Holy Week 2007: Holy Saturday

(See 2006 post)

Headache gone (!) (Imitrex --> all day nap) and allergy meds once again held out for the duration against lilies and incense. I was more fortunate than others; there was lots of sneezing and coughing in all of the incensed services this weekend.

Unlike previous years with warm Carolina spring weather, the temperature was in the low 40's by the start of the Vigil. Folks threw jackets and coats over "Easter dresses" & suits as we assembled by the new fire. I'd put a couple of old palm crosses in before the fire was lit -- adding their energy to the light of the Christ candle.

In addition to singing the "Song of Miriam" (rousing duet) and "Lord, You have the words of everlasting life" (solo), I also got to read the opening OT reading (Genesis 1:1-2:2.) "In the beginning" at the beginning (after the Exulset, of course...) Yay.

We had a small RCIA class this year -- 4 candidates for full communion and one elect. It was quite dramatic and moving to watch our elect slowly, very slowly, add water to her baptismal font as we sang "Come to the Water."

Sometimes institutional memory is a very good thing: Everything that needed to happen happened, even with a few errors in the program. We just adjusted as needed.

We sang the Becker Litany for the first time--very pretty. In the category of minor miracles, I would include the discovery that a young lady who has sung this several times before showed up just as we were discovering that we needed another experienced voice. It was lovely.

I decided to take the lesson of "when in Rome" (see below) that I heard clearly at Fire at the Beach in 2005. I'm still not fond of "Lord of the Dance," but our Padre is and so I sang along with the rest of the choir this year on all the verses.

Home just after midnight -- I skipped the IHOP breakfast outing so as to be back at the Chapel at 8 AM.

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Posted at Open Book in December 2005, as part of a "What Did You Hear?" thread that addressed common complaints about music in the liturgy:

One reason it took our family so long to swim the Tiber was a recognition of what so many commenters have said--there's a lot of not-so-good-music out there in Catholic churches, especially when compared with what one can hear at larger Protestant churches. I don't think that this is just because of lack of trained musicians, or constantly changing alternatives in the annually revised songbooks from OCP, etc. I think that there is also less of a tradition of congregational singing--the full-voiced, multi-part, deeply-felt singing that one would hear for "A Mighty Fortress" or "Wonderful Grace of Jesus" or lots of the Fanny Crosby songbook. Maybe even for "Go Tell It On The Mountain"? I see plenty of Catholics sitting in pews week after week, not singing anything!

I get to hear Michael Dubriel speak on "Developing a Spirituality of the Eucharist" this past fall at a Eucharistic Conference in SC. One of his themes was "When in Rome..." and it addressed complaining and criticizing what you see and hear in church, rather than looking for ways to focus on the essentials--we are being presented with Jesus-body, blood, soul and divinity! He didn't say to ignore abuses or to not strive to improve what can be fixed, but I really appreciated Michael's
reminder that we are not there to be entertained. To get the most out of the Eucharist, we must bring ourselves to God and be prepared to put aside anything that seems to rival God in importance.