Good Friday in Montana? Not Kosher!

Here we are just days before Easter Sunday. I had planned on going to the first Friday Art Walk.

But , b4 I get into the arts walk, let talk about Easter.

Easter is the greatest feast in the Christian/Catholic calendar. On this Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. For Catholics, Easter Sunday comes at the end of 40 days of prayer, fasting, and alms-giving known as Lent . Through spiritual struggle and self-denial, we have prepared ourselves to die spiritually with Christ on Good Friday, the day of his Crucifixion, so that we can rise again with him in new life on Easter.

For me, It represented Church at MT Carmel in the Little Italy Section of the Bronx. A new easter suit that was purchased on Bathgate Avenue . Where vendors sold their wares in storefronts and sidewalks filled with soft goods. It was where people of every ethnicity gathered to buy their Easter Clothes at prices that rivaled Orchard Street in lower Manhattan.

Much like my neighborhood, Little Italian in the Bronx. It street were rich with European Culture and families who came to America for the American Dream.

The land on which Mott Haven Historic District is situated was purchased from the Indians by the Dutch West India Company in 1639, and two years later the Dane, Jonas Bronck, bought a large tract of land between the Harlem and Bronx Rivers from that Company, becoming the first European to settle in the Borough which bears his name. In 1670, he sold his land to Richard Morris and Lewis Morris, merchants from Barbados. Besides the land obtained from Bronck, the Morrises obtained a second tract from the British Crown.

The Morrises became greatly influential as one of the first families of colonial times, holding a number of public offices.[1] Traces of the Morris family still remain in the area and it has been suggested that Alexander Avenue, the central thoroughfare in the Mott Haven Historic District, was named for Alexander Bathgate, the Scottish overseer of the Morris manor lands.

In 1828, Jordan L. Mott, the inventor of a coal-burning stove, established an iron works on the Harlem River at 134th Street. He was the first major industrialist to locate in the Bronx, and his facility was resented as a crass intrusion into the quiet, rural countryside. He built his residence near the foundry and was so impressed by the area that he subsequently purchased a second tract of two hundred acres from the Morris family at $175 an acre, and named the village Mott Haven.[2] The present day streets of Mott Haven were laid out at that time.

Easter is a day of celebration because it represents the fulfillment of our faith as Christians. St. Paul wrote that, unless Christ rose from the dead, our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:17). Through his death, Christ saved mankind from bondage to sin, and he destroyed the hold that death has on all of us; but it is his resurrection that gives us the promise of new life, both in this world and the next.

For our Catholic Community, It represented four days of Prayer, Church and fasting on Good Friday. The Easter Week started with school closing fro Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

At the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century a great number of Italian immigrants entered America through the Port of New York. Some traveled westward but most stayed in the East. Many came and settled in the Bronx, especially in the Belmont/Little Italiat section.

Along with their desire to improve their economic lot they brought with them a strong faith and strong family values. They worked to build railroads, tunnels, subways, reservoirs, skyscrapers, on farms and some established small businesses. What kept them together was their common language and faith.

In the Northwest Section of the Bronx in 1900, only St. Philip Neri Church on the Grand Concourse and 202nd St. had an Italian-speaking priest. So the faithful from the Belmont section made the long trek to the Concourse to attend Mass, receive the sacraments and to bury their dead.

Immigrants moved to the Bronx in great Numbers. including my Catholic Mother and Culturally Jewish dad who spoke 4 languages. It was a place where Catholicism, Judaism merged at the Grand Councourse and Tremont Avenue.. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Easter Sunday was where the community would gather for Prayer and to show off thier new Easter Clothes.

We would visit the candy store owned by Eddie and Bertha Potash. Survivors of the Holocaust. I attended school with their daughter Barbara Potash. A brilliant young woman, and first generation Child of immigrants. Bertha Potash had a brother who also worked at the candy store on 187th street. He had never fully recovered from being tortured in Hitlers Death camps. Their tattooed serial numbers on their wrist were visible and unfortunately misunderstood by some who referred to Eddie potash as, Eddie the Jew. Eddie Stood up to the ignorance of these few bigots.

