Monday, March 26, 2007

Preparing for the Great Vigil

The Fifth Week of Lent

Today I am

Writing in the library
Cleaning the kitchen floors with Jesse
Hitting the gym with housemates
Packing and unpacking seasonally appropriate clothing

The "School for Conversion" was great this weekend - I got to touch base with a few great folks that I'm getting to know, and made some new friends as well. The dinner table's gonna be booked up through Eastertide - hooray!

I'll reflect on the weekend soon enough - maybe as a podcast, though.

I'm also setting up a Facebook invite for this, but Vine and Branches Christian Community and St. Patrick's Anglican Church are having a joint celebration of the Easter Vigil on April 7th at 8pm. You may not know this, but the biggest worship celebration of the Christian Year is not Easter Sunday morning, but rather the night before: ancient Christians would keep vigil, saying prayers and reading Scripture and exorcising converts all night before dawn, at which time the entire community would receive Holy Communion with the newly baptized.

This won't go all night, but we will be offering the public scripture readings that narrate the history of God's saving work that culminated in the execution and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Pete will be saying Mass, and Alan preaching the homily.

If you're interested in learning more about the Christian story as the Church enacts it, or you're Christian unfamiliar with more "liturgical" expressions of the faith, this would be a great introduction. Do contact me if you'd like any more details.

P.S. Oh yeah, I can't believe they did what they did on BSG last night! I could hardly sleep!