Author Archives: John Cutrone

Apr 18 2025
4 Comments
Easter Triduum, Good Friday, Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday

Pilgrimage

We went to Holy Thursday Mass tonight, Seth and me and our niece. We went to the grand basilica on Palm Beach, a church that feels a bit like I imagine the Vatican might feel like. My niece and I both had the same thought at precisely the same moment: as the pipe organ belted out the Gloria, full choir in the loft behind us, the altar boys ringing the bells continuously for the duration of the triumphant hymn: We both stood there, singing and thinking, “This is not at all like the Shakers.”

We had brought the kid with us to Maine last month where she did, in fact, experience Shaker Sunday Meeting. It was the Third Sunday of Lent and the theme of the readings was suffering. But even with that drudgery, Meeting was lovely and beautiful in its simplicity. Everything about Shaker Meeting is beautiful that way. And everything about St. Edward’s Basilica is beautiful in the opposite way: in its richness and opulence. I love them both. It was a joy to be at Shaker Meeting that Third Sunday of Lent, and a joy to be at Holy Thursday Mass at St. Edward’s tonight.

St. Edward’s was the first stop on our annual nighttime Holy Thursday pilgrimage to three churches, a tradition my grandma taught me. We went to St. Ann’s next, the old church on the mainland, and then back across the lagoon to Bethesda by the Sea, but the Episcopalians let us down this year: the church was locked and there was no keeping watch there, no vigil. But we wandered the grounds, and we commiserated with other pilgrims in this world who, too, were trying all the doors to the church, only to find them locked, as we had, too. We’re counting the wandering around the grounds as a visit to the church all the same… and so we completed our pilgrimage. By the time we got home, it was well past 11: a night well spent with two of my favorite people.

Lest you get the wrong idea about me, you should know that church and Shaker Meetings are rare occasions for me. I pray to myself (and sometimes out loud, as I’m driving –– it helps cut down on my swearing) and I sing hymns and Shaker songs as I go about my day (because I like to sing and I like old songs like this). But my attendance at formal religious ceremonies is spotty, at best. I don’t necessarily want it to be so, but it is. And perhaps this is a great disservice to myself. Another thing that drifted through my head, through the readings and the hymns, the ones that dealt with love and respect and the dignity of the people around us, was the realization that the people running the country lately were most likely not at a Holy Thursday Mass tonight. I don’t see how they could be listening to the Gospel According to John –– where Jesus humbly washes the feet of his disciples, then asks them, Do you realize what I have done for you? –– or singing the same hymns we were singing at St. Edward’s –– the ones about compassion –– and still continue to act as they do. And I acknowledge that perhaps that is the old Democrat in me thinking, but gosh, I do have to believe that that is the human being in me thinking, sans political affiliation.

This Holy Thursday, this Good Friday, this Easter Triduum: may we ascend from darkness and suffering to light and compassion and greater understanding, and to integrity once more.

Visit our Instagram page (@conviviobookworks) for photos from our Holy Thursday pilgrimage. I’ll post them some time on Friday. Visit our shop in Lake Worth Beach this Saturday, from 11 to 4, for last minute Old World Easter shopping. And visit our shop the weekend after Easter for Independent Bookstore Days, April 26 & 27: We’ll be printing on our 1950s Nolan Press and I’ll teach you how to make a simple book, too.

Image at top: Ceilings and angel at St. Edward’s Basilica, Palm Beach.

 

 

 

Apr 01 2025
6 Comments
All Fools' Day, Book of Days Calendar, Easter, Holy Week, Independent Bookstore Day, Lent

Springtide, and Your April Book of Days

April First now and here is your printable Convivio Book of Days calendar for the month. Cover star this time around: a rainy Easter Eve (in Paris, is my guess), painted in 1907 by John Sloan. We just reached Midlent this past Sunday, or Laetare Sunday, which means we are halfway through our Lenten journey, on the road to Easter, which this year comes on April 20. These are all movable days in the calendar, based on the timing of the full moon that follows the Vernal Equinox. I’ve never quite had the wherewithal to sit down and learn the calculations that determine the date each year of Easter. All I know is Lent began late this year and, following course, Easter comes late, too. I like when things are late, as I don’t feel so rushed.

Today, of course, is the First of April, which brings All Fools’ Day, and that is not a movable holiday. The origins of the day’s shenanigans are tough to pin down. Most signs point to the fact that March 25 was once New Year’s Day, making the First of April the Octave of New Year and the end of the new year revels, and it is thought that perhaps the foolishness of the date goes back to very old new year customs. The tricks and practical jokes traditionally end at noon, but not everyone understands this and so I think it’s a good day to remain generally wary and on guard.

April also brings Passover this year, and all the days of Holy Week that lead us to Easter, including one of my favorite nights of the year: Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday, when we visit three churches to sit in the close and holy darkness, together with other pilgrims doing the same. It is always such a lovely night: candle-lit, peaceful, a night when you can hear each old church’s creaks and groans. Our niece comes with us now on this pilgrimage, and I don’t even know if she realizes we do this each year because my grandma, Assunta, taught me to do it when I was a boy, the same age as my niece is now.

