Holy Week Recap

It was a short Lent but a long Holy Week, particularly the Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Even. It was also the first time I've done the whole dog-and-pony show and it wore.me.out.

Don't get me wrong, I loved it. I was moved to tears on more than one occasion...it was just long.

Loooooong.

Like, Wagner's-Ring-Cycle-as-performed-by-an-opera-company-wherein-the-entire
-cast-was-under-the-influence-of-Quaaludes long.

The high point, of course, was Easter Vigil. Why didn't anyone tell me how kick-you-in-the-face fantastic Easter Vigil was? It's bloody brilliant. There's a processional WITH FIRE and you can bring your own bell and ring the hell out of it when the Resurrection is declared plus baptisms PLUS getting spritzed by holy water on a rosemary OUT OF NOWHERE (okay, I could have done with some warning on that one, I squealed like a frightened spider monkey). It's fantastic, even for austere, Benedictine me.

However, there are no short vigils and I was getting mighty antsy as we rolled through the second hour of service. Visions of pancakes and warm beds danced in my head...and then Alleluia! The Lord Has Risen Indeed! and it was all worth it. It's like the last sixteen minutes of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. The whole piece is beautiful and about oh, forty hours long --okay, 74 minutes-- but my God, is the ending worth it