Don Mario Iceta was the first to lay his flowers before the image of Santa María la Mayor, after having presided over the solemn Eucharist in honour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the cathedral.
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Burgos is today celebrating the great day of its major festivals in honour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. In the midst of the fatigue of work and activities, the celebration serves to ensure that “the body and spirit are not corrupted”, to “dedicate time to each other, to be together, to free ourselves from the fatigue of work, to carry out activities that make us grow as people”. At least this is what the archbishop, Monsignor, maintains. Mario Icetawho presided over the solemn Eucharist in honor of the holy apostles in the cathedral.
For him, the party is “a window”, a kind of balcony where human beings can discover that they are made to love and live fully. In this way, the days of bustle also reveal to us that “our relationships are always dissolved and that we have become unaccustomed to being together.” Likewise, the desire for holidays that never end and “are very long” reveals that “our heart is made for expansion, for plenitude, it always wants more, we do not want what is fleeting,” he explained.
In this way, Saint Peter and Saint Paul “help us find a source of water that does not end in seven days.” They are the apostles that the Lord chose even though one denied him and another persecuted him. «Do not be shocked if he chooses you, limited people; “His love is infinite and always restores us,” he has conveyed, because “the Lord loves our clay, loves the limitations of our life and is capable of doing wonders in it.” In this way, God becomes a “light in the darkness” who “fills the race of life with faith and love.”
The event was attended by the municipal corporation, provincial, autonomous and national authorities, as well as the queens and kings of the clubs and representatives of the Fallas from Valencia, and numerous people from Burgos. Monsignor Iceta prayed for “our wonderful city” and for the Holy Father: “Where Peter is, there is the Church and where Peter is not, there is no Church,” he concluded his speech.
Flowers for the patron saint
The Eucharist has given way to the popular offering of flowers to Santa María la Mayor, an act that has been repeated for 70 years, when the then queen of the festivities presented the patron saint with the flowers with which the people of Burgos had entertained her. They are flowers that “carry a message of gratitude, request, hope and help,” explained the archbishop, who was the first to place flowers before the altar built at the foot of the cathedral. “May Mary welcome in each flower the desires of this beloved people of Burgos,” he wished.
