He is Risen indeed!

Triduum thoughts:

This was the first year I found myself aware - very aware - of the continuous liturgical flow from Holy Thursday to Evening Prayer of Easter Sunday. The unresolved tension hovered in the background throughout the last few days and was finally put to rest when I laid the breviary down last night. Easter, of course, continues through the Octave this week, then throughout the season until Pentecost, and so on until the Lord returns in glory, but the Triduum is complete and it feels great. The Chrism Mass feels like it was a month ago.

We have a stellar group of altar servers, boys and girls, who performed absolutely perfectly throughout all of the things. It is a joy to watch them carrying on with one another, especially when we all sit down to eat. You have to feed kids if you’re going to ask for their extended help through rehearsals and whatnot, and filling an entire table with umpteen kids and a handful of adults felt very much like what it was: a big family meal. You would have thought everyone was related. To be sure, there are several sibling groups in the mix but the kids all act like an giant group of cousins or something. It was great to watch.

The groupchat of my diaconal cohort was lively throughout - posting pictures and comments. Someone’s hair briefly caught fire during the Lumen Christi but it sounds like it was over quickly. Most of us were able to reconnect and catch-up in person at last week’s assembly. We got to do it again at a reception prior to the Chrism Mass. I’m glad that we’re all keeping in touch. Everyone’s assignments have all turned out to be so very different. The parishes all have different characters and populations, multiple pastoral styles and organizations, different levels of…well, wealth. Some are huge with extensive staffs and budgets to match. Others are smaller. I am fond of telling people that the Church is A Big Tent in terms of piety and spiritualities; I’m learning just how big the tent really is.

Bookwise: Proust continues. So far so good. I can see that I’ll be digging into this for a while.

Weather: Cool but nice. Managed to get some yardwork in this weekend. We’ll pass our Last Frost date here shortly and then plant with impunity. Most of the perennials have come back nicely but I’ll need to replace the lavender. The new trees seem to be doing well. We got a nice bit of rain on Saturday night and the cool temps are helping a bunch.