{"id":1588,"date":"2012-07-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2012-07-29T16:03:58","modified_gmt":"2012-07-29T14:03:58","slug":"a-festive-mission-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=1588","title":{"rendered":"CELEBRATING GOD IN THE STREETS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second major manifestation was the closing of the mission in Marseille with the procession and the erection of the commemorative Cross of the mission. Bearing in mind that less than 30 years before, the city of Marseille had been one of the most fiery centers during the Revolution and that the foundations of religion and several churches and had been destroyed, it is amazing to read of the lively response to this manifestation. Jeancard in his Melanges Historiques<\/em> describes how thousands of people participated in the final procession through the streets of the city. The enormous Cross was carried on a decorated platform by teams of men down the Canebi\u00e8re, the main street of the city. When they arrived at the port, the Cross was carried by 120 ship\u2019s captains and placed onto a raft at the port, where it sailed to the City Hall accompanied by many boats. The atmosphere was festive with the people of Marseille enjoying themselves and celebrating with music, a salvo of cannons from the fort, and many colorful banners and flags. The proceedings took 8 hours.<\/p>\n

An eye-witness account:<\/p>\n

We saw this magnificent procession, consisting of more than three thousand persons, and the cross was carried in triumph on an unusual carriage \u2026 But the public admiration and the delight were at their height when a new Saint Peter was heard preaching from his boat, in the Proven\u00e7al language, to the fishermen and to the sailors of the port.<\/em><\/p>\n

The simple and extremely persuasive eloquence of Father de Mazenod, leader of the Missionaries of Provence, made the most profound impression. Standing at the foot of the cross, wearing a red cope, he elaborated on the holy mysteries with the ardor and the energy which belong to the orators born under our blazing climate\u2026. he had the happiness to hear repeated by the most resounding cheers, the shouts of long live Jesus, long live his Cross\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

ROBERT, Pr\u00e9cis historique, p. 65-66<\/em><\/p>\n

Winding through the streets of the popular quarters, the Cross was erected at Les Accoules \u2013 on the only remaining wall of the church which had been destroyed by the Revolution \u2013 a powerful sign of restoration and of new hope amidst the rubble. The Calvaire became a popular pilgrimage center.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“If we could only see the heart of the Father, we would be drawn into praise and thanksgiving more often. It is easy for us to think that God is so majestic and so highly exalted that our adoration makes no difference to him. Our God is not made of stone. His heart is the most sensitive and tender of all. No act goes unnoticed, no matter how insignificant or small. A cup of cold water is enough to put tears in the eyes of God. God celebrates our feeble expressions of gratitude.”\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Richard J. Foster<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second major manifestation was the closing of the mission in Marseille with the procession and the erection of the commemorative Cross of the mission. Bearing in mind that less than 30 years before, the city of Marseille had been … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,32],"class_list":["post-1588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings","tag-cross","tag-mission-preaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}