Easter Vigil…

We attended Easter services on Thursday evening where Joe and Sunshine (dd 7 yrs) sat for two of the foot washing positions.  It was a beautiful mass with people coming up from the congregation to remove the sock and shoe of each person, then Father Joe and Charmaine washed the feet and bestowed signs of affection followed by congregants coming to redress the washed feet.  The gifts were danced in which was an unusual but truly beautiful display.  While the Mass always takes us ‘out of time’ to the perpetual in heaven, there are occasions when something in the Mass makes this especially felt and the dancing presentation of the gifts was one of those.  The urge to go Home was strong within me… How Enoch must have rejoiced the day that he walked with God and God said this is good, let’s keep it going at my place…

 

Our primary celebration of Easter was last night at Easter Vigil.  It lasted around two hours and fifteen minutes… but what a beautiful Mass.  I am so grateful that we had already come into the church as we were able to sit and fully appreciate the Mass without the stress that Initiation brings.  Precious (dd 10 yrs) served at the altar and other than one or two small mistakes did exceedingly well.  She was so thrilled at the opportunity to serve and enjoyed it so much. 

 

Throughout the Vigil, I kept thinking of two friends who are coming into the church this Easter… I’m so excited for them… I can’t wait to read their reports on their respective receptions… May God richly bless them as they follow His leading…

 

 

The Liturgical Year…

RCIA tonight… I ended up sailing in a lovely ten minutes late.  Poor scheduling on my part as Joe had a reception associated with the hospital tonight which I also was to attend.  45 minutes there, a wild 20 minute drive, and a wet run into the church saved the evening.  As badly as I wanted to stay for the reception, no way was I going to miss an RCIA class.  Just not worth it. 

Tonight we covered The Liturgical Year.  I already knew quite a bit about it anyway, but what really got me was the description given by the team of the way each different portion of the year is celebrated.

 I am looking forward to celebrating my first Advent as a Catholic (ok, unofficial Catholic of the heart), and the New Year will bring rare sweetness as the girls and I complete the Sacraments of Initiation by receiving the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Communion (as well as Seraiah’s Baptism).  I have so long been looking forward to full reception into the Catholic Church and after at least 15 years of background learning and experiences in which God ‘set me up’ as another convert said, it has taken at least a year and a half of intense spiritual study and some MAJOR movement by God in my life to get me here.  What a fantastic journey it has been and I have to admit that as this journey has been winding to a close, I am not without spiritual exercise as the Lord is having me reevaluate my daily life in the light of The Mother’s Rule and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  It is hardly light fare, and yet after the past year and a half it seems light and I will admit to questioning… isn’t there something more?  Is it already time for a winter of the soul?  It seems time, and yet even as I’ve feasted so greatly upon things of the Lord, even now I hunger for more.  Which brings me back to my original point… and perhaps explains my feelings… 

The real treasure in tonight’s class was not The Liturgical Calendar, but how the events in the Liturgical Year are celebrated… at least in our parish.  As the ladies began to tell us about the special events of the year, and how they are celebrated.  My anticipation grew as we discussed Advent, then Christmas, then the small bit of Ordinary Time, on to Lent, and when we reached the Easter Triduum, it burst over me.  Such an incredible desire to worship the Lord in this cycle culminating in the Easter Triduum, the incredible urge to pay homage to the empty cross myself… and suddenly my perspective transformed…  The completion of the Sacraments of Initiation are both an ending and a beginning. I knew this of course, but it isn’t the same, head knowledge compared to real VISION is like gestation compared to life.  A whole new vista has burst on the horizon, a vision of the new life God has called me to and has been preparing me for.  My anticipation of Confirmation and First Communion has only increased as I long for the fullness and richness of what lies “further up and further in”.