HAMMONTON — The 16th of July is a
\nspecial day in this predominately Italian town in western Atlantic
\nCounty.<\/p>\n
A tradition started 133 years ago continued here last Wednesday as a
\nsolemn procession paid homage to the Blessed Mother during the feast
\nday of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
\n
\nA statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was ushered out of St. Joseph Church
\non Third Street shortly after 4 p.m., the last of more than a dozen
\nstatues wheeled through the streets.<\/p>\n
For about three hours, the procession continued on streets surrounding
\nthe church.<\/p>\n
Joe and Gina Mastazi of Paulsboro have come to feast day for the past
\n27 years. As in the past, they were easy to spot, clad in their red,
\nwhite and green outfits.<\/p>\n
“Ten years ago, my mother died on the morning of the feast day. The
\nlast thing she said to me was to put $10 on the Blessed Mother for me,”
\nsaid Joe Mastazi, who scoped out a nice shady area two blocks down from
\nthe church. “It makes it even more important.”<\/p>\n
Gina remembered coming to the festival as a child with her parents. She
\nrecalled enjoying watching the procession go by, something she enjoyed
\nagain this year.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t like the rides too much,” Gina said.<\/p>\n
Though the crowd for the beginning of the procession was sparse, the
\nfestival area quickly filled up around 7 p.m. as hundreds of visitors
\nconverged to enjoy the festivities and the 10 p.m. fireworks show.<\/p>\n
“It was just unbelievable,” said George Campanella, president of the
\nOur Lady of Mt. Carmel Society, the group that organizes the weeklong
\ncelebration here each July. “Maybe it was the economy, the price of
\ngas. It was just great to have that many people back here. Hopefully,
\nthey’ll be back here when we have the 134rd celebration next year.”<\/p>\n
The feast is the longest- running religious celebration of its type in
\nthe country. It’s a tradition around here and one that the Our Lady of
\nMt. Carmel Society, the group of 50 men that organizes the celebration,
\ntakes pride in keeping alive.<\/p>\n
I for one would like to see some Carmel I would certainly invest in such an effort and would be sure to buy St. * Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity suffered from Addison’s HAMMONTON — The 16th of July is a special day in this predominately Italian town in western Atlantic County. A tradition started 133 years ago continued here last Wednesday as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parody"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nthemed rides.<\/p>\n\n
\nbe one of those indoor covered rides like Space Mountain and so totally
\ndark inside. I could easily imagine a purification of the
\nsenses section and to finish the ride you have to love God without any
\nspiritual benefits. Though the ride could be quite long for
\nmost of us.<\/li>\n
\nMt. Carmel with a light guiding you on a happy night where you leave
\nyour cares “forgotten among the lilies.”<\/li>\n
\nof the interior castle have quite the potential to offer interesting
\nexperiences. Obviously the the gate by which to enter the
\nInterior Castle Funhouse is prayer and meditation. The first
\nmansion is full of a thousand preoccupations and you slowly move onward
\nto the last mansion if God has given you the grace to do so.<\/li>\n
\nAmerican Gladiator steel cage balls where you get kicked, thrown to the
\nground, left in a corner, or pressed to Jesus’ heart.<\/li>\n
\nElizabeth of the Trinity Chocolate *.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\nSimon Stock in it.<\/p>\n
\ndisease and as a result could only eat certain things. One of
\nthem was quite a penance to her Carmelite soul in that she often had to
\nsustain herself using chocolate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"