L’AQUILA – A mini Christmas season of concerts inside the Monastery of San Basilio, in L’Aquila, reopened for worship and shining again since last July.
There will be three appointments open to all, the first of which tomorrow 8 December at 17.30 which will see the performance of the Novantanove Choir, directed by Maestro Ettore Maria Del Romano and with readings of Sabrina Giangrande. This will be the occasion for the artistic director Guido Ruggeri to donate the parchment with the score of the music and the text of the Celestine V hymn to the celestine nuns.
“I composed this hymn more than twenty years ago while reading the novel by Ignazio Silone A poor man’s adventure Christian” says the master. “I was so struck by this character that I wanted a hymn with music that could describe the sweetness of his soul and at the same time the strength of his choices, but at the beginning I was the only one who believed in the project. Subsequently, in 2016, we brought him with the Corale Novantanove to the Perdonanza and in 2017 I involved the actor Pillow linen for a show inside the Church of San Bernardino. Also, the TV show Ulysses reproposed a historical reconstruction of Celestino V and the arrival of Pope Francis last summer for the opening of the Holy Door greatly amplified the success of the piece”.
It will continue on Friday 30 December at 17.30 with the solidarity concert of the Schola cantorum of San Silvestro, directed by the maestro Luciano Bologna: “The Schola cantorum has been reconstituted following the restoration work and the reopening of the Church of San Silvestro, and this time – he says – we will have the support of the choir of Gli Amici del bel canto. The characters in our passages are the shepherds, the last in the social ladder but the first to welcome the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem”.
The last appointment is scheduled for Wednesday 4 January at 17.30, there will be a continued reading of the Gospels of the childhood of Jesus by the students of the high schools of L’Aquila, accompanied by the professor Lucille DiLucaand a reflection by don Carmelo Pagano The Roses, who sees in San Basilio “a living light of Celestine within our city that shines on the occasion of Christmas. Trying to maintain Celestine’s monastic style, we want to make this Church a place of reflection from which to draw spiritual cues. We are ready to experience all the dimensions of Christmas, in its harmonies, in the contents of its message, in solidarity and charity”.
A short greeting was given by Sr Assumedprioress of the mission in Africa, who recalled the importance of mercy and unity among peoples.
“The Monastery of San Basilio is Celestine’s home because the Celestine nuns are the last heirs in the world of the Order founded by him – he recalled Angelo DeNicolajournalist and writer – represent an extraordinary outpost of the Celestinian message, also disseminated by the Foglio delle celestine, an initiative which is involved Rita Pellegrini to raise funds to support their humanitarian missions”.
Finally, the artist from L’Aquila Piero Boschetti donated to the cloistered monastery two works that depict the nativity in a different way and wish for peace, for this reason it will be the first Christmas after the post-earthquake reconstruction work.
THE PHOTOS
THE MONASTERY OF SAN BASILIO IS GETTING READY TO HOST THE CHRISTMAS CONCERTS