Parishioners at Our Lady of Grace in Encino displayed an 80-foot-long handcrafted “alfombra” on the weekend of April 8-10 in solidarity with the victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Alfombras” are a tradition in Latin America that depict scenes from Holy Week and are filled in with colored salt and sawdust.
“Our alfombra was a representation of our Lord’s Passion, but not only that, it is also a representation of our current social problems,” said Father Marinello Saguin, pastor of Our Lady of Grace. The living carpet, he said, makes “a statement of support to those who suffer war, hunger, fear, and depression. This also helps us to remember that the Lord defeated all suffering.”
The alfombra featured six panels, each representing a scene from Holy Week, including an elevated host, a crown of thorns, and the cross. Each panel was connected with vines and “the flowers of peace” that represented the parish’s prayers for an end to the war in Ukraine.
The last panel, just before the church’s altar, was a rendering of Our Lady of Fátima. “We wanted to include her as a reminder [of] the promise she made to us in 1917: In the end, my immaculate heart will triumph,” Father Saguin said.
The above comes from an April 12 story in Angelus News.
Looks like you’re not allowed to walk on it. You’re not allowed to walk in the center aisle? How dumb. And what did the fire marshal think of blocking a fire exit?
Jesus didn’t say you are the colored salt of the earth.
A living carpet? What makes it living?
Is it permitted to say that it’s unattractive?
It is pretty, and I am sure a lot of work and love went into it, but I do wonder about the fire safety. I am supposing that people can safely walk on it in an emergency. I hope there is a special area for people in wheelchairs to have easy access out of the building.
After years of “orange man bad” … and “masks, lockdowns & genetic serums good, treatments bad” …ad nauseum… now suddenly we’re supposed to believe that “Putin bad, Zelensky good”.
When Sean Penn and Sean Hannity are on the same side, there’s something terribly wrong somewhere.
Perhaps we should exercise some caution here, and not rush to judge…
Maybe we should pray for ALL innocent victims of war, regardless of which political jurisdiction they happen to reside in.
I’m disgusted that the solemn intercessions on Good Friday included a prayer for Ukraine. I guess we just pray for anything that’s the cause of the day on Good Friday now.
Sorry..could not let this one go….wha huh? Disgusted by a prayer for suffering people? On Good Friday? What is wrong with you? It’s not like the prayer was for Elon Musk to successfully take over Twitter for Pete’s sake…snap out of it…sheesh…
Okay I watched a video on youtube about these kinds of “carpets”. They aren’t carpets at all. The references in the story to the “carpet” being made of sawdust and salt mean that the “carpet” isn’t made of fabric. It’s an artwork in which colored sawdust and salt have been arranged into the shapes you see in the picture. People can’t walk on it because that would disturb the sawdust and salt and mess up the images. It’s a very fragile thing. I guess they’ll sweep it all up when it’s over. It can’t be rolled up and taken somewhere else. This was a one-and-done thing. Never to be repeated and can’t be preserved or moved.