CHRIST IS RISEN!!!!!!!
The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia

For my reflections on the Triduum, see my blogs4God spiel on it.

Holy Week is a *BIG* week for liturgically-minded Christians and is part of the reason why I love Lent so much. I missed Palm Sunday worship and actually regret this because it’s an ecumenical procession at St. Paul’s and (like everything else worship-related) is a HUGE deal. I thankfully did make it to Maundy Thursday though I didn’t go up for the foot-washing. My evil cold was awful that night and I did spend quite a bit of time in the sacristy coughing up a lung, but thankfully we had stations for communion and intinction was an option. Our choir anthem was fantastic and I made it through our practice afterward.

Good Friday was the Tres Oras service at noon and my choir had the first four “words”. (You do a hymn, a reading, a part of LBW Hymn 112 [“Jesus in Thy Dying Woes”], a sermon, an anthem, and a prayer for each of the 7 last “words” of Jesus. A “word” is a saying from the Cross. Each segment is 25 minutes and the service is 3 hours long.) I made it through the words for the most part, though I did have to leave and cough up a lung occasionally. The Episcopal rector co-presided and preached the first sermon which was GOOD. The fourth one was the UCC pastor in town and he also did well because his sermon was personable and down to earth. Our music was fabulous and really captured the whole “mourning” theme. I was also exposed to some of the Easter lilies which added nasal congestion on to what I was suffering. I cam home and went to sleep as the Coridicin HBP I’d taken was making me dopey, and I slept through the Tenebrae service (in this case, a dramatic reading of John’s Gospel) that night.

We had nothing for Holy Saturday (mostly because we have a Sunrise Service and full music for the 8:00 service); but Sunday morning was glorious. I was still dealing with my cold (though doing better) and I made it through each service OK as I had my inhaler, a SlugMug of water, and cough drops with me in the pew. The music went well and we had organ with full brass for most of it. After the 8:00 service, the choir people got the remnants of Easter Breakfast and I had some time to chill. We went and spent lunch and most of the afternoon with a family from the church who had also adopted us for Thanksgiving.

You’ve also probably noticed the new layout which is a sunrise one for Easter. The layout is called “Christos aneste!” and the sunrise is because the resurrection was discovered at sunrise on the third day.