# @plusjames on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/B-jlF4XjQT1
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20819040-plusjames-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/93959f2d74.jpg
- **Posted:** 2020-04-04T10:40:13.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** James Ramos (@plusjames) — https://gondola.cc/plusjames

## Caption

In Houston’s 2nd Ward, Grace Street ends just caddy corner to the Church of the Blessed Sacrament. A nearby statue of Jesus seems to point at both Grace Street and the adjacent Hunt Street, as if to say: pick one.
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Like many parishes, Blessed Sacrament comes alive every year on Palm Sunday. Hundreds flock to claim their palms, often intricately weaved works of art that bear images of the Blessed Virgin Mary or St. Jude or Jesus. That day the parish youth group run the tables, hawking the woven palms to parishioners, some forking over cash telling the teens to keep the change as they rush into the church. One of the teens asks me if I wanted one, but I say I don’t have cash.
“I take Venmo,” he says laughing. • 
Built in 1924 by San Antonio architect and MITpics grad Frederick Gaenslen, it’s a gorgeous church. Alternating brick details and molded arches accent a pair of towers that reach skyward. A rose window shines between them. Here, the parish lines the long aisle with fronds that connect to form a series of archways. Kids run under them, jumping to touch the branches as their mamas snap them back to order. Mass is starting. The altar server passes me, deftly navigating the professional cross under each arch. After the Collect, I remember it’s the long Gospel and it’s in Spanish and I don’t have a seat. I squeeze past the ushers and find a place on the wall next to them and sigh softly.
•
It will be a quiet Palm Sunday this year. The kids won’t be out front selling palms. The food truck that’s usually parked a few blocks away, the one that features a sparkling gold image of the OG Our Lady of Guadalupe, is shuttered for now. The  KCs haven’t hosted their usual cookouts.
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Still, the church, which sits on an end of the Harrisburg Hike & Bike Trail, remains open for prayer, quiet visits where people pray for so much. The priests still celebrate Mass, though alone for now as social distancing disrupt spiritual discipline and desire. Each Mass a quiet but still powerful sacrifice and offering for all those near the 110-year-old community. (cont. in comments)
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#throughfire: A series during #HolyWeek in #blackandwhite.

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## Tags

holyweek, throughfire, blackandwhite

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