It all kicks off with Ash Wednesday and the external debate of too wipe off the ashes or not. I always feel this internal struggle between the desire to wipe them off and not stick out in this increasingly secular world and to wear them all day (not proudly since there is nothing proud about the rite) with courage. I think somehow this is easier for a woman than a man. People seem to expect a woman to be religious but when a man is they seem to look at you suspiciously. Like you are going to drag them to the nearest fountain and try to baptize them or something.
Anyway, you spend 40 days with this low level awareness that you are participating in a really ancient rite surrounding Christ and the Church. Fish on Friday gets a little old but at least you feel like you are participating in your faith outside of the Sunday Mass.
I love the Easter vigil. It is probably my favorite services all year. I am really worried though that it will not be as great down here in South Florida as it was up in Tampa. In Tampa my church did it right. We had this huge bonfire (lit by Boy Scouts of course). We would all gather around the bonfire as it was lit and then process into the church. Then the whole vigil (not for the light hearted, it lasted 3 hours in my old church) would go on with the First Communion (all the little girls in their wedding dresses and the boys in their suits) and the first baptisms of new adult members. Then we would feast outside the church.
There is this great feeling of happiness at the end of the service that you just don't normally feel. It is truly a celebration that somehow even eclipses Christmas as the peak of the year. If you are not Catholic but you wanted to go to one really cool service that is the one I would recommend. Brace yourself though since it is a long one and tends to involve a lot of ups, downs and kneeling!
2 comments:
Ian, I am Catholic, but you know if you are going to recommend one service, you're going to scare away lots of folks with that eternal vigil service! :)
I too, love Lent. It's my favorite time of the year in the Catholic church. The Protestants get alot of things right, but no one does Lent like the Catholics!
I can't wait for Wednesday. My internal debate is not whether or not to wear them "proudly" or wipe them off. I feel that maybe wearing them sometimes is actually a pride issue in the other direction, like maybe I'm wearing the ashes too proudly and getting a payoff from having attended the mass. Sometimes I feel like I almost wear them as if to say "look at me, I'm Catholic!" Anyway, that always makes me think I should probably just wipe them off, but I never do because I'd feel like that was sacreligious too.... oh the Catholic guilt, we can make ourselves a sin out of anything! :)
Oh - I've found a soul mate! You like Monty Python AND the Easter Vigil!!?? I give a resounding YES!! to both.
My favorite Easter Vigil was in the church where I became Catholic - a Dominican parish...and if all the dark and light of the Easter Vigil isn't powerful enough already - just see the Dominicans wearing black capes with cowls over their white habits - and THROWING them off at the Gloria!
In my present parish, I must say, the liturgy is also very powerful - especially the Exultat with the great Easter candle being held aloft and all the little candles being lit in the dark church.
It IS long, but it doesn't SEEM long because there is so much going on.
The very first church service Zhenya attended upon arriving from Russia was the Easter Vigil. We'd bought him shoes with lights in the heel...and during the most sacred darkness of those first Old Testament readings there is this flashing from somewhere - I'm picturing a police car driving by outside....THEN I realize it is Zhen flashing his shoes! Sheesh!
I do like Lent, too. Very sobering and that is just what is needed this time of year.
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