Holy Week Hail

HOLY WEEK!

I was awakened this morning to cries of, "The Lord is risen, Alleluia!" as Sr. Kate came out of her room for coffee. We had a visiting priest this week to celebrate Holy Week with us, and I don't know how many times I have joyfully acclaimed that truth in both Spanish and English in the last two days.

It is a very different celebration of Holy Week having a little bigger hand in the work of the parish than it takes just to show up every night and pray. Holy Thursday went off without a glitch. Then came Good Friday. We arrived at our church property at 11:00 for Stations of the Cross, with the rain and hail following just behind us. I am amazed at how many people can fit in a little, tin, storage shed. The only thing more powerful than the deafening sound of the hail on the tin roof and the smell of gasoline leaking from the weed eater was the energy and contentment of the people. When it cleared enough to continue, we ventured out, returning as needed for shelter. Fr. Arturo did a nice job including all of the people in the carrying of the cross. Although (as always) I chose to include pictures of our youth and teens, it was also very powerful to see the men of our parish and then the women carrying the cross as well.

I hardly even remember Good Friday services, so they mustn't have been too trying. My youth group read the parts of the Gospel, and did a fine job.

Holy Saturday has become one of my favorite liturgies of the year. The contrast of light and dark, the reading of our story from Genesis through the Resurrection that continues with us today. Again, having a more intimate role in the carrying out of the mass,

and the fact that it was, as was true of all of our services, bilingual made things interesting. The songs are never sung quite the same way as we practiced, and never quite with the same melody as they might be traditionally sung in a traditional Anglo church. But, as was true of all of our services, it was lovely.

I was up early this morning and out to the property to hide the 900-some Easter eggs that my youth group had helped to prepare the day before. None of the teens made it up quite early enough to help, so I got a nice pre-Eucharist work out. After a wonderful liturgy, it was back out to the property to watch our kids take four minutes to find the eggs that had taken me over an hour to hide. They are beautiful.

Now, home to rest. Another storm is just rolling in which means any yard work I might have done is out of the question. So, a few odds and ends before buckling down for a rough evening of maybe "The Sound of Music." It's back to school tomorrow. We start our first round of track regionals on Tuesday, so hopefully the rain will be out of the system by then.

Easter blessings and prayers of peace.
--Sarah