Wow, is all I have to say. I was hoping to post Thursday night about the powerfulness of mass, but, we arrived home late and I forgot and went to bed. I was going to post yesterday and I was running errands and enjoying the children's stations as well as going to service last night which again was wicked powerful. I am now finally taking time to share about it.
Holy Thursday
First of all last week Fr. Jamie asked if we would be one of the couples for the washing of the feet. Doug and I said yes, and it was amazing. After the Gospel he asked the 6 different couples to go to the different sets of chairs he set up. He then went to each couple and asked how long they had been married. One couple was 61 years. That was amazing. Of course we were the youngest and shortest at 1 1/2 years. Anyway the homily was on the marriage feast of the Lord. He tied it in so beautifully to our marriages. He shared how we were first married to Christ through our baptisms and how it is not always easy and we don't always know what we are getting ourselves into. The difference he shared was that Christ knew exactly what he was getting himself into. He knew he was marrying the Church in order to save us all from our sins. After he finished with the homily, which also had many humorous parts. One that I recall, was Father asked if the older couples had any advice for us, being so newly married, and one of the couples, said, "win the lottery", the whole church laughed and Father used that to share how things can be hard, but we never know what is going to happen next. It was really powerful. When he finished with the homily and washed the couples feet, he also said a prayer over each individual couple. It was something that I won't soon forget. I feel truly blessed that he asked us to be a part of that very special moment.
Good Friday
Father again had an amazing impact. The service starts in silence which sometimes is needed to really enter into the seriousness of what is happening. When the gospel time arrived. We all stood for the proclamation and then we sat back down as it was read. What was really powerful for me was that he turned all the lights off in the church except for a lamp on the alter and the two places that the readers were standing. You might ask how we responded. We didn't, the choir, which sits behind the alter, had candles and did the responses of the crowd. It was amazing to just sit and listen to the story and hear them yelling to crucify him and hand over Barabbas. It was intense, but Father Jamie, didn't just leave it at that. He finished the Gospel and all of the lights in the church were turned off. He did the whole homily in the dark, which was so fitting. He talked about how Satan prowls in the dark and how he loves the darkness because that is where he lives and how he gets through to people. He gave examples of how Satan tries to get to us and shake our belief and our faith through that darkness. Needless to say the first two days of the Triduum have proved to be ever so powerful and struck me differently then ever before and for that I am eternally grateful.
I am sure that many more moments will come out of the Easter Vigil tonight and hopefully I will get a chance to share those moments also as I am trying to really blog more frequently as that is the point of bloggin. :-) God Bless all of you and your families as we continue this journey to Christ's triumphant Resurrection.
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