Holy Saturday
I am a Catholic by choice. I was confirmed at the Easter vigil mass 15 years ago and one of my favourite times of year is this Mass. I love the ritual and tradition that comes with this mass. The fire, the candles and incense- ahh the incense and the bells. I love the Litany of Saints and I love the 'Light of Christ*thanks be to God' but sadly in our church, *the powers that be*, have decided not to have candles but to have torches instead. I remember when people would walk down the centre aisle and light candles that the congregation were holding and that light would be passed from person to person. I ask you, how does that work with a torch????? it doesn't. The reason behind this decision is that the carpet will get spoiled due to candle wax spilling - oh puhlease ! I also remember one year when the collection plate came around - as well as putting in my money, I also put in an easter egg for our priest. He was delighted! He always said to me - that just because we believe in God, it doesn't mean that we can't have a little fun every now and then. Even at the end of a meeting, he would take out the bottle of port and say that we were at our 'spiritual' part of the meeting. And he would proceed to pour himself a small glass of port. How I loved Father Michael !!! - in those days, he truly was my spiritual mentor. I grew up in a very strict Church of England family and our minister, Mr Rawson who was about 103, preached hell, fire and brimstone every Sunday. I never could quite grasp that if God is Love, why the the fright?
I liked this when I found it:what happened on Saturday?
posted by Miss Robyn | 6:29 am
6 Comments:
I too am a converted catholic. Although I have become quite lax in my catholicism, I do love the pomp and pagentry of these special holidays too. Unfortunately, our church does not do inscense which I miss terribly. I find the smells and sounds to be quite spiritual in their own rite. If I walk into a church that smells of insense, I am transformed immediately into a much more meditative state.
Dont you just hate it that so many beautiful old traditions of the Church are being abandoned for silly reasons? How can the ceremony of light be the same with torches? Utterly ridiculous. We dont need carpet in churches. What happened to the lovely polished wood floors or in my day...cold stone floors! Is church getting to comfortable?
While not a Catholic, our little church on the hill is quite 'high church', and we did the candle thing too- only each candle had a little paper circle collar around it- I thought to save our little Sunday School fingers from being dripped upon or burnt, but maybe they could save your church carpet and tradition at the same time?
I do hate when traditions get squashed by silliness! There was an article in my newspaper on Good Friday, about a church here where they stood on a three foot high step ladder to light candles on a chandeleir, but they had to install a mechanism that cost thousands to lower the chandeleir to them instead!
I enjoyed the part about Father Michael, the chocolate egg and the port.
Happy Easter!
I was raised a Catholic - but one side of the family was Anglican and the other Catholic. These days I am an Anglican and I mourn the passing - apart from an exceptional few in both traditions - of the Easter Vigil mass. I grew up with a twice yearly midnight dose of incense and candles and I am addicted. I think of the times we turned up for Midnight Mass when we had been at a dance or at dinner - and brought our non-church going friends. Most Anglican churches seem to have a dawn service these days - but its a bit difficult to bring your non-church going friends and get them out of bed for a 6am or 6.30am start on a chilly Melbourne morn. I don't think there has been enough thinking through of the role of the celebratory Midnight Masses in spreading the good news. Like the torches, there is too much self-centered thinking. The powers that be are not thinking about the impact of the liturgy on others. Torches are not going to do it. But candles and incense will. Our dawn vigil was beautiful this morning - but not as beautiful as a Midnight celebration. But after six decades of midnight masses, one can still participate in something new. To-day, placed in every pew were bells of some sort. There were decorative swiss cow bells. There were those jingle bells on bands like tamborines. All sorts of bells. And as the church was lit up with the gloria we rang our little hearts out on our bells and at the recession at the end of the service we rang them out again as the church bells rang outside. This was new to me. But it was a joyous expression on a truly celebratory occasion.
I think the 'fright' because hell is very real and one person headed there is one to many...for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son....oh that each person would recognize and repent of sin personally and choose God's way.
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