The fourth Sunday in Lent is sometimes referred to as Refreshment Sunday – a day when the strictures of Lent are relaxed a bit. (It is also Mothering Sunday for those who keep that festival).
At St Mary’s tomorrow, our refreshment is coming in the form of some of the most lovely choral must that we sing here. Fr Vice Provost will be preaching on the Prodigal Child. And we’re adding one or two guest choristers into the mix.
Expect something special.
A week already? Bother. Saw the notification, meant to listen/watch all week. Haven’t. Sigh. (previous five sentences describe phd-student life generally, I suspect, lack of grammar included).
Imagine if our little flocks could see behind the scenes at church on a Sunday morning. Would they be surprised to see the thurifer on his/her knees blowing frantically on the charcoal, swinging the thurible through 360 degrees to get it going? Would they be surprised to see the MC rummaging through the pile of paper looking for that Collect which has just been asked for? Would they be surprised to see the Altar Servers giggling and larking around before processing out sedately?
These things are best left unseen too, I suspect.
I spent part of yesterday in the company of someone who believed that she is called to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic church. All eyes were on Rome yesterday. Today, most of my Catholic friends are lifting their