Easter greetings, friends! What a time it’s been since my last post. Since February, the Dublin HoB home hasn’t been short of core memories, various visitors, and boisterous laughter. The four of us have pilgrimaged to Portugal, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in the streets of Dublin, and basked in the beauty of eastern, western, and southern Ireland with several friends and family. We’ve watched the weather change, the time shift, and it’s crazy to think that just over a week ago, we were preparing for the Easter Triduum at Newman University Church.
Holy Week has always been an incredibly nostalgic week for me. Ever since I experienced the Pascal Triduum for the first time when I was officially initiated into the Catholic Church in 2014, I have always looked with eagerness to dive into the various masses and services leading up to Easter Sunday. Whether it’s smelling the incense on Holy Thursday, touching the cross on Good Friday, witnessing baptisms and first holy communions on Holy Saturday, or singing praises on Easter Sunday, Holy Week will always be a week of spiritual importance for me that I’ll forever commemorate.
This year, as a House of Brigid fellow and volunteer for Newman University Church, the planning and organizing for all things Lent and Holy Week has immersed me in a new way into the Triduum. As a steward of this parish, I’ve taken on many tasks behind the scenes in order to make the season of Lent and Holy Week fruitful for others. The amount of thought and energy that goes into making this time of the liturgical year so beautiful, while inspiring, has been tasking and stressful in many ways. While I’ve been feeling those waves of nostalgia, I’ve easily been distracted and stressed in preparing for a reverent and smooth transition into the new Easter season. In the past, having planned out each week and each penance during Lent with intention, I would have anticipated Holy Week with urgency and readiness. It seems as though this year’s Holy Week plopped right in front of me and I immediately thought “How are we already here?”
Well, in appropriately chaotic fashion, it was quite the Holy Week here at Newman, and despite the various run-throughs and ultimate efforts of preparation, mishaps were bound to happen. During the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday, the fire alarm went off. As Katy, Morgan, Dan and myself stood in the sanctuary as alter servers (having never done so, mind you), the fire alarm started blaring during the Gospel reading, and incense smoke filled the church and the sacristy. In combination with the abundant puffs of incense smoke and having forgotten to switch off the alarm, Fr. Gary anxiously pushed through the liturgy, us HoB members went into action, trying to turn off the alarm that continued to blare in the sacristy. I will never forget walking into the sacristy from the sanctuary, having to main composure while walking in front of the congregation to then seeing a cloudy, disorienting scene with Katy on the phone and Dan trying to plug in the code for the alarm box. “Will you ask Fr. Gary what the alarm code is?” said Dan. I rushed to ask Fr. Gary the code, and as the choir was concluding the offertory hymn, he gave me four digits that would save the day. I went back into the sacristy, told Dan the code, and the alarm stopped—just in time for the Eucharistic prayers.
After returning to the sanctuary, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace. As I took my place by the alter, I couldn’t stop smiling. I looked at Katy, Dan, Morgan, and Fr. Gary, and all of us were filled with joy and relief that the chaos had subsided and we could finally enjoy the mass. I kept thinking about how small we were, and that even in the most chaotic, unrehearsed moment of the fire alarm blaring through out the church on the first night of the Triduum, God still showed up, and we celebrated Jesus’s last meal together.
I believe moments like these are what make the Triduum and Easter so special. I’ll never forget this year’s Holy Week and Easter celebrations, but not just because of the hilarious content it featured. The Resurrection of Christ brings a renewed sense of hope and joy into our lives in the most humble, and sometimes comical, of ways. As the Congregation of Holy Cross say, hail the cross, our only hope. For by the cross, our wounds our healed, our cries are heard, our sins are redeemed. Because of Jesus’s great love for us, we have breath to breathe and a life worth living. Now that, is something worthy of remembrance.
I’ll leave you with these lyrics from one of my favorite Lenten songs, “I Love the Lord” by Page CXVI:
“He heard my cries, he bowed his ear and chased my griefs away. O let my heart no more despair, while I have breath, breath to pray: I love The Lord, He chased my griefs away. Despair no more and use this breath to pray.”
He is Risen, peeps. Let faith, hope, and love forever triumph. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
-Sammie
