...And looking to you his heavenly father he took the bread into his sacred hands blessed it broke the bread and gave it to his Apostles saying "Take this all of you and eat it This is my Body which will be given up for you.."..( New Order of Mass Eurcharistic Prayer I (aka the Roman Missal Eurcharistic Prayer))Ok sorry for the religious overtones but this weekend for Western Sect Christians is the equivalent of the Jewish High Holy Days. Tonight was Holy Thursday also know as the Mass of the Last Supper. For Catholics this night is big because we celebrate the first night that JC quite literally said "Eat Me." ( man I'm going to have to explain that one in confession on Saturday.) In essence Catholics believe that when Jesus said this bread is my Body and this Wine is my Blood he meant it literally ( probably one of the only things we take literally.)and so by consuming Holy Communion we are bringing God into our body and hopefully letting his/her goodness motivate us. ( For some of us this ends at the parking lot, when 10 people cut us off, trying to get out.) The rituals this weekend tend to biggies. Tonight it began with the Washing of the feet, The Priest, repersenting the big man, strips off his fancy top layer (Chausable) and washed the feet of 12 parish memebers, symbolizing what JC did to his apostles at the last supper claiming that like him they would have to lower themselves to serve and help Humanity. Holy Communion, I explained, but after Communion instead of taking the un-eaten hosts to the Tabernacle (Storage area) on the old altar ( Up until 1970 Catholic Masses were said in Latin with the Priest's back to the crowd so older churches tend to have these huge Marble Altars against the back wall. Usually ornately decorated with Latin inscriptions.) We proces to a repsitory or temporary storage area, symbolizing JC's agony in the Garden and the fact that he is going to quite literally be taken away from us to go through the whole Good Friday thing. As this is being done the Altar is stripped bare and the Sanctuary light ( a red candle kept lit 363 days of the year to remind us God/JC is with us.) is extinguished, quite literally it is one of the most amazing and saddest nights in the year, because as the story goes we know that tomorrow this pretty cool, peaceful guy is going to die a humilating and painful death. ...alright Bob-o being a CCD teacher.... over.
Before part taking in the above ritual I managed to get down to the Y and turn out about 3000 yards...I felt pretty good. considering Yesterday I had a pretty crappy day and got cussed out by one of my customers and pretty much told that I was going to wreck our business in town...needless to say to express my frustation I posted a rather obsenity laced post which I deleted after about 10 min. after I cooled down so any one wondering why there is a comment bar with no post there it is.
Easter is almost upon us so you won't have to worry about me being a "religious wacko" I am not trying to convert anyone to Catholicism! ( A person's personal relationship with God* is between them and God*or whatever they believe in (the force, God, flying Spaghetti Monster.) ) Just figure I would share some of the stuff that I'm doing this weekend.
Pax con tibi ( Peace be with you.)
R.D.
1 comment:
Pax on your tibias too! I know this is a really significant time for you, so I want to thank you in advance for coming out to freeze your "little Bobs" off with me.
I would argue that the "eat me" thing isn't the only thing that SOME Christians take literally, but I think we've had that conversation already :).
Have a somber and significant good Friday. And if you get too sad about it, remember that just like any good Hollywood movie, the hero comes back to life in the end so we can all go home happy. Don't leave athletes' foot in the foot bathing pool! You have to say a LOT of Our Fathers to make up for that one.
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