GETTING READY FOR THE TRIDUUM

Tonight begins the Sacred Triduum.  For anybody who may not be aware, St. Sebastian has a YouTube Channel HERE where you can see our Triduum live-streamed.  

One of the things St. Sebastianites will miss out on is our annual setting out of our Passion clock.  I saw one of these online YEARS ago - Fr. Pfeiffer was still here.  (I hope you don't mind that I stole your idea.  If you want credit let me know friends - I'd gladly post it.  Maybe send a picture of yours so I can show how a well done one looks like!)  I found an old, broken clock at a junk store down in Portage Lakes (not too far from our friend at St. Francis de Sales) - $5 - ordered at twenty four hour clock movement - $12 - and spent several days drawing the face.

As you can see, it starts with the Last Supper at 6 o'clock (where 3 o'clock normally is) and goes for twenty four hours until Christ is laid in the sepulcher.

Here is where I would normally write that, because of the Triduum and Easter I might not be posting for a spell (and still might not) but since things are little strange - sometimes busier than every before, sometimes oddly quiet - who know, I might just post again durning this time.

Many blessing on you all!

SO THAT YOU CAN FOCUS ON PRAYER

As you get ready to go to church today, what might have been going on there already to make ready for your day of prayer?  

Pianos and organs being tuned.

Server practice taking place.

Priests, deacons and MCs going over the ceremony.

Flowers being delivered, unpacked and stored.

Sacristans setting the altar and preparing everything that will be needed.

Cleaning crews making sure everything looks good.

The lady that comes in to “straiten the missalettes.”

Musicians setting up and getting ready.

Sound checks.

Ushers preparing materials, receiving instructions and getting ready to greet you.

Homlies being touched up.

People stopping by just to pray.

This and more!  Say a prayer for all of the people who tried to make you prayer this Triduum something that you could attend and focus on prayer instead of everything that needed to be done.

THANK YOU TEAM!

GOD BLESS!

WHO SAYS CATHOLICS ARE FUN?

A friend gave this to me the other day.   It is a liturgical device that has fallen on sad times as of late.  Can you imagine taking something so fun and getting rid of it from the liturgy???  Getting rid of this device from the liturgy to an alter server would be equivalent to getting rid of roller coasters at the amusement park.

 

What young server in his right mind wouldn't give his eye tooth to create a racket in church that would surely cause someone to look both shocked and perturbed while being the envy over everyone under the age of 16?  We bring in drums and banjos, but we ban this amazing little creature.

 

It is called a crotalus.  You may recognize it from its close cousin that often makes appearances at New Year's Eve parties.  The handle is connected to a ridged sprocket around which a weighted tongue is spun making a terribly delightful noise.

It has a some other close relatives such as seesaw device that has a wooden hammer on it or another that looks strangely like a castanet.  These were (are) used during the sacred Triduum.  As the bells are (supposed to be) silenced from the Gloria on Maundy Thursday until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil, these unpleasant, racket making devices were used to take their place.  At the least it certainly let one know that this Mass was unlike any other of the year.  And it made sure there was at least one server who was excited about serving that day.

 

To not use it anymore just seems mean like taking the beach away from the ocean.

ARE WE GETTING THIS RITE?

Maundy Thursday went off almost with no hitches, which is about as good as it gets.  It was well attended, though I admit that I have daydreams (at inappropriate times) that Catholics in general become so aware of their dignity, so grateful for their salvation, so in touch with the love of God that we cannot hold them all in the church building for such a celebration.

 

But that would cause problems of its own.

 

Champagne problems, but problems.

 

I like champagne problems.

 

After it was all done, our Blessed Lord was reposed and our valiant Knights of Columbus retired the watch (they are SO cool) I headed back to the rectory to text Fr. Pfeiffer, our former parochial vicar, who is having his first ever solo Triduum celebration at his parish as pastor. 

 

>So . . .  Howd it go?

 

You would have wept.

 

>Out of jealousy, pride, or embarrassment?

 

Pride.

 

And a little bit of jealousy.  ;>)

 

Seems my downy feathered curate has shed his baby priest feathers and begun to fly.  I guess I can say I am a proud father.  (Father as in priest that is, not dad.)

