On a serious note, I'm beginning to feel the anticipation of Holy Week today. It's a strange feeling, it's not quite Holy Week but the tone of Lent seems to have changed. I have become more aware every day this week of the growing build up to Christ's Passion. I'm lucky that I'm able to get to Mass most days and for some reason I've felt this 'build-up' in the readings even more than usual this year.
Tomorrow we'll have our Palm Sunday procession around the church and then just a few more days until we celebrate the Triduum. I know our neighbours find it strange that we seem to practically 'live' at church in between Holy Thursday evening and Easter Sunday morning.
Ever since the children were quite small, we've managed to join in most of the Easter events in our parish, beginning with the Mass of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday with the Washing of Feet and watching at the altar of repose until midnight. In the early days, we'd take turns to 'watch' whilst the other stayed at home and babysat.
On Good Friday we join in a local ecumenical Walk of Witness along our High Street following a large cross and stopping at 'Stations' along the way. We've done this since the boys were tiny and we walked with the buggy alongside other families. Then home for a hot cross bun (that's lunch!) and back to church in the afternoon for Veneration of the Cross.
The Easter Vigil is of course the climax and we often have a little parish celebration afterwards with those newly received into the Church.
