Easter

It's been awhile since I've written. The girls were off last week for Easter Break. The week before was Holy Week and was an incredible experience for me. Thursday began the Triduum. As any church, my church has its problems, but we do liturgy right. The liturgies of the Triduum are truly moving and spiritual. The girls sang at Holy Thursday Mass, Good Friday service and the Easter Vigil. I love Easter Vigil and am thrilled that the girls really like it and get so much out of it. There is no persuasion needed to get them to Easter Vigil, even though it typically is 3+ hours long. The Mass begins outside and the lighting of the Easter fire. Then the Paschal candle is lit and the candle is processed into a dark church. Everyone in church has a small candle and the Paschal candle is used to light these candles. The church lights up very quickly. It's beautiful and a great way to begin the celebration of Easter. Then we have a number of Bible readings in the dark. Then the church is decorated (flowers and more flowers are brought out to decorate the altar and the baptismal font). When the lights go on, it is a spectacular sight. The church was barren on Good Friday (no holy water, cross covered, no greenery or flowers). Then we have baptisms. We have an immersion font, so our pastor walks into the font and then each baptismal candidate is baptized in turn. We had 14 baptisms this year. It is wonderful to see the looks of happiness on their faces as they emerge and to see the joy on their families' faces. After Mass there is always a reception for the newly baptized and confirmed in our hall and even though it was 11:30 PM by the time we got to the hall, there were many people still enjoying the reception. The Singer got up at 5:30 the next morning to sing at the sunrise service. It was the first year she attended this Mass (which is held in our prayer garden). She loved it and talked about how the sun rose throughout the Mass and it felt like resurrection and new birth. What a great Easter. To have my faith, my husband, my girls and to know they to have faith. I think we're very blessed because I know that both of my parents and Hubby's parents pray for all of us each day. That's quite a comfort.

Good Friday saw me desperately finishing up sewing a bolero-type jacket to wear with my Easter dress. It turned out fine and the Singer wants me to sew her one, too.

Last week we spent 2 days traipsing across the state to look at colleges. Fortunately or unfortunately the two colleges we spent time at both had much to offer. I think the Singer would do well at either. One (UCF) is huge (42,000) and has lots to offer in the sense of variety and opportunity. The other (UNF) is small (16,000) and has a phenomenal business department (the Singer may want to open her own business) but not a great music program. It's a beautiful campus set amidst beautiful trees and 10 minutes from the beach (more a plus to me than the Singer). It has an indoor swimming pool and a good intramural program in swimming. The Imp like UNF better and told the Singer she should go to UCF and leave UNF for the Imp.