 

One of the things I was most excited about at our celebration was the presence of so many families who happen to like to and normally attend our extraordinary form Mass.  When Pope emeritus Benedict (God love him) gave broad permissions for this form of the rite to be celebrated, it was his vision that it be fully integrated within the life of a parish that would joyfully celebrate both forms of the Mass and sacraments.  (We also have baptisms, and weddings in the extraordinary form.  The diocese is working something out for confirmation.) 

 

I am not one to try to win anyone over to either rite.  I like them both.  I have a hard time understanding why there are people who are rather extreme on their position for either.  I think St. Sebastian could be seen as an example of that which Benedict envisioned: people spending time at the rite they prefer (or Mass time! – odd to see a 4:30 Saturday person at a 9:00 Sunday morning ordinary form!), but being open to attending the other rite when the situation warrants it without much fuss.  Last night gave me much hope that we are on the “rite” track.

WHAT IF WE SERVED FREE BEER?

So a group of priests were talking about the Triduum services – from Maundy Thursday through the Easter Vigil.  One thing lamented was that there were not more people at these various celebrations.  (Apparently we were a bit better attended than many other parishes for these specific events.)  So the conversation turned naturally to what can be done to increase attendance.  Some of the suggestions were to adjust the times.  7:00PM was too late for Thursday, 3:00 is too early on Friday, and the Easter Vigil (in our diocese it was decreed that we have this Mass at 9:15) was too late.  All of the times should be adjusted in order to make them more convenience and therefor more attractive.

 

The Easter Vigil was critiqued for being too long which exacerbated the problem of it starting rather late.  Also Thursday and Friday were too penitential and Saturday was not celebratory (or relevant) enough.

 

“If we begin the Easter Vigil before it is night out will anybody go to hell?” was put forth.  Well, no.  At least not for that reason simply.  But then again, why do we do anything?  What if we didn’t make the Sign of the Cross with holy water in the way into church?  Would God consign the Church to hell for no longer doing this?  What if we bowed instead of genuflected before the Blessed Sacrament?  Will Divine Justice want us to suffer the eternal fires of hell for this?  What if the priest faced sideways instead of facing the same way or confronting the people?  None of these would bring on eternal damnation.  But we do these things just the same and sometimes it is damn inconvenient.  But people in love do things that are damn inconvenient, extravagant, and sometimes silly by a practical standpoint.

 

Granted that we do not want to put anything too taxing in the way of celebrating the mysteries of the faith.  Conversely we don’t want to make the practice of the faith trivial.  (If you have time and nothing else more important to you is happening, consider, maybe, coming to Mass.)  As one of the priests present (later) put it, “I don’t want it to be more convenient for those who were not there in order to make it so that they come and keep looking at their watches considering when they might escape.  Like Midnight Mass or Thanksgiving Day Mass, only those who really want to be there are there.”  All true love is sacrificial.  If you want assurances that you will be out in under an hour at a convenient time, come on Sunday. 

 

This is not to put down the Easter Sunday goers.  You are there!  Sad are those who cannot bother to celebrate and thank God with their brothers and sisters at all.  It is for this latter set that it seems we always want to make concessions to at least get them in the pew.  But how many concessions can one make before you have nothing grand to say? 

MONDAY DIARY: SO I WOKE UP ON SPY WEDNESDAY WITH A SORE THROAT SURE THAT IT WAS STREP

It is very quiet.

There are no school children around. No secretaries. No janitors or maintenance personnel. Most of the seminarians that have been staying with us over Easter have vamoosed. While filling Sebastian’s water bowl my phone fell out of my pocket and right into the water so THAT’S not working. We have for all intents and purposes fallen off the face of the earth.

It is a guilty pleasure.

One of the seminarians, Joe, asked me if I was going to take an Emmaus Day. In his country the priests all disappear on the Monday after Easter calling it the Emmaus Day to relax and recharge. I am not going anywhere. This is one of maybe five or six days out of the entire year that the rectory is empty and I fully intend to enjoy it.

The Triduum went well. All the rehearsing and work by our behind the scenes people paid off. We looked like we knew what we were doing. Mundy Thursday went without too much of anything by way of hitches but then again Fr. Pfeiffer had the Mass. My job was to be decorative altar furniture and sit next to our pastor emeritus.

