Verbiage.
You would not believe the verbiage.
And it's not like they've never done this before. Every year for the last century and a half the Puerto Rican Catholic community has celebrated Our Lady of Divine Providence with novenas, parades, vigils and the like. This parish community - boricua in its majority - has done so for at least 45 years.
You'd think they'd be getting the hang of it by now.
Endless meetings. Every detail discussed as if for the first time. Then discussed again.And when all is said and done, there's as much confusion as if we had improvised it from the get-go. These are the complexities of life in a small, Hispanic inner-city parish.
I look at the image that is at the center of our celebration and I grow deeply envious of that Child... Blissfully asleep, sublimely oblivious to all the fuss being made around him, confident enough in the wiles and ways of his young mother to abandon himself care-less-ly to her defenses...
I suspect that the celebration of Our Lady of Divine Providence is as much about our ultimately trusting Him as it is about His recklessly trusting us.
