Saturday, March 26, 2005

A snowy start to Easter
Well, the forecasted snow did indeed come. When I woke up this Holy Saturday morning, snow had blanketed the earth and it continued to come down most of the day, ending in the afternoon. The practice for the Easter Vigil went well. Decorating took most of the day (see photos below: moving that many flowers around ALONE takes time, not to mention the cleaning and other arrangements). After taking all the altar boys for the Triduum out to lunch, I came back to the parish and took some photos which I will post below.

All the ceremonies of the Sacred Triduum went so very well and smoothly. The practice with the altar boys paid off -- they all did a magnificent job with very complicated ceremonies. Things were calm and I think a spirit of prayer dominated. Amazingly enough, I think I was most recollected tonight even though tonight's is the most complicated of all the ceremonies. I was just so proud to be a Pastor tonight. So many people worked hard to make this beautiful. Attendance was good. I baptized one person; received two others into the Church; confirmed those three previous and another three who were already Catholic but needed confirmation (six confirmations in all). There was a tangible "fatherly pride" for me tonight as I looked out over everything (after the lights were finally turned on!). It is a major relief that it all went so well. Easter Day is off to a great start!

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