I was plenty nervous about Good Friday having to remember everything that had to happen with the rubric changes. Reading the Passion we had a Federal Prosecutor reading the part of the Voice. He read it well. “Truth! What is truth?!” I felt like I was on the set of Perry Mason. It took everything within me not to smile.

Most of the “difficulties” happened at the Easter Vigil. Fortunately most of them happened in the dark so nobody saw them. Entering the church the Paschal candle went out about which we were alerted by a concerned parishioner in much the same way somebody might have brought to our attention a raging fire in the basement of the church.

We lost one of the priests in the initial darkness of the procession and after the third “Christ our light!” the Paschal candle took off before the servers could light their tapers which they were to use to light all of the candles at the shrines. They went off chasing the candle into the sanctuary.

Half way through the offertory the music stopped. We still had a bit to go through. The altar had yet to be incensed and we just kept continuing on in silence. I was thinking to myself, “Well, I am not going to hurry this along simply because there is no music! I wish they would at least fill with something!” As it turned out, the organ, once again, just stopped playing – some sort of computer failure - not unusual as of late unfortunately.

The organ is being ripped out tomorrow.

I’m not kidding.

At the end the choir invites the congregation to sing the Halleluiah Chorus and then the priests stand in back and shake hands and wish people a Happy Easter. We change, lock up (just in time as it turns out. The alarms came on shortly after) and then, as is our tradition, we headed over to the rectory and had a shot or two of slivovitz and had a play by play recounting of the night laughing about things that went wrong (or right.) Sebastian still needed to go for a walk and so the lot of us, priests and seminarians, took the dog for his nightly airing out before all good clergy headed off to bed.

Easter Sunday was packed. Chairs needed to be brought up from the basement. Altar servers turned out in droves. “Can you use another server?” “Sure! The more the merrier!” So the Masses grew in numbers of ministers and in pomp. In some ways they went better than the vigil – though they were far less complicated.

The day ended with a friend coming over to share a bottle of Easter wine. Before he left I said, “You know, the organ is being ripped out on Tuesday. Do want to go climbing?” He was game and so we went exploring into the inner chambers of the organ.

“Stay here,” I told him sitting on a perch among the pipes, “And I’ll go play a march and you can see what it is like in the organ chamber when it is playing.” So I opened her up and gave her all that she is worth. It is a neat thing to experience. Instead of sound simply coming out of a speaker, thousands of flutes or pipes all around you play their individual notes and sounds in an orchestrated manner to make music.

The last song I played before shutting her down was, “Lepa si lepa”, a Slovenian hymn to Mary saying something along the lines, “You are a beautiful rose Mary . . .” Mom (rest her soul) always told me that I should always christen an organ by playing a Marian hymn. Thinking of her at Easter, I put this organ to rest having the last song being dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

BLESSED TRIDUUM AND HAPPY EASTER

A very grace filled

Good Friday

to you.

Pope Benedict XVI’s meditations for the upcoming Good Friday Stations of the Cross ceremony have been written by an Italian couple that has been married for nearly 50 years.  Read more here.

Vatican Player is a multi-functional, multimedia tool which groups together content from Vatican media and is managed by Vatican Radio.  See more here.

On Holy Saturday there will be the traditional Blessing of the Foods at 1:00 at St. Sebastian.  For more information on the Blessing of the Foods look here.

And since I will not be blogging until after the weekend . . .

A BLESSED AND HAPPY EASTER TO YOU!

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT MR. AND MRS. JOHN Q. SMITH FROM ANYTOWN USA?

As Christians we are so focused on what happened to Jesus during this festival we call the Triduum that we might be inclined to think that the whole world was focused on what Jesus was going through starting on what is now known as Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday. After all you have crowds of people, religious leaders, and government officials highly and publically involved. But in reality there were many, many people who had no idea what was going on. There were those who never heard of Jesus or any of the things he had done. Or perhaps they heard some things but had no idea of the importance and so did not pay much attention. They might have even seen His execution procession go by at a distance and so turn to somebody next to them and ask, “What is all that about?” to which the other might have replied, “Some malcontents being crucified.” “Oh.” For those places and peoples that Jesus was not able to reach, the world went on spinning as usual even though the very cosmos was going through rebirth pangs.

