Spiritual Food

H., Punchy and I went to 8 p.m. Easter Vigil at historic Saint John's Church* in Bangor. H. and I were there 20+ years ago for a family wedding but hadn't been back since.

It's a pretty church with a sky-high ceiling. The lights were out. A fire was roaring in the fire pit out front. Having never gone to Easter Vigil, let alone in Maine, I didn't know what the fire was for.

Quickly became evident when we were all handed white candles as we filed into the pews. The priests and altar servers processed out of the darkened church, incense wafting into the night, and tried to light their one large round candle from the fire pit. But it was windy; I think they resorted to a match.

Then they processed back in and paused near our pew. Punchy was in the aisle seat. The priest with large candle lit small candle of priest behind him, who then dipped his candle to light mine. And so it went, until the whole congregation held flickering lights.

The Mass was very long. I regret to say that we left at 9:20, before Communion. But it was very hard for Punch to sit still that long and the service included baptisms and confirmations, which hadn't even happened yet.

I have always attended Mass on Easter Sunday, but the big Hurley family is coming here to Eileen and Mike's house for brunch at 11 a.m. And before that: Easter egg hunt. It would have been too hard to pluck Punch up for morning Mass.

From the darkness, light. He is risen. Hope is real. Forgiving is good.

Good night to you.

*Per wikipedia: St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church features a Hook Opus 288 Organ, which was restored in 1981, making it 1 of only 9 three-manual E. & G. G. Hook organs remaining in existence today [My sister-in-law Sheila said today that she likes going to that church sometimes for the organ music.]^]

TCOY

1. Good skin and dental care.

2. Read a little.

3. No sweets.