Easter Monday

Throughout the Catholic blogosphere, the buzz is on three things.

The first is the question of how Holy Week and Easter went in your parish. Did you hear the full splendor of the sacred heritage of the Church at your parish for the Pasch, or was it Father Feelgood's "new look for spring?"

The second is how burned out everybody is who had anything to do at all with preparations at that same parish, or any other for that matter. Last week and this week are generally the busiest. I remember how it was in my sacristan days, although for me personally, Christmas was the worst, since I was the only one on duty during that holiday. In all likelihood, the pastor is sleeping late and limiting his appointments. All I'm saying is, if he has to get out of bed before noon because somebody needs the Last Rites, then by cracky, they'd better mean business!

The third is what people DON'T talk about; how the "motu proprio" calling for broader use of the 1962 Missale Romanum (the "Tridentine Mass") was NOT issued by the Holy Father. So now the smart money is probably going to be on Pentecost, or Corpus Christi. (UPDATE: For readers of Rocco Palmo, the target is the Feast of Pius V, who codified the unified Roman Mass in 1570, and who is commemorated on April 30 on the General Roman Calendar, and/or May 5 on the Gallo-Germanic calendar, whatever that is.) I checked the blogs from this time a year ago. One was giving THREE UPDATES as the day went on. That's just in one day. Truth be told, I feel a little silly giving it as much attention as I did.

Meanwhile, beyond the buzz...

Every year, I prepare a giant Easter basket that is blessed by the priest at a Byzantine Rite liturgy the night before. This year's was the biggest ever, certainly the heaviest. Then I go downtown the next morning to a large old church and distribute the goods to the kids there. I had fewer than the usual amount, but the ones who did show up said they'd been talking about it for two weeks. For the first time, we had a lot left over. I think we're going to stick with the kielbasi and hard salami and forego the giant ham from now on. But having at least two bottles of sparkling cider to toast the risen Christ was definitely a good idea.

I missed Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments, complete with Yul Brenner strutting around. It would have been a better choice than the 1961 production of King of Kings, which in my estimation was pretty bad. Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth was better.

I guess I'll be having ham and cheese sandwiches for the rest of the week. Good thing I like ham and cheese.