Sadly there will be no debauchery on Spring Break for me, for those in the Western Sects of Christianity ( ie Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans, in general the Catholic Church and the Protestant offshoots. The Eastern Orthodox don't celebrate the end of Lent for another month.) Sunday marks the begining of Holy Week (Palm/Passion Sunday) which means from Thursday - Sunday the Shrine of St. Anne will become my second home for the weekend.
Thursday night we have the Mass of the Lord's Supper so pretty much we comemorate the first time the Apostles recieved Holy Communion, as well as the whole happenings of the Last night JC was "alive". Pretty much it's mass as usual accept for a lot of incense, washing 12 high level parish member feet, benediction, and stripping the altar bare.
Friday they do a Good Friday Service but I'm still at work like a good capitalist. Pretty much this is one of two days a year Fasting is highly encouraged due to the fact a pretty peaceful guy died a most violent and painful death.
Saturday: the Easter Vigil This is probably my favorite mass of the year for 3 reasons
1. Lots of music.
2. Everbody gets to play with fire.
3. It fufills my obligation for Easter Sunday so I don't have to cram in to a pew on Sunday with everybody who's like " Holy Shit it's Easter, time to go to church for the year." (technically up until 1904 this was the only Sunday Catholics were required to go to mass. If you went every week and feast day it was icing on the cake, granted that all changed with Pius X.)
This one tends to be a long one, all the adults who weren't baptized, communicated ( I know pulling out $2 words) , comfirmed as kids, or are just entering the faith recieve their sacraments
There are a lot or readings, we enter the church its dark with only the pascal candle lit then everyone gets a lit candle and finally once the priest does his whole opening we turn the lights up in the joint, a truly amazing experience. Also the opening and closing prayers are sung, depending on the priest and the deacon, this could be a good or tramuatizing experience.
Sunday: All hands on deck!
Easter Sunday tends to be one of the busiest Sundays in the liturgical year, apparently even in our secular material culture we still equate Easter with religion, although some people use this as a time to show one up man ship on how much they spent on Easter clothes. Hint: You can tell the people who go to mass fairly reguarly from those who goes once a year, those of us that go fairly reguarly aren't as decked up, the yearly's have the huge hats, bright new dresses/ suits, decked out to the 9's (my philosophy hey God saw me naked, and a bright shade of purple the day I was born it can't get worse than that. Easter and Christmas I might throw on a nice sweater or polo.)
Anyhoo it won't matter because all servers and EM's are on staff because if its packed we're going to need everybody. So if anyone goes to St. Anne's onThursday, Saturday or Sunday I'll be the rather tall fellow in red, with a white frilly thing, playing with incense.
Ok now that I have gone on about theology and ritual way too much I'm going to go get intouch with my secular self.
I booked my Hotel for Eagleman and took Angry's advice (You can't go wrong with marriott.) I'm looking into Hotels for the Patriot and Providence. ( just because I'm bringin' my entourage and I don't want to eat Claire out of house and home.)
Also I got an email back from Catherine and she is now finding herself in the market for a new road bike ( let the bike pjorn start flowing.) for a couple of long rides in Nov. and Feb. Possibly an Ironman in March? Time will tell. Also perliminary investigation of my poll sense most of my readers seem to think I will not be able to limit my spending to a $150 crank set, sadly I am starting to agree with them , and have not gone along with it as of yet. Aero wheels are tempting, dura ace is screaming, carbon fiber.....ok Bob cold shower you'll buy a full carbon Stomper when you graduate and get a real job.....or you stomp the field at Eagleman and get sponsored by Specialized ( maybe possibly, hopefully, I start riding again in t-minus 9 days.) But as of now I am not throwing down on a new bike, although an ultegra crank and aero wheels are tempting.....it will only happen if I get my debt to income ratio back to a semi-comfortable level.
Also to answer a comment made on if I'll be doing a North American Ironman in 09 I'm debating doing Placid or Louisville but I definitely plan on going back to Taupo. (saving as I speak) (I'll most likely end up doing Placid, but Louisville might suit my cycling style a little better, also cost Placid I can shoot up for a weekend and drive home, unlike Louisville where I'm looking at a week and airfare. If I qualify for Kona or have a shot to qualify then cost will win out.) There might be a possibility of 3 IM's for Bob-o in 09 but the economy/ Job promotion or upgrade/ income to debt ratio are the deciding factors in that one.
Well that's my daily rant.
The long winded one.
R.D.
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2 comments:
Reading your post you made a liturgical/high church sort of easter Holy Week sound quite intriguing. Not having of any sort of liturgical bent in my non-denominational protestant ways, I am convinced that I may have to spend one of these Holy Weeks visiting a church that does more vigil/formal sorts of things. Thanks for the insight.
Poop! And I was hoping you'd be free on Friday! (I wanted to drag you along on some loops around the lake).
I think it's better to be spending money you don't have on things that are cheaper (Disney World marathon and CLAIRE) than things that are more expensive (Taupo, Malaysia, whatever, and NO CLAIRE).
Anyway, good luck on that promotion. Hopefully God will take note of all the extra work you're doing for him this week and pay back the favor...
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