Holy Week

This is truly a reprise of a post from many years ago on my Yahoo! 360 blog.  Unfortunately, I don’t want to go through all of those posts to find this so it will be a new post about the same topic.

Most people believe that Christmas is the pivotal holiday in the Christian year.  It is true that without the birth of Christ, there would not be a religion of any sort called Christianity.  Truthfully though, Christians are a people of the risen Christ, a people of the Christ that suffered the fate His Father foretold and not without human misgivings.  Therefore, the most pivotal holiday and holy day in the Christian calendar is Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

As a Roman Catholic, the celebration of Christ rising begins on Palm Sunday.  This past Sunday I attended Mass at Alumni Chapel on the campus of Niagara University.  The service was beautiful.  The celebration began with the blessing of the palms in the daily chapel area which is behind the altar.  Everyone in the church went up there and then processed around the church with palms to return to their pews.  This sharing of faith and action, though small and reserved for children in a lot of churches, was a true community procession. 

Now that I am back home, I will attend Mass and other services throughout the Easter Triduum.  We will, as a family, attend Holy Thursday Mass.  This is a celebration of the Last Supper of Christ with his disciples.  There will be a feet washing of twelve people by the parish preist to signify the fact that Christ humbled Himself to do the most humiliating of gestures for those who followed Him, hoping that we too will do for the least among us.

On Friday, there is Veneration of the Cross and communion.  This occurs at 3 pm.  In the Bible, the land was cast into darkness for three hours and most presume this began at noon.  Growing up as an Episcopalian, we would have a three hour service from noon to three pm with various readings about the Passion, Crucifixion and Death of Christ.  During the Veneration service, all are invited to come forward and venerate the cross as well as receive communion, though there is no consecration of hosts and wine on Friday.

Friday evening, it is the tradition at our church to have a Marian Stations of the Cross.  Throughout Lent, Stations of the Cross are held on Friday evenings.  Usually, these start at Station 1 - Jesus is condemned to death - and end with Station 14 - Jesus is laid in the tomb.  With the Marian Stations, the process starts at Station 14 and goes backwards to Station 1.  Each station’s meditations come from Mary’s point of view as the mother of Jesus.

Saturday will bring the Easter Vigil Mass.  Early on Saturday, parishioners can bring their food to the church to be blessed should they desire to do so.  The Easter Vigil Mass will begin in the dark with a fire outside the church doors.  All in the church will have candles that will be lit from this fire.  The Gloria and Alleluia will be sung for the first time since the beginning of Lent.  Also, adult candidates for baptism, first eucharist and confirmation will be received into the church.  This evening’s Mass and Rites of Initiation hold special meaning for me as I look back over the last 25 years of my own Catholic journey.  It was 25 years ago this year that I became a Catholic as an adult.

Easter morning at our church will be a beautiful celebration of life.  The children’s choir will sing.  The church will be decorated with pastel balloons and the joy will be evident.

Scones

The 7th through 9th grade religious education classes at our church are having a bake sale tomorrow.  They are raising funds for Easter baskets to be given to less fortunate children, their Lenten service project.  While I could have made the 8th grade son make brownies or something for the bake sale on his own - with some minimal supervision, I decided I would make scones.

I found a wonderful Cinnamon Scone recipe to utilize.  Off to the kitchen I went.  I did try the scones.  They are very good.  They have a cinnamon-sugar egg wash on top.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

I am reprising a blog entry I wrote last year just before Mardi Gras.

 Okay, so it is French. And we all know that Mardi Gras is coming. Right?

Anyway, Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez translates literally into Leave the Good Times Roll . I don’t remember every celebrating a real Mardi Gras - real in the bead-throwing/bead-collecting, alcohol drinking, breast baring way. So here are the childhood memories I have of Mardi Gras - almost all having to do with religion lessons.

Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - is the Tuesday before a large number of Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday which is the start of the Lenten season. Lent is the 40 day period leading up to the resurrection and rising of Jesus Christ.

I was raised Episcopalian. Our church would have a huge all-you-can-eat pancake supper on Fat Tuesday. I have memories of going to it many years and working it many years once I was older. It was a parish event. People from all over the town came. It was a community event. People came together, sat at tables with people other than those they lived with, ate family style. The reasoning behind an all-you-can-eat supper was to have your food stick with you as Lent started on Wednesday. Lent is a season of sacrifice. The beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday - at least in Catholicism, is a day of fasting and abstinence.

The Triple 8 Challenge - Reading

If you are interested in participating, please visit the “official” site for details. Below are my entries and partial lists. I will be updating as I can.

Books by Jimmy Carter - CAT 1

   1. Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope
   2. Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
   3. Our Endangered Values
   4. Christmas in Plains
   5. An Hour Before Daylight
   6. Always a Reckoning and other Poems
   7. Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith (overlap)
   8. Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation

Penguin Paperbacks - CAT 2

   1. Sun Kissed by Catherine Anderson
   2. The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell by Lillian Jackson Braun
   3. Sister, Sister by Eric Jerome Dickey
   4. High Heels Are Murder by Elaine Viets
   5. French Fried by Nancy Fairbanks
   6. The Lipstick Chronicles by Kathryn Shay, Fiona Kelly, Vivian Leiber, & Lynn Emery
   7. The Corset Diaries by Katie MacAlister
   8. Hot Dish by Connie Brockway

Self-Improvement/Learning - CAT 3 

   1. Life Makeovers by Cheryl Richardson
   2. Ready for Anything by David Allen
   3. Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
   4. Get with the Program by Bob Greene
   5. Make the Connection by Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey
   6. Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach
   7. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, MD
   8. The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by His Holidness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler MD
Books about Church/Bible - CAT 4

