Holy Week at MSC Melody
During this year’s Holy Week I received an opportunity to serve on a cruise ship for ten days. My friends in Rome normally go to a parish to help the priests. But my inadequacy in expressing myself in Italian was a hindrance in my search for a parish to work with during this season. We take turns in being the main celebrant of the Mass in the house where I stay, and every time I celebrate Mass in Italian my friends comment that I speak beautiful English!!! I thought it was a blessing for me that I could spend ten days celebrating mass every day for the crew and passengers in MSC Melody and visit parts of Greece, Ukraine and Turkey.
In the initial meetings the priest in charge of the Maritime Ministry told us that we would be celebrating the Mass and other Holy Week liturgical services in Italian. I collected the homilies and readings in Italian and spent many days practicing everything. We also had to take all the materials needed for the celebrations including palms for Passion Sunday. But it turned out that most of the passengers on the ship were from Germany and many of them could understand English. The cruise manager insisted that I conduct all the services in English rather than Italian. But just to appease the Italian passengers, I did a few of the prayers in Italian, too.
Even though the ship started its voyage from Genova, I embarked on the ship from Civitavecchia, which was only an hour train ride from Rome. It was my first experience on a ship and my only knowledge of such voyages were my readings of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville and Life of Pie by Yann Martel, and movies like The Titanic and Pirates of the Caribbean. My friends warned me about possible Tsunamis and attacks from the Somalian Pirates. I told them if there were a Tsunami, it would be good that a priest died with the people, and if Pirates captured the ship I could preach the gospel to them. As usual, my friends ignored my comments!
At the Civitavecchia port, I submitted my credentials to the MSC Melody Crew manager and we had an initial discussion on selecting a place and the times of the Masses. He was extremely gentle and welcoming to accommodate me in arranging everything necessary for the daily Mass. One of the staff members took me to the cabin assigned to me. It was small but spacious enough and had a bath attached to the cabin, which was a kind of a luxury for me. Immediately after placing my bags in the room I went around the ship to get familiarized with my surroundings. I also decided to present myself in my priestly dress for the people to recognize me. It really helped since many asked me about the mass times and the other spiritual services available for them on the ship.
Melody is the smallest of all the ten cruise ships of the MSC shipping company, but it had nearly fourteen hundred passengers and more than four hundred crew members the week I was there. There were not many people for the Palm Sunday Mass and later I realized that many of them came to Rome and attended the Mass of the Holy Father at St. Peter’s. The office crew prepared the Scripture readings for the Mass in English, Italian, German, French and Spanish. I never had troublefinding people to read in those languages, and they all were pleased that they could still attend mass on the ship.
…will continue…
