way; he dances to him, to put it as he did. His soul dances to him.
April 17, 2025Today is Holy Thursday. It used to be a holiday. Now, with the progressive secularization, it is no longer. This is the day of the Last Supper, the night of Judas' betrayal, that night when Jesus said: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." The night that will lead to that terrible night of judgment, of condemnation, that will lead to the ascent to Calvary.
April 18, 2025. Today is Good Friday. And it's a holiday. But here in Sant Feliu, it's as if it weren't. Everything is open. The Plaza del Mercat is full of stalls. What a difference from when I was a child, in Girona. Everything is closed and quiet. They didn't even let us play the piano. The highlight of Good Friday was the evening procession. It's still held because it's a tourist attraction. And because in Girona, it's a true spectacle, especially because old Girona is an extraordinary and irreplaceable setting. The insistent music of the manaías's pifres is the soundtrack of the procession and of my memories.
April 20, 2025Easter Sunday. We children would go to wish our godparents a Happy Easter, and they would give us a mona (monkey cake). Now it's become fashionable, especially in Barcelona, to say that the day of the mona is Easter Monday. I think it's a mistake, but trends, especially if journalists, broadcasters, and television presenters keep saying it, become wrongly established forever. For me, the day of the mona will always be Easter Sunday. If they want to eat it on Monday, then go ahead, let them do it... It seems the Pope is recovering. And since he's stubborn, he decided to go to Sant Pere Square to impart the aforementioned blessing. urbi et orbiA raspy voice, a seeming tiredness, a somewhat absent presence. The greeting was read by the master of ceremonies who accompanied him.
April 21, 2025. The first news of the day is the death of Pope Francis. Nothing surprised me after seeing him yesterday. He wanted to be pope until the very end and carry out his work until the very last day. When he was elected, I didn't like him too much. An Argentine, come on, I thought. But with time and with his attitude, I thought that perhaps a pope, ultimately, is chosen by the Holy Spirit.
