holy days

Palm Sunday has just passed. Passover began this evening at sundown. Tomorrow marks the start of the Easter Triduum (three days). Our community will gather for Holy Thursday for a communion service, Good Friday for a meditation on the way of the cross, and Easter Vigil on Saturday evening to celebrate the resurrection. We'll finish things off with an Easter party and our traditional egg hunt for the kids.

As we gathered for our All Group meeting this past Sunday I reminded everyone that these are holy days. To be holy is to be set apart, and these days should be set apart for us. They should be set apart to tell & remember our Story. As a community we do this by gathering on consecutive evenings. I also encouraged everyone to find some way to personally mark these days, perhaps by reading the Gospel accounts of Christ's last days leading to his crucifixion and resurrection.

I am grateful to my parents (and my Catholic heritage) for instilling in me a profound appreciation for these days. Growing up we always had Good Friday off from school (Catholic school) and my dad always had off from work. Good Friday was observed as a somber day in our home. My parents' rule was that from noon to three o'clock on Good Friday there was to be silence in the house. No TV, no radio, no phone, not even casual conversation. We were strongly encouraged to take that time to meditate upon the cross. I remember every year looking through an old National Geographic magazine article about the Shroud of Turin and what the man on the cloth must have suffered. I would read the passion narratives in my bible. Then we would attend the three o'clock service at our church. That day for Catholics is a day of fasting (three small meals) and abstenance (no meat). I don't necessarily agree with manditory proscriptions such as these, but making a sacrifice on that day seemed appropriate. As was our family tradtion--cultural and "old" Catholic--we also abstained from meat & fasted on Holy Saturday as well until after attending the Easter Vigil service, then it was time to break the fast & celebrate with a late snack.

There is something special about these next few days and I always look forward to them every year. I'm greived somewhat that the business of work & life often interfere, but do my best nonetheless to set these days apart in my heart. I pray that you will find a way to do so too.