   1. The Bible
   2. The Catholic Faith Handbook
   3. Sources of Strength by Jimmy Carter (overlap)
   4. They Were Women Like Me: Women of the New Testament in Devotions for Today by Joy Jacobs
   5. Women of the Bible: A One-Year Devotional Study of Women in Scripture
   6. The Confessions of Saint Augustine (overlap)
   7. Prayers Before an Awesome God by David Haas
   8. What Paul Meant by Garry Willis
Books for Creating/Creative Help - CAT 5

   1. Paper Transformed by Julia Andrus
   2. Celebrate Your Creative Self by Mary Todd Beam
   3. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Oprah’s Book Club Books - CAT 6

   1. Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
   2. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
   3. The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve
   4. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
   5. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
   6. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
   7. The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier
   8. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kinsolver

Books from College (These books were required reading by my college-aged kids and we still have them.) - CAT 7

   1. The Confessions of Saint Augustine (overlap)
   2. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
   3. Escape from Slavery by Francis Bok
   4. The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream by Davis, Jenkins, Hunt, and Frazier Page
   5. Watership Down by Richard Adams

Summer Reads - This category will remain slightly empty until June, most likely.  I spend about $35 on books to read over the summer each year - paperbacks that I think will be good while at the beach, at the pool, out grilling dinner.  Those included already are books I love and re-read every summer.  CAT 8

1. A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffet
2. Sammy’s Hill by Kristen Gore

Have a Blessed Easter

In what is arguably the most beautiful Mass of the church year, I attended the Easter Vigil last evening. Not only does this Mass celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ - the basis for Christianity - it also welcomes adult converts into the Church.

Twenty-four years ago, I was one of those adults. I love watching as others go through this public proclamation of faith. This year was particularly special as a good friend’s husband became a Catholic.

Have a blessed Easter. If you are a Jewish friend, I do hope your Passover celebration last week was as special.

Random Thoughts

Probably not an apt title for this particular entry.

Today is Holy Thursday, called Maundy Thursday in some religions. I don’t recall this being as big when I was growing up as it is now. I truly enjoy tonight’s Mass. Though it is longer than the normal Sunday Mass, it celebrates the Last Supper.

This time of year my mind always turns to my youth. I stare wantingly at the vinyl - a huge collection which my 16 year old son has taken over and is slowly turning into digital format - wishing I had a turntable in the main area of the house. I want to listen to Jesus Christ Superstar. It is truly a blast from the past. Maybe I will nudge my son to transfer this album set for me.

The Most Important Week of the Year

Today starts what is arguably the most important week of the Christian year. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. As Christians are a people of the risen Christ, Easter and His resurrection are the most important time of the church year.

Palm Sunday marks Jesus’s triumphant ride into Jerusalem. At this time as Christians around the world celebrate, this year so do our Jewish brothers and sisters as Passover begins at sundown tomorrow.

Thursday is one of my favorite services of the church year - the celebration of the last supper or the first eucharist. Christianity is like that a last is actually a first in a lot of ways. While this marks the anniversary of the last time Jesus would be with His disciples in this life, it marked the first time He would share His body and blood with them also. This is a basic tenet of Catholicism and a special weekly celebration in the church. There is no time like Holy Thursday, often in other sects of Christianity called Maundy Thursday, to celebrate before the horrible acts of the following day.

Good Friday is a complex day. I have often wondered how a day where the world lost, and yet also gained, its Saviour could be called good. The horrible things that happened on Good Friday are to always be remembered because they led to the wonderful resurrection. Jesus had truly done no harm. I am sure as a child, teen and young man He had annoyed those older than He but He had not done anything wrong. Yet, those people who did not know better, who did not believe sentenced Him to death.

As a young person who was raised an Episcopalian, I can remember Good Friday services. They were long. They started at noon and went until three o’clock. The significance was brought out in the readings done that day. Now, as an adult Catholic - a convert during those searching years of college, I attend a communion service and veneration of the cross at 3 pm on Friday. Then, my church - which hosts Stations of the Cross every Friday in Lent - holds a special Stations of the Cross at 7 or 7:30 pm. This time the stations are done Mary’s way. I did the readings for this one year. They are very hard to read as they are very much from a mother’s point of view. I still have a hard time just listening to them. These stations, not only done from Mary’s point of view, are also done backwards - from Christ’s death on the cross to his sentencing to death.

The celebration of light and life at the Easter Vigil Mass is the most wonderful mass of the entire year. First, as a convert, this mass holds special meaning as it is when new converts become Catholic. Second, it holds that special confirmation that we are a people of the risen Christ. It embodies all we believe in as Christians.

My next favorite mass will be Sunday, Easter morning. The children’s choir will celebrate in a more youthful manner. The church will be decked out in balloons and other symbols - mostly of new life - that children enjoy and understand. There will be butterflies and the children will sing at mass.

My thoughts and prayers, of course, will be with all my family and friends as we enter this glorious week.

When will we listen?

I suppose the actual title of this entry should be when will they listen, not we, as I did listen. I am concerned that the “they” in this matter did not.

Here is the situation. There are high school aged girls singing in the adult choir at the Catholic church. This is after the local diocese has put into effect what they feel is a training program to deal with the possibilities of sexual abuse. A new member joins the choir. This member is male. The high school girls have uneasy feelings about this person. He shows up at high school sporting events where one of the girls is a member. He sits directly behind the bench. The girl begins to feel even more uncomfortable around this man. Two of the girls approach the head of the music group. After discussion with the preist, the head of the music group tells the girls just not to be alone with the man.

This was three to four years ago. The uneasy feeling did not go away when the girls went to college and came home. They would be sure both were going to be singing in the choir or neither would go. Today I read in the local paper that the man was charged yesterday with three felony sex charges.

When will we listen?