If you find yourself unable to celebrate the Triduum because you must work or are otherwise constrained, know that there is a celebration of these things going on somewhere. When you have a few moments call this to mind and unite yourself with the Church celebrating this most awesome feast. Even at a distance, be part of – be aware – be mindful – participate to the extent in which you are able.

AND FINDING VOLUNTEERS TO DO IT IS EVEN HARDER

Last night there was a gathering of priests for the Chrism Mass. It is swell getting together with fellow priests and talking about things that are on our minds and testing to see how other people and parishes are doing things.

One popular topic of discussion last night was the upcoming washing of feet on Maundy Thursday. “What are you going to do? How are you going to do it? Who is going to do it?”

You might be inclined to say, “Do the red, say the black.” Indeed I am most in favor of this method which simply means just do what you are supposed to do. But occasionally it is not all that easy. Here is why:

First the rubrics clearly state “men” are to have their feet washed. It seems that even the Latin makes this very clear. We tried that one year and almost started an uncivil war. So like good priests we went looking for back up. Our bishop and the USCCB give no clear directive to the question. In fact, the ordo seems to directly contradict this rubric when it states that those chosen should be a cross section of the parish. You can hardly have a cross section of the parish if it is all men. So having no backup on that rubric we are going to be equal opportunity feet washers.

Except that we are not. One thing that our bishop has asked us is to only wash the feet of adults in the Church. No children – only those who are fully initiated. (I suppose he would like 21 and over – don’t blame him.) So it will be a cross section of adults.

Next, there is also no mention in the rubrics (nor was there before) that there should be 12 people who have their feet washed. In fact, no number is given at all. There is definitely a plural as the plural “men” is used, but be it three or twelve does not seem to matter to the rubrics. In fact, one of our liturgists mentioned that he felt it should definitely not be 12 since this is not a symbolic reenactment but something that we are told to do.

So from the simple, “men” are called forward we seem to end up with this: Men and women, fully initiated and of an adult age, and any number except 12. Definitely washing feet – not hands or any other part of the body as some places do.

And of course - the whole thing is optional . . . one need not even do it.

Simple as that.

HOW COME I DON'T REMEMBER IT BEING THAT WAY: TRIDUUM

Interestingly nobody made a peep that there was going to be rubrical changes in the Mass when everybody was either cheering or bemoaning the new Mass translation. There are quite a few that will hit us during the Triduum. The savvy Catholic (or the one not deeply in prayer) will notice a few changes (assuming that your priest noticed that there are, in fact, changes in what we are to do.)

Most are pretty innocuous. There are a few you might pick up on however. Here are a few:

GOOD FRIDAY: Instead of walking in and going directly into a prostration, the celebrant and other ministers will bow and then lay down in prostration.

The deacon has a stronger role in the ten petitions now. The “Let us kneel – Let us stand” is now optional. Congregations are encouraged to either kneel or stand through the whole of the singing of the petitions.

For the revealing of the Cross the first option is to have the deacon present the priest with the Cross in the sanctuary and as the priest uncovers the cross it is he that intones the response three times. The Cross is to be covered in violet (not red) and ALL are to kneel momentarily after each response.

It is still permissible to process the Cross in from the door of the church, but in this instance the Cross is NOT covered.

Here’s a very interesting one: Now the priest is to remove his shoes and his chasuble when he venerates the Cross.

Last interesting one: The ministers will now genuflect to the Cross (the Blessed Sacrament being taken away) before leaving the sanctuary.

HOLY SATURDAY:

When entering the darkened church with the Paschal candle, the presider now lights his candle after the first “Thanks be to God.” Everyone else lights it after the second. The church lights, save for the candles at the altar, are also lit at this point.

Before the Gospel, the celebrant is supposed to intone three solemn alleluias which are answered by the people before the Gospel procession begins.

Before communion the presider may address the newly baptized and those welcomed into the Church about the specialness of their First Holy Communion.

There are other changes but they are comparatively minute. These are the ones that, if you have been to the Triduum before, might cause you to look quizzically and wonder, “I don’t remember that.” That is because we haven’t been doing it that way!

