Still Alive
Dan is back home from his ski trip with Heather's family; the boys are back at school, and I'm spending most of my time at the office. So life isn't all that exciting for me, outsite of grinding it out at the office.
Easter weekend was a nice break. Dan had an unusual gig - he earned $25 playing double bass at the Easter Vigil at St. John's Basilica. His bass teacher lined it up. I went thinking I was going to the usual Saturday Night service. 2 1/2 hours later, it was pretty clear I was wrong.
I've been to a lot of Catholic services, but this was the most full-dress, no-holds-barred high mass that I had ever attended. The whole liturgy was chanted, all responses were sung, and there were 10 readings, not to mention the hymms with a chamber orchestra, choir and organ. The service started with all of the lights off, making it very spooky. Then the presiding priest led in four or five assistants with maybe a dozen altar boys and candles, lighting the congregants candles as they went. After a while the lights came on.
Oh, and they had 7 baptisms and they confirmed maybe a dozen teenagers.
We went to the Easter Sunday service the next day at our Methodist church. It didn't seem long at all, after the vigil!
It's time for me to get ready for work. You should check out this YouTube video Dan put together, with music, of him skiing with Heather. It's the next best thing to being there:
Easter weekend was a nice break. Dan had an unusual gig - he earned $25 playing double bass at the Easter Vigil at St. John's Basilica. His bass teacher lined it up. I went thinking I was going to the usual Saturday Night service. 2 1/2 hours later, it was pretty clear I was wrong.
I've been to a lot of Catholic services, but this was the most full-dress, no-holds-barred high mass that I had ever attended. The whole liturgy was chanted, all responses were sung, and there were 10 readings, not to mention the hymms with a chamber orchestra, choir and organ. The service started with all of the lights off, making it very spooky. Then the presiding priest led in four or five assistants with maybe a dozen altar boys and candles, lighting the congregants candles as they went. After a while the lights came on.
Oh, and they had 7 baptisms and they confirmed maybe a dozen teenagers.
We went to the Easter Sunday service the next day at our Methodist church. It didn't seem long at all, after the vigil!
It's time for me to get ready for work. You should check out this YouTube video Dan put together, with music, of him skiing with Heather. It's the next best thing to being there:
posted by Joe at 4:47 AM
3 Comments:
It sounds like a wonderful Easter Mass. There aren't enough priests in our area for everybody to have Easter Mass so this year we had a vigil mass on Saturday night which I promptly FORGOT! On Easter morning, I remembered . . .
I love that long vigil Mass when it is well done. Ben was baptised at that Mass. I hope the Cantors were good.
Loved the u-tube. I played it for Grandma and she cried.
It was a beautiful service. The Cantor wasn't great, but she wasn't terrible, and the music, incense, and ceremony made up for it.
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