Catching up, part 2

Despite the extra day's reprieve provided by going to a Christian university (we got Friday AND Monday off), its back to business and sleep-deprivation. But I still wanted to post my experience of my Easter Vigil (and the new translation changes). So to start off, here is a video used to practice the Exsultet, the Easter Proclamation typically sung by a deacon, at the start of the Vigil. Being a baritone, I'm more partial to lower registers, so this video, provided by Youtube (you can find anything on there), is a lower pitch, but still amazingly beautiful. Of course, it's the new translation:

Source: Youtube

And here is a side-by-side comparison of the old and new translations of the Exsultet provided someone with more experience and better capabilities than me. Listening to the Exsultet is kind of...haunting...and beautiful. It is the great proclamation of the Church, and I love that the new translation is more faithful to the original Latin, like all the new translation. The imagery is much more beautiful and more appropriate to the Church's arguably highest Mass of the year.

The seven readings spanning salvation history is great. Just great. I learned that originally there were actually twelve readings, but has since been reduced. I'm really glad that my parish went with all seven readings instead of reducing it to four, it definitely made for a much better liturgy. I was also blessed to be with one of my good friends, and last Saturday was his first Easter Vigil. I wanted him to experience this liturgy at its finest, and my parish did a great job in that respect. They did take some creative liberty in regards to the psalms, which was definitely interesting. But to focus on those seven readings, each reading focuses on salvation history, or those instances in history where God has intervened and saved his people from whatever was troubling them. There's the story of God staying the hand of Abraham as he was about to offer his only son, Isaac, as sacrifice. And then there's the story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea as they escape the wrath of Pharaoh. And then we have prophesies from Isaiah, Baruch and Ezekiel. All proclaiming God's mercy and salvation history. All of this leads up to the greatest moment in salvation history, where God sends his only Begotten Son, to suffer and die on a cross for mankind, and rises from the dead three days later to complete that salvation.

To continue the joyous celebration of this Mass, the Church welcomes those who journeyed hard and long to join the Church. At Easter Vigil, those elect seeking to become Catholic, are reborn in the waters of Baptism, completed by the Spirit in their Confirmation, and receive the spiritual food for their new journey in Holy Communion. My friend leaned over to me during the baptisms to ask me why they did Baptism, Confirmation, and then Eucharist when, normally, children go through the sacraments of Initiation in order of Baptism, Eucharist, and then Confirmation. I didn't give him a good answer then, but I have a better one. The Sacraments of Initiation were originally done in the order of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. In much of the Stateside Church (some dioceses are changing their policies in accordance with the desire of the Pope), Confirmation is seen as a "choosing to be Catholic" kind of sacrament, so its done later in a child's life, typically the teenage years, after First Communion. But traditionally, Confirmation is supposed to a completion and perfection of your Baptism. In the olden days, Confirmation was done after Baptism, when a child reaches the age of awareness, and then would receive First Communion after. It is was thought that Baptism and Confirmation were both necessary before one could receive Christ in the Eucharist, as the latter completed the promises of the former. I think its for this reason that at Easter Vigil, the elect go from being baptized, to be confirmed, and finally to receiving First Communion. At my parish, as my mentioned before, we welcomed 12 and it was glorious. My favorite part of all of Easter Vigil is at First Communion. I love watching the faces of the "young'uns" as they receive Christ, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, for the first time. Their faces light up and its so obvious how happy they are. I think we could all learn from this, to always be as happy as they were, when we go to receive Christ.

Anyways, I think I've gone on long enough. If you happen to read this, I hope that you learned something and take something away from it. Happy Easter!

Catching up

Happy Easter everybody! And I'll probably be saying that from now until the Easter season is actually over. Why? Because it's a really important statement. Happy Easter...rejoice in the Resurrection, renew your baptismal promises, reinvigorate your life in Christ. It's a small phrase with a whole lot of meaning.

Anywho, now that the weekend is over, I can finally take a breather and catch up on things. More importantly, I get the opportunity to reflect on all that has happened these last few days. It seems almost surreal if you think about it. In such a small amount of time, you go from watching Christ suffer and die on a cross, to celebrating the strengthening of the Church at Easter Vigil, and then to experiencing the joy of the Resurrection at Easter. For me, it seemed like it was almost too much to take in, too much to try to comprehend. I felt like I needed more time in between, more time to digest each little detail. But then again, this is how we believe these chain of events actually unfolded. Its easy for me to say "I need more time to understand", being 2000 years later. But what of Christ's disciples? They WERE there when they crucified my Lord, and nailed him to a tree, and laid him in a tomb. But they WERE also there when He came to then again after three days, hidden away in that upper room. They experienced all these things, one after another, firsthand. Whatever my feelings were, theirs were a million times more. Aside from the revelations of the Prophets, I think thats why Christ rose again on the third day. Because having him leave us was so painful, any longer and it would have been unbearable. Of course, that's just the random thinking of a sleep-deprived college kid, but it would make sense to me. Here is a question every Christian should ask: if I have truly experienced the saving love of Christ, how can I do anything else without it?

