Waiting . . .

I had very little time, nor inclination if I'm honest, to blog yesterday or even switch on the computer.

After a beautiful Holy Thursday liturgy including an excellent homily, both of which I found incredibly moving, I eventually got home about 20 minutes after Midnight.

Leaving an empty church - empty in every sense of the word, is very strange. No Blessed Sacrament, naturally; no adornment of any kind; no candles; the altar stripped bare and the crucifixes and statues still veiled really left me feeling bereft.

Our Good Friday followed much the same pattern as it has for the past twenty years or so. We began in the morning by joining the ecumenical Walk of Witness through the High Street following a large wooden Cross and stopping at various 'Stations' along the way for a short meditation. Despite the weather forecast we escaped without a drop of rain and I think we had an even larger crowd this year than last.

Then home for a short break before going to church in the afternoon for the Veneration of the Cross.

Today is very much a day of waiting, I feel. In church we have the Office of Readings in the morning and then the church is invaded by florists and other helpers who begin preparing for the culmination of the Triduum this evening, the Easter Vigil.

So, I have found an odd hour this afternoon to try and put a few words down about the Triduum and how we have celebrated so far.

Palm Sunday . . .

I love this picture and the way we can see through the Palm to the Crucifixion.

The symbolism is obvious but it is still a very powerful picture, I think.

We have many examples in modern day history where we can see public opinion turn from a cheering crowd to a baying mob. The power of the group can be very frightening and it can change so quickly just as the cheering crowd which welcomed Our Lord into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday turned, in a matter of a few days, to a bloodthirsty mob demanding the death of that same Jesus.

We had a good crowd at Mass this morning. We managed to process outside around the church and the rain kept away. Our procession involves walking along the road in front of the church and despite the recent furore in the press we suffered no ill affects. In fact it was just like any other Palm Sunday. Cars drove past and totally ignored us.

In our parish we are given palms which are more or less in their natural state. In other words they are leaves not crosses.

As a youngster, we used to meet together a few days before Palm Sunday to fold the palm leaves into palm crosses. In my Anglican parish, I think as many bodies as possible were roped in to help with this - Mothers' groups, youth groups, Confirmation groups etc.

I looked through lots of videos to try and find one that explained clearly how to do this and this is the best I could find that showed the crosses as we used to make them. (There is no sound, it's not your speakers playing up!)

Getting serious now . ..

We've started our preparation for Easter seriously now. Number 1 son and I went to the cathedral yesterday evening for the Chrism Mass. It's very moving to see so many of our clergy gathered together and renewing the promises they made at ordination before the bishop.

The blessing of oils too is very powerful and it really helps to be able to relate this to the use of the same oils in our own parish throughout the year.

Back home fairly late but very happy and feeling somehow even more 'tuned-in' to continue along the familiar journey of the last few days of Holy Week and participate in the Easter Triduum.

I had to dash to the shops after work as I realised I had forgotten to buy any eggs. We always have eggs in some form for a light meal on Good Friday evening.

Just a few hours now until we go to the Mass of the Lord's Supper with the Washing of Feet. Thank goodness the Paterfamilias arrived home safely this morning after being overseas all week. He's catching a few 'zzzzzzzzzz's' in preparation for tonight.

Praying the weather forecast of rain tomorrow will be wrong or we'll all get very wet on our Walk of Witness in the morning. We'll still go, some years we just get wet!

Waiting ...

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.