April also brings a springtime excuse to drink eggnog with San Jacinto’s Day on the 21st, and romantic divination a few nights later, on St. Mark’s Eve, and then comes Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday April 26. I’m generally not one for these newfangled holidays, but this one has new meaning for Convivio Bookworks now that we fancy ourselves a bit of an independent bookshop. We’ll be making a weekend-long celebration of it at the shop, where you may come print on our 1950s Nolan Tabletop Press and learn how to make your own book, too. Walpurgis Night wraps up the month, as the night of April 30 drifts into the morning of May the First, and May Day, an unoffocial first day of summer.

If you live in the South Florida area, please consider joining us at the shop for any of these upcoming events pictured below. The workshops require advance registration. Our Springtide Saturdays are perfect days to gather what you need for Easter. And Independent Bookstore Days are just going to be a whole lot of fun as we celebrate these things we love so much: books and reading. Click on any of the images to make them larger for easier reading, and find more details by visiting our Convivio Bookworks catalog pages. The shop is easy to find but off the beaten path at 1110 North G Street, Suite D, in Lake Worth Beach, Florida 33460.

 

Top image: “Easter Eve” by John Sloan. Oil on canvas, 1907 [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]

 

Mar 19 2025
4 Comments
Equinox, Spring, St. Joseph's Day

Approach of Spring, & San Giuzeppole

It’s the 19th of March: St. Joseph’s Day. And what St. Patrick’s Day is to the Irish, so St. Joseph’s Day is to the Italians. In Sicily, folks will be eating Pasta con le Sarde: very often Bucatini, and always with chopped sardines and anchovies, with chopped fennel, raisins, and saffron: flavors which nod to the Arabic influence upon Sicily and the rest of Southern Italy (from where my family hails). This pasta dish, which is topped with toasted breadcrumbs (to symbolize St. Joseph’s carpentry sawdust) is particularly Sicilian.

My Grandma Cutrone, who was from Palo del Colle, in Apulia, near Bari, would build an altar to St. Joseph in her home each March, and to all the visitors who came to see it, she would give oranges and boxes of animal crackers. This was before my time, so I never got to see the altar, save for in poorly-lit silent 8 mm home movies, nor did I ever get to ask why the animal crackers, though I can guess why the oranges: oranges, for centuries before they were commonplace, were beautiful, valuable gifts that symbolized the golden sun and its promised return after a long winter. Oranges made lovely gifts at Christmastime, and, I imagine, were just as welcome at the start of Spring.

St. Joseph’s Day is also Father’s Day in Italy, which is fitting, as Joseph was Mary’s husband and foster father to her son, Jesus. One of my favorite songs for the day is an old carol for Christmas called “The Cherry Tree Carol.” In it, Joseph is so very human and he comes across as a real jerk until he comes to understand, thanks to the cherry tree’s bowing down, the greater mystery he has become part of. It’s a song that’s been sung for many centuries, but I have two favorite recordings of it. One is by Emmylou Harris and is just so beautifully done. The other is from a Christmas Revels performance called Ribbon of Highway. It’s sung by Charmaine Li-Lei Slaven and I just love her emphasis on Joseph’s standing around while Mary gathers cherries… Joseph’s grumpiness and humanity really shines through in Charmaine’s version.

We call St. Joseph “San Giuseppe,” and while my family does not make Pasta con le Sarde (we are not Sicilian, after all) for St. Joseph’s Day, we will enjoy Zeppole di San Giuseppe. We make zeppole at New Year’s Eve, too, but Zeppole di San Giuseppe are different: these are delicious pastries that are filled with custard and Amarena cherries. They are Lenten treats that are meant to be eaten just on and around the 19th of March, though some Italian bakeries now bake them all year long (which, as you might imagine, I do not approve of). Seth has come to call the day San Giuzeppole Day (and that I do approve of). If you do nothing else today to celebrate, find yourself an Italian bakery and buy some Zeppole di San Giuseppe (or Sfingi di San Giuseppe, which are filled with sweet ricotta cream (like cannoli), rather than custard) and be sure to serve your pastries with strong espresso. Perfetto!

This year, as is often the case, San Giuseppe welcomes us to Spring, for the next day, March 20 at 5:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, will bring the Vernal Equinox to the Northern Hemisphere and a brief period of roughly balanced sunlight and darkness across the globe. It is the start of Spring by the almanac for us, while in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the start of Autumn. The Wheel of the Year never ceases its slow turning, and now, once we pass this equinox moment, our Northern Hemisphere days begin to log more daylight hours than night. We are halfway between the Midwinter Solstice we left in December and the Midsummer Solstice we approach in June. But San Giuseppe, he begs us to put the Moka pot on the stove, brew an espresso with a nice crema, perhaps, and sit at the table and visit with friends and family and some zeppole. There is plenty of time for work, and plenty of time for Lenten austerity. Today, we get to enjoy ourselves.

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Those are my sister Marietta’s homemade Zeppole di San Giuseppe in the photo above. So good!

A reminder that our shop will be closed for the rest of March, but we will reopen again on the First Saturday of April, and indeed all the Saturdays of April, for our Springtide Saturdays series. Your online orders are still welcome, and we will be filling orders this week, but orders placed on March 20 or later won’t be filled until the first week of April.

We also have two in-house workshops coming up this spring! Collagraph Printmaking with instructor Kim Spivey is on Sunday April 6, and I’ll be teaching a workshop called Pure Bookbinding (these are books made without adhesive) on Sunday May 4.

 

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