Palm Sunday
Beautiful festive atmosphere with procession, Holy Mass and blessing of the Olive Trees.But we will always remember the words of Fra Elia that caused us to meditate and recognize ourselves in their meaning.”Try to think if we met the Lord today. if we saw him before us…what would wewould we say? What if He said: I am coming to your house to eat. Are you hosting me? No one would say come. Where would the Lord go? Now we should be at the table … in this house there are husband and wife withc ell phone in hand and no one is interested in the other. Today we are celebrating peace…where is the peace, where is the grace of God? I don’t feel it and I don’t see it. We say we want peace. Those are just words in the wind…we don’t even have peace in our families…if we want peace we should have it first in our hearts…we should bet ransmitters of peace.Today is Palm Sunday with the blessing of the olive trees symbols of peace.
Why do we donate weapons?
Those who ask for them want to win by sacrificing thousands and thousands of creatures.What do they want to win? Freedom? Lay down your pride, dialogue, everyone will find his peace.I want peace…I have been praying for peace for months…and the wars continue. This has become the palm of martyrdom. The Mass is there, the procession is there, the Grace of God is there. What are we missing? Prayer. Lord come to my help soon. He loves us, He wants to be with us, in our home. We don’t talk about things that kill people. The Lord knows this…He went to the cross for us, to give us peace. To find peace we have to forgive, say I love you, smile and, when we can, do good. Peace is not ours…we have to break it up and distribute our peace to everyone…we don’t have to win anything, only Jesus’ love. Let us look at the cross, Lord welcome those who are coming to you, continue to be among us, help us to keep the peace and do what you told us: love your neighbor…everything you do to others is it’s like you are doing it to me”.
Holy Tuesday:
This morning as soon as I left the room I was enveloped by an intense scent of roses coming from the stairs…the friars are already seated at the table and Fra Elia, the first one in the row, shows a large bruise on his right cheek…I reach my seat, look and on the cheek left is even worse. He is covered up to his neck and drinking his tea. No one speaks. Then everyone reaches his seat. He would like to do so too but fails. Evidently he has been slaughtered as is usually the case.
Holy Wednesday
7:15 p.m. during Holy Mass: We hear a thud in the last pew. In falling Fra Elia was grabbed before he hit his head. His legs are closed stiffly and strangely bent as if he were sitting. It will be difficult to transfer him to a couch. We move the front pew as the friars try to lift him. It is a feat to straighten his legs and make him stretch. With great effort they lift him as he is and carry him to the couch in the small room opposite. He holds his position and I realize that he resembles that of Jesus on the cross. I can see how thin he is. From his forehead a trickle of blood. Brother Elias is in ecstasy. He begins to pray in Aramaic. It is dinner time. We go to the refectory and his cousin stays beside him. After about twenty minutes Fra Elia comes in to greet us and is shown to his room.
Holy Thursday
Like every Maundy Thursday morning, the fraternity goes up to see him, including me. He sleeps peacefully. 3 p.m.: Fra Elia is screaming in pain, pounding his fists on the bed…we rush in. He is awake. He tells us he never slept…they were the ones who prevented him from speaking…they butchered him all the time. He can’t stand the burning in his feet…and his whole body…I stroked his hand that he was holding out to me as I had a lump in my throat. I tell him I have to go to the herbal shop and leave while his sister comes down to make him tea.
Holy Friday
9:30 a.m. Fra Elia is asleep. People are coming but one cannot go up to see him. This afternoon he will get up get dressed and despite his bloody face will go down to participate in the Stations of the Cross. It has already been three years since he decided this way. Jesus said He must show Himself so that the world can be reminded of how much He suffered on the cross. These pictures will be posted on fraelia.com and will fly around the planet in 18 languages.
It is 3:00 p.m. and Fra Elia has not yet arrived. Don Marco waits ancoa little while then decides to go and see. We all suspected that he probably would not be able to get up after yesterday’s beating…instead, here he comes with a bloodied face, supported by Don Marco who helps him sit beside him. Fra Elia murmurs that he wants to say a few words, and does so with great difficulty. He stays for a couple of minutes and then they escort him back to his room.
Holy Saturday
3:15 p.m. Fra Elia opens the door to his room …Don Marco, his friars, relatives and I are there waiting for him. He embraces us all. Brother Francis is the first to operate quickly before all the signs of the Passion disappear. He photographs the closed stigmata, the wound on his side healed, the whip marks on his back that unfortunately, are barely noticeable. A few small wounds remain on his forehead and a rose thorn sticking out of his forehead. It hurts him but as soon as it surfaces he plucks it out with tweezers. Like every year he is examined by his doctor and his cardiologist friend and just after that, his ecstasy begins again. As she does every year, Our Lady comes to greet him and put him back on his feet with her holy energy, then Frar Elia raises his left arm to her who helps him up…and we are kneeling there watching the scene. Fra Elia stands up radiant and looking perfectly well. He goes out the door and runs down the stairs without any help…I run after him…then he says he forgot his glasses… “I’ll go get them” but he has already arrived at the top….never seen such immediate recovery.
In the afternoon with the Church packed with people we celebrate the Easter services and at the end Fra Elia tells us…
