Last Sunday 12 May the feast of Saint Sebastian was celebrated, the patron saint of the city. This anniversary falls every year on the second Sunday of May.

The Triduum – Also this year, as usual, the solemn triduum of preparation for the party was held. The reflections, centered on the icon of the disciples of Emmaus, were dictated with sobriety and ease by the young priest Don Domenico Davide Lutri, vicar of the SS. Salvatore in Scicli, involving all the faithful, because he touched the strings of our hearts and made us relive moments experienced in our lives. It has combined the fluctuating phases of life with the daily cycle of time in which moments of absolute darkness alternate with the glimmer of light like the dawn and moments of light and fullness like the day. In the life of the Christian, in fact, there are moments of unease and difficulties that can be compared to the darkness of the night. This represents a transition phase, reaching out to the first lights of the dawn that melt the darkness bringing hope, joy and reason to live. When Jesus begins to live close to each one of us, we discover how much we are loved by the Lord and find a reason to live, a turning point that brings light to our daily “traverse” of life. The aurora is the novelty that brings us out of so many stormy and inaccessible nights that we carry inside. Jesus with his Presence makes us take courage and start a new phase. He brings us beauty, newness of life with His presence. He is beside each of us, he established with us an alliance of friendship that makes us overcome the darkness early nights. Saint Sebastian, conquered by the Lord, really loved it up to martyrdom. We too are called to find a reason to live, to taste the taste of a genuine life, with the certainty of being loved by the Lord and the commitment to bear witness to those who ask us to give an account of our hope. We are called to be bearers of tenderness, of trust, to be dawn for some brother or sister. The darkness of the night is thus lightened with a gesture of trust, making us an instrument of light in the lives of others. Our task is precisely to bring hope, light and trust, and we will succeed if we allow ourselves to be enlightened by the Lord and by the lighthouse of San Sebastiano. It is nice to walk on the furrow of those who preceded us in holiness, of those who “stamped” his life in blood for love. We are not candidates to live in darkness, the Lord looks at our history, does not judge us, he with his “look” embraces every part of our history and changes it completely. Surely the Lord did the same with Saint Sebastian. With a look of love, of tenderness, of desire, he changed his life and the Saint, entrusting himself to the Word of the Master, found the courage to challenge the powerful of the time. Only Jesus can allow himself to become special, joyful, full of new Christianity. Let our faces belong to Jesus, who was born on the day of our baptism. We become what we really are – Fr Lutri preached – if we abandon ourselves to the Lord! Let’s celebrate the daily sacrament of belonging to the Lord: this is our vocation!

The “Nuri” pilgrimage – After the triduum, the most evocative and touching moment, which involved the entire population of Avola without any age difference, was the so-called “procession of nuri”, which starts every year from a newsstand dedicated to the saint located three kilometers from the city on the 115 state road for Syracuse. Gathered at the newsstand, at the firing of the bombs, at 7.00 am the pilgrims proceeded in long procession towards the City, headed for Chiesa Madre, where they arrived at around 8.30 am, in the midst of a crowd of spectators who Pilgrims follow the quiver of emotion. Along the route of the procession the participants invoked the protection of the Saint or thanked him and praised him for having obtained the requested grace. In addition to nuri, a considerable number of young people and women who wore a red dress participated in the votive pilgrimage. All carried a bouquet of flowers of various colors, with a prevalence of red. Guided by a coryphaeus they shouted, raising the bouquet of flowers in the air: “Viva Sam-mMastianu! “And other invocations dictated by different sentiments: love and devotion to the Saint, recognition of the power of intercession or a sense of fear; they then repeat themselves before the statue of the Saint inside the Church.