My parish was blessed to have Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, at our Good Friday service. Listening to his homily, he is obviously a gifted theologian and even better at conveying that theology to his flock. The Veneration of the Cross, I think, is one of the most beautiful traditions of the Church. I saw people, young and old, get down on their knees to kiss or reverence this cross, these pieces of wood. Now we all know that the cross was only a representation of the True Cross, but the amount of piety and devotion and love towards that cross was so amazingly overwhelming, as if our cross were the True Cross itself. It just goes to show the power of Christ, Christ who was able to turn a symbol of death into arguably the greatest symbol of love. As it always is, Good Friday is anything but "good", but it was necessary...for you and for me.

Source: Youtube

Easter Vigil...to be continued

2,391!!!

It's been a long day, and an even longer Easter Vigil, with my home parish of CtR welcoming 12 people into the Church. But it was all so amazingly worth it. Also, as heard from His Eminence, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston welcomed 2,391 people into the Church this evening. All God's people rejoice and sing alleluia! So just a quick note before I'm off to Lala-land....Happy Happy Happy Easter everyone. Jesus Christ is risen today, alleluia!

"God is in the Details"

Its a day late, but I was up late last night messing with this blog, so here is my very first post on Holy Thursday.

First things first, as you may know, this is the first Triduum using the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal and I was really excited to see what the changes were. To be completely objective...it was long. The new translation certainly takes alot longer to say and the syntax is definitely much more complicated. However, it was beautiful. Sure, I'm sure alot of us were getting tired and weren't paying as much attention to the words as we should have, but it was beautiful. The language was more spiritual in nature and certainly invoked a feeling of "old" or even "ancient", just like the new translation, which is more faithful to the original Latin, was meant to do. As always, the liturgical team at my home parish did an excellent job for the liturgy. However, being the somewhat more traditional Catholic that I am, I would not have been opposed to more incense! Incense, representing our prayers rising to heaven, should be used for more than just incensing the altar and the people, but I digress.

My parish priest gave an excellent homily, one that truly helped the congregation focus on the details of the Paschal Triduum. He said that "God is in the details". Not the details of the liturgy, such as making sure everyone is where they need to be for the Washing of the Feet or that there is enough hosts or that all the ministers are doing their jobs, although all the things are important and lend to a good liturgy. The true details of these Three Days, the true importance lies in all the little details of the Gospel that we may miss:

"So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist."

Everyone knows Holy Thursday by the Washing of the Feet during the Last Supper. But there is a crucial detail that we might miss when we are trying to look at the big picture. Here our Lord and our God, our Creator and Redeemer, goes down on his hands and knees to wash the feet of his disciples. As Christ later says, we have been "given a model to follow, so that as [He] has done for [us], [we] should also do". If the Saviour of the World could humble himself in service to us, how could we not do the same for others?

The Celebration of the Lord's Supper is an important liturgy. It is here that the institution of the Holy Eucharist happens. It is here when Christ acknowledges his coming death. And we must pay close attention to these lessons. But it is also here where Christ washes the feet of his disciples. But sometimes we overlook that He had to get on his knees to do it. For us as Christians, and as Catholics, being on ours knees is a sign of our  humility and that is where we are strongest, where we pray and give thanks to our God, and where we must serves others.

Final note: last night, I had the opportunity to sit in Adoration for an hour before the Blessed Sacrament was reposed at midnight. It was dark in our chapel, but there was so much light there, light from the people who came to pray and worship even in the dead of night, to spend time with the Lord. I remember seeing this couple walking up to the tabernacle and just kneeling in front of it. I remember the woman crying as I walked into Adoration just a few minutes earlier. I couldn't help but wonder what it was that was troubling them, that they felt they needed to be so close to Him. I stared at them for awhile and just prayed for them. They obviously found amazing comfort in just being in that sacred space and being so close to our Lord. So here is another detail that we overlook, another one that we take for granted: as Catholics, we are beyond lucky, to have the opportunity to be so close to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We all have asked for and wondered God's presence, but He has always been there, in the tabernacle or on the altar, in the form of bread and wine...His Body and Blood.

And we will see Him again today...as a sacrifice for our sins. May the Almighty bless you all with strength today. I know I will need it...watching True Love die.

Dominus vobiscum.

Whoops...Renovations

So I know no one is really reading this blog, but just in case someone happened to stumble upon it (by the way, stumbleupon.com = great site for procrastinating college students), I apologize for the many many many template changes. I was playing around with everything.