“It isn’t that we go overboard during holidays with fancy food or gifts or what have you. It’s that our everyday standard of living is so high that it becomes difficult to mark a holiday as “special” without seeming to go overboard.”
- from a couple of Lutheran pastors, thank you for this. There is lots to chew on here, and it’s a very helpful framing. Hmm…this will be good pondering for the next 50 days. Happy Easter! Christ is (almost!) risen!
I don’t know if one is supposed to have a favorite Mass, but if we can, mine is Holy Thursday, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The layers of tradition are just so deep. The Last Supper is the Passover meal. [I was blown away when I attended a Passover Sedar and heard the presider say, “Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. Through Your goodness we have this wine to offer …”] The First Reading was from the OT institution of the Passover. The grand metaphor, the blood of the sacrificial lamb or goat that saved the Hebrews in Egypt and the sacrifice of Jesus – Angus Dei.
And the Mass parts in five languages English & Spanish (in our parish), Latin (Pange Lingua/Tantum Ergo) Greek (the Kirie), Hebrew (Hosanna). [And because I’m a nerd, I recall that “Lord” comes from the Anglo Saxon, “loaf warden,” though not because of any relation to the bread and wine of the eucharist. 😊]
I always loved the Saturday vigil Mass the most. The whole thing with the candles is downright mystical, in a way that I fear we sometimes lack these days. Makes me wish we did more for Advent and Christmas.
Also, I'll now never be able to unthink "Loaf warden" when I hear Lord now. What have you done to me?
Good Friday was not a day off from school when you were a kid? I would have figured NJ would have had similar attitude to (at the time; seldom true today) MA.
“It isn’t that we go overboard during holidays with fancy food or gifts or what have you. It’s that our everyday standard of living is so high that it becomes difficult to mark a holiday as “special” without seeming to go overboard.”
- from a couple of Lutheran pastors, thank you for this. There is lots to chew on here, and it’s a very helpful framing. Hmm…this will be good pondering for the next 50 days. Happy Easter! Christ is (almost!) risen!
Thank you, you as well!
I don’t know if one is supposed to have a favorite Mass, but if we can, mine is Holy Thursday, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The layers of tradition are just so deep. The Last Supper is the Passover meal. [I was blown away when I attended a Passover Sedar and heard the presider say, “Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. Through Your goodness we have this wine to offer …”] The First Reading was from the OT institution of the Passover. The grand metaphor, the blood of the sacrificial lamb or goat that saved the Hebrews in Egypt and the sacrifice of Jesus – Angus Dei.
And the Mass parts in five languages English & Spanish (in our parish), Latin (Pange Lingua/Tantum Ergo) Greek (the Kirie), Hebrew (Hosanna). [And because I’m a nerd, I recall that “Lord” comes from the Anglo Saxon, “loaf warden,” though not because of any relation to the bread and wine of the eucharist. 😊]
I always loved the Saturday vigil Mass the most. The whole thing with the candles is downright mystical, in a way that I fear we sometimes lack these days. Makes me wish we did more for Advent and Christmas.
Also, I'll now never be able to unthink "Loaf warden" when I hear Lord now. What have you done to me?
Vigil is nice too for the same reason. And the Litany of the saints :)
Loaf as in loaf of bread :)
Yes. I love all of this.
Happy EASTER to you and yours. :).
Thank you!
Good Friday was not a day off from school when you were a kid? I would have figured NJ would have had similar attitude to (at the time; seldom true today) MA.
I don't know. I was homeschooled!