Multitudinal Assistance to Celebrate San Expedito in Balvanera | Chronic

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Despite the crisis, thousands of parishioners gathered in the Parroquia Nuestra Señora de Balvanera to celebrate the feast of San Expedito, patroness of just and urgent causes, which coincided with Good Friday. In the afternoon, the traditional Via Crucis will take place in the streets of the neighborhood in the image of the saint.

Under the motto "Saint Expedito helps us to follow Christ," the entrance and exit of the pilgrims was constant through the streets Bartolomé Miter and Azcuénaga; in fact, the sources of this church represented a number of nearly 100,000 people who will approach in the day, because of the coincidence of the two dates.

Since there will be no Mbad on Good Friday, blessings, confessions and liturgy will be celebrated at 3 pm by Monsignor Monseigneur, Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires. José María Baliña, and several priests. At 17 years old, there will be a traditional pilgrimage in the streets of the Balvanera neighborhood, in which the faithful would carry the image of the saint.

"Normally, people come to ask and thank because they have a conscience, they thank you when you talk to the person, it's like that." Obviously, when he squeezes the shoe, the man asks, we are all like that, in a difficult situation immediately we ask but the same people thank, it's half and mitred, it depends on the circumstances that live in this moment ", describes Walter Marchetti, pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Balvanera.

In dialogue with Chronic the priest confided that "Today is a day of blessing and grace and we are celebrating San Expedito and its great holiday coinciding with Good Friday. It is a special day for the Christian faith where we remember the pbadion of Christ, the abandonment of Christ on the cross, as Jesus gives his life for love and this year with Saint Expedite, we want to unite devotion to Jesus on the cross and we want to unite also with devotion to San Expedito. The motto of this year is San Expedito, help us to follow Jesus and this saint carries in his arms the cross, to show it, to follow it or to embrace it and with that, to want to embrace the cross and follow it until To Jesus, we want to embrace Christ in the person of the one who suffers. This year, we focus on the person who suffers, the cross of Christ reminds us of the suffering of humanity, the suffering of God, then we want to put ourselves on the side of the one who suffers, we all have experience of suffering and sometimes we do it too. to suffer others. "

The priest added that "It's a very special year, with a lot of poverty, suffering, a lot of people without work, so we invite the faithful and the pilgrims not to bring flowers, because today they do not put flowers, bring non-perishable food to help and share with those who suffer. "

Two pbadions

Since football exists, the relationship between this popular sport and religion has always been close and several teams are named after a saint or are born from the hand of a priest. But sometimes, prayers seem to achieve sports goals and in the parish of Our Lady of Balvanera, we also usually ask for "sports miracles".

One of these cases concerns Gustavo, a Chicago fan from the cradle, who, when he was consulted by Chronicle, first asked for health, peace and work for his family and himself. However, the most urgent and important order concerns the "torito" of Mataderos.

The fanatic said that "Last year, I came here exclusively to ask that we save ourselves from the descent and the saint listened to me (they beat Ferro the last rendezvous at Caballito), and we reached this goal that we had very worried about all our fans, it's not easy to be a tournament champion and to play in the First Division, it's something incredible and a sort of final for all Chicago fans, and I'm working near here and I was close enough to ask this, holy because it is miraculous. "

We will see the weekend if the request of Gustavo will be heard by the saint, because the "torito" will have to go to Adrogué to face Brown and wait for the setbacks of Sarmiento de Junín and Arsenal to reach l & # 39; 39; goal.

Who was San Expedito?

Expedito, from a family of patricians, followed the military career and became commander of the Roman legions. He was appointed to Melitene, the ancient Cappadocia (today Turkey); he received a generous payment, enjoyed all the privileges of the upper clbades, but in his heart the flame of the Christian faith became fiercer as he learned the preaching and witness of the Christians.

After a battle, he decided to become but, tells the tradition, that before his imminent decision, a raven appeared to him who tried to persuade him to cry "Cras", which means "tomorrow" in Latin .

Instantly, he responds by replying: "Hodie", which means "today" and adding, "I will not leave him for tomorrow, TODAY" I will be Christian "trampled the raven, leaving his choice of unfailing faith. With other converted soldiers, he died martyred in the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian in the year 303 (19 February). The most just and urgent cause for which he intercedes is for our own "conversion".