Eddie and Bertha had the best jelly rolls, egg creams and Mela rolls in the neighborhood. It was also one of the few places to get a Joy Va halvah bar. A recipe for one of the oldest known confections in the world. It was eaten by Kings and Titans, and Princes and Sultans. In some parts of the world it was considered a sacred symbol of immortality and life. In other cultures it was thought to promote fertility and sexual response. (We did not know about the sexual part.)

Over the last nine decades Joy-Va has developed many candy and specialty food items that have been loved for generations. Jell Rings, Marshmallow Twists, Sesame Crunch, Sesame Tahini, and of course our beloved Halvah.

Mount Carmel was the center of the community for Italian Catholics and the many who were drawn to conversion to Catholicism. It had a rich history in the community and inspired many of its Parishioners who did not believe in the Government to provide welfare, or other Government sponsored programs. Welfare was then known as home relief and was not acceptable an option for the greatest Generation.

The community stood strong in culture and pride. There was a movement beginning in the late 1960's and 1970's. One that would plant the seeds of a nanny state. one that would legalize the murder of the unborn. One that would herd minorities into apartment buildings known as the projects. Where black families were removed from their culture and placed in drug, alcohol and roach infested where self esteem was drained from the Black Man and minority families began a downward spiral into poverty and loss of self esteem. This was the goal of the White Democrats whose Great Society was nothing more than poverty pimping .

It was a time where racists like Margaret Sangers dreams of Planned Parenthood and legalized abortion woul d become law.

"We do not want word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population" . Who spoke these words? The u Klux Klan? Aryan Nations? The National Socialist (Nazi) Party? These are the words of Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest provider and promoter of legal abortion in the United States.

Abortion clinics were originally set up with the intention of slowing the population growth of Afro-Americans and others racial groups considered mentally or otherwise inferior.

There was a battle going on between the traditional beliefs of a rich Catholic and Jewish culture and the political aspirations of the powerful Democrat party. The same party that took away our fathers, brothers, minorities and left them for dead on the battle fields of Korea and Vietnam.

For those of us who were not rich, we were still rich in friendship and family. Our Church provided food for those in need. A youth center where one could enjoy many activities and if one chose. Participate in prayer.

The Order of Carmelites takes its name from Mount Carmel in Israel, which was the first place dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and where a chapel was erected in her honor before her Assumption into heaven. Saint Simon Stock entered the Carmelite Order in Kent, England, when he was 40 years old. He was sent to Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land where he led a life of prayer and penance until he and most of his brother Religious were forced to leave by the victorious infidels. The group sailed for England. At a General Chapter which was held in Aylesford, England, in 1245 A.D., St. Simon was unanimously elected Prior General of the Carmelite Order.

A Church and community rich in history and an Italian Heritage. From Festivals, feasts to Easter Parades. Our neighborhood and Church was the foundation for self examination, patriotism and is the reason why i at 55 am fasting today .

I feel sorry for people who did not have the privilege of growing up in a community that is blessed with cultural diversity and a strong belief in sharing and providing for those less fortunate. My father did that often , he did not.want to see anyone go hungry . With the strength of a bull and a temper to match, he could take on all challenges. But deep inside was a man with a big heart

I now have a two year old child and wife and live in a community where we don't know our neighbors. Where diversity is non existent and the workplace is temporary and where the once rich abundant native American culture has been herded into reservations and the white man build Mcmansions on once sacred land. I have not ever been to an all White Catholic Church until coming to Missoula, Montana. The Latin or Spanish, Italian, Greek mass is almost non existent.

If there is just one self-evident fact that presents itself to us time and time gain, it is this – that we live in a world, in a universe - which is filled with diversity! Christian’s believe that even within the Godhead – within the very nature of God – there is also diversity. So Trinity Sunday – perhaps more than any other Sunday in the year, is a good time to talk about Diversity.

What a privilege we have to know that as we bring our diversity and our uniqueness as individual members of Christ’s Church we each have a special and unique place in God’s plan of Salvation.