Palanca Etiquette

One very important part of the Tres Dias experience is Palanca. As we learned on our Weekend, it is the acts of spiritual and physical service that lift us up to God, like a lever helps to lift burdens too heavy to bear by oneself. Palanca lifts us up!

Palanca can come in many forms. The written letters represent the prayers of the community and family given for you during your Weekend. The small tokens are reminders of those prayers and love as well. A prayer vigil poster shows us how many people are praying for us during the three days of the Tres Dias. And palanca can be represented by people who come to the Weekend and participate in the acts of physical service.

This column deals with the Etiquette of Living Palanca.

Living Palanca is YOU when you come down to Montfort to participate but you are not on the Team of the Weekend. Here are some general guidelines:
1. Stay only in designated areas. Do not go into the bedroom area or the Rollo Room AT ALL.
2. Follow directions. Do not think you know what the Rector/Rectrix and the Chief have decided.
3. Maintain an attitude of acceptance and charity, humility and love.
4. Remember, the weekend is for the candidates, the team serves the candidates and you serve by assisting the team. Follow the flow.
5. Please sign in on the chart in the dining room. This helps us to know who gets involved so we can see the support we have from the community.

There are many things you can do as living palanca. The most obvious is: serve a meal. When you come to serve a meal:

1. Show up about 15 minutes before the meal time. That gives you a chance to be in position and have the dining room prepared for the arrival of the Team and Candidates. If the Chief Kitchen is not in the dining room, wait for him/her to arrive, or see if he/she has appointed someone to be in charge.
2. Sing "De Colores" with gusto!
3. Serve the cold and hot drinks. Serve the food. See if the kitchen team is being served.
4. Keep the conversation down to a minimum. You are there to wait on the candidates, not socialize (yes, you may talk to each other, but remember why you are there). A candidate should never be allowed to get up and serve him/herself a beverage. So watch the candidates for signs that they need something.
5. DO NOT ASK how the weekend is going. It is going great, keep praying for them.

After the meal:
If you can, stay to clean up and/or set up for the next meal.
Once the tables are cleaned off and wiped down, set up for the next meal. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS provided for by the Chief Kitchen. DON'T ASSUME that you know what goes next. Each Weekend varies a little from what has gone before. There should be written directions, possibly a diagram to follow. Do what is there. If you don't understand, ask the Chief.

IMPORTANT: Do not take it upon yourself to rearrange, fix, neaten, or otherwise mess with the arrangements as you find them. If you think you see something wrong, say something to the Chief. Just because it is different from what it was on the last 70 weekends doesn't mean it is wrong.

Other acts of service provided by Living Palanca:


Set up for the Agape Celebration, Breakdown and clean up
There are written instructions on how to set this up, so find the person in charge and ask what needs to be done. If you get there and things are done differently than what you have seen or done before, please resist the urge to correct them. Ask questions, and you may find that things are as they are desired to be. Remember to keep a loving and accepting spirit about you. The Chief Auxiliary is the final authority.

When the Agape is over, please keep hidden until everyone has gone into the Chapel for Candlelight. Then work quickly, keeping the noise down, and please be sure that all items are back in the aux room (this includes washing and drying the glasses used for the juice) when you are done. Please leave quietly.
If someone is taking the tablecloths to wash, please bring them back before closing the next day if at all possible.

Set up for Candlelight Chapel, light the candles
The setup for the Candlelight Chapel may vary from Weekend to Weekend, so find out what the pattern is before you decide how things are going to go. There should be someone in charge of setup, or a diagram to follow. DO NOT MESS WITH THE PATTERN THAT IS SET UP, EVEN IF IT LOOKS OBVIOUSLY WRONG. The Chief Aux will inspect the Chapel before the evening comes, so just leave it alone.

If you come to help light the candles, please bring a lighter if you can. Once you have lit the candles, leave the chapel as quickly and as quietly as possible.

Send Off, Mananita and Closing

All of our Community is invited to the Thursday night send off. If you have a candidate you already know to bring a casserole. But if you are not on Team, and do not have a candidate, you still are welcome to attend the Send Off. Bring food to share and your name tag. Don't forget your smile. Be aware that Thursday night is sometimes scary for the candidates, and the abrazo we like to give each other may be intimidating to them. Keep the hugging light, please. And let the candidates and sponsors go first on the food line at dinnertime.

Mananita participants can be heard very easily upstairs. Please keep the noise level down as much as possible. Only enter the chapel when told to do so. Please respect the auxiliaries, they know what they are doing. Take a name to pray for, and write that person a palanca letter. When you walk in to the chapel, you should hum and smile, but please don't touch the candidates or team.

Closing is very important to the candidates. All Weekend long they have heard about the wonderful Community awaiting them, this is our chance to show them our corporate love. Please come a little before 4:00 on Sunday. Wear your colors, your funny hats, and your name tags and crosses. Smile! Please DO NOT shout "NAME" and "TABLE" at the candidates when they get up to share. They can't really hear you, and they are nervous enough as it is.

If you can, when all is said and done, and the abrazo has been had by everyone, please stay to help clean up. Ask what you can do to help.

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Your humble servants,
the Secretariat of LITD