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: THREE FOR THE PRICE OF ONE (IRONICALLY APPROPRIATE TITLE IN MORE THAN WAY.)

We are heading into Holy Week. Holy cow! Soon enough we will be celebrating the Triduum. The Triduum is a three day celebration which is composed of Maundy Thursday (or Holy Thursday,) Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Evidence of the fact that it is indeed one long celebration you will notice that there is not (or shouldn’t be) a closing hymn at the end of Maundy Thursday (we go into adoration) there is neither an opening nor a closing hymn on Good Friday, and Holy Saturday begins with the blessing of the fire.

For Catholics then that means we do not stop our observance of this holy time when we leave church. We carry it with us to the domestic church – to our homes – work place – school - wherever we may be we carry with us the Passion of our Lord and mark it in any special way we can. So get ready! It is almost here! What will you do?


As a complete side note - Blogger seems to be working much better now!  My frustration is passing quickly.

MONDAY DIARY - THE CALM AFTER THE STORM

One of the things that brought me closest to leaving the seminary was reports from priests. “Get to know Jesus now,” they warned, “ because you will not have time to after you become a priest.” Now, it is always a good idea to “get to know Jesus now” no matter when now is, but as for not having time once you are priest I have found is dependent on how determined you are to stay in touch with Him and (and this took me a couple of years) learning the power of the word, “No. I can’t possible do another thing and remain a stable human being for you.” As one priest put it, “There is not an incredible amount of institutional accountability in the priesthood. You are as busy or not as you choose to be.” Well, at least that is true within reason.

The comment that made me more nervous was a priest who said how he hates Sunday afternoon. “Everybody goes home to their families and we retreat into the rectory to be alone and lonely.”

Well, that glass half empty too did not hold water. Now I will grant you that it might be largely owing to the fact that I require much more solitude than perhaps the average Joe does. Every personality test that I’ve ever taken has told me (just in case I did not know it) that I live a lot in my head and I easily amuse myself. Simple minds: simple pleasures. But far from finding Sunday afternoon a disappointing and barren wasteland, I find it an island that I fight to keep from being filled up with more people to see and things to do. . . “You are as busy as you want to be . . .”

So it is the Easter Vigil. Promptly at 9:15 standing by the bonfire provided by the Boy Scouts we began, “My brothers and sisters . . .” For the next two hours we celebrated in the most grand fashion ending with the choir singing the Halleluiah Chorus. Then there was shaking hands and wishes of Happy Easter, the clean-up, and then the church was empty. The lights were off with just a glow from the sanctuary lamp and the votive candles. The scent of flowers and incense still lingered. And it was quiet. Quiet, quiet, quiet. A magical moment after the hubbub and activity of the past week.

Though tired I was still rather keyed up so Sebastian and I got ourselves a little refreshment, had a seat, and processed that which we had just experienced. Half of the enjoyment of experiencing something is having it within you to relive: the lighting of the fire, the church aglow from the people’ s candles as viewed from the sanctuary, the singing of the Exultet, the lights coming on and bells ringing at the Gloria, the looks on the faces of the newly baptized as they stood after having the water poured, the torches coming out for the consecration, the church singing the final song with full voice. It was this quiet time that I cherish – God and me going over the wonderful evening we had together. Unpacking a religious experience can be just as important as going through it. There is still so much to learn, enjoy, and grow from that was not gleaned the first time.

Mystical is the time spent at the Mass, magical is the quiet time of reflection afterwards.

HOLY WEEK!

HAPPY TRIDUUM

As you might suppose there will not be much time to post the next couple of days. Here are a few videos until we get together again after His resurrection.

This first one was sent in by CK. I think it's clever and hope that next year maybe Cleveland might have a similar campagne!

E sent this in from Paraclete Press. It's the Passion Narative in Gregorian Chant. It's good for you Triduum mediation.

Cross Roads Initiative has some interesting Triduum reading if you are interested.

"Set Me Free" from Critical Mass:


If you are looking for an explination of what the Triduum is you might want to check out this video.

And on prayer:

I almost forgot! Adoro sent this in for your entertainment!

Here is a last minute link addition from L. Thanks!