Solemn Eucharistic celebration on Sunday morning – After the arrival of the pilgrims, the Archpriest Parish priest Fr. Rosario Sultana celebrated the solemn Mass, animated by the city choir with the presence of the civil and military authorities of the city and of the Corps of Traffic Police, of which the Saint is Patron. During the homily, Don Rosario urged us to follow the example of St. Sebastian “the blood of the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, – said Don Sultana – he finds in the blood of martyrs associated with that of Christ, the source of communion and fraternity. We too must wish – added the Archpriest Sultana – as the martyr Saint Sebastian that our life will become supreme gift to God and to the brothers until the shedding of blood, so that the world may believe “. At the end of the Mass and in other free moments of the day, many parents took their young children to church to consecrate them to the Saint: a devout service worker took the children in their arms and raised them to the Saint, shouting “Viva Sam-Mastianu! The invocations resounded throughout the church, touching the hearts of those present who felt they were crossed by a thrill of emotion. Many believers have done everything to have a bunch of flowers placed by the pilgrims to the saint to take back to the graves of their loved ones at the cemetery. The devotees lit votive candles to the Saint by grace received and some parents brought the votive red dress of their children into the offer which, in turn, was taken by other mothers who gave an offer in exchange.

Auction of devotional gifts – In the early afternoon of the Sunday of the festival, the traditional auction of devotional gifts received from the shops and shops of the city took place on the square. There was a fair crowd of people who participated in the auction by raising the offer fiercely to be able to appropriate the most coveted gift.

Vespertina Eucharistic Celebration – At 7.00 pm a solemn Eucharist was celebrated, presided by Msgr. Angelo Giurdanella, Vicar General of the Diocese and concelebrated by the Rev. Priests, Father Maurizio Novello, Father Rosario Sultana, Father Giovanni Vizzini, Father Mattia Massei, animated by the city choir. Msgr. Giurdanella in his warm homily welcomed the fraternity of the parish community of Chiesa Madre-San Giovanni, because, if it is true that walking together slows the pace, it leads to the desired goal, that is to eternal life, peak of holiness. We come from heaven, from light and we are destined for God, for light. In this path the saints come to our aid, who with their example draw us, teach us and teach us to obey God rather than men. We need models, points of reference, which today are unfortunately lacking. The Master of life makes us free. The faith of the disciples of Jesus is not a cage that imprisons, but a “nest” that protects and helps to take flight. “We are in the hands of God” as in a nest that welcomes, preserves and makes us fly. The Saints are formidable champions, friendly presence that accompany us every day. Pope Francis says that if we succeed in helping one person to feel good and then invite others to do so, we make seeds of hope and signs of charity sprout up in our lives, which restart our lives and that of others. To do this we must follow the voice of the Gospel, as Saint Sebastian did. To hear this voice we need to find spaces of silence in our lives. The voice of God heard and accepted becomes presence, a relationship that makes our existence fruitful and makes us capable of small gestures of charity, hidden but effective gestures for the world to change. And all this will happen if each of us decides to change and make gestures of love in the name of the Lord!

Procession – At the end of the Mass attended by a crowd full of faithful, the procession of the statue of the Saint through the streets of the City unfolded. On the return of the procession, animated by the musical band of the city, the celebrations ended with the usual pyrotechnic show, expected by all citizens.

Next Sunday, the day of the feast, – after a solemn Eucharistic celebration, the venerated simulacrum of the Saint will be placed in his own chapel, where he remains all year and where on the 20th of every month Mass is celebrated.

Devotion to the Saint – Devotion to the Saint is not manifested only on the occasion of the popular festival of May or of the religious one of January, but throughout the course of the year; the discreet assiduous presence of devotees who bring flowers or light candles to the statue of the Saint, in every occasion and circumstance of life in which they need the help, protection or intercession of the Saint is testimony to it. Furthermore, many parents give their children the name of Sebastiano for their devotion and many images of the Saint are seen posted inside the houses or in the places of work. The cult of San Sebastiano is felt and lived with participation and involvement by almost all the citizens and his name is invoked by believers and not that they entrust themselves to the Saint because they feel him closer to God or because through Him they seek God!

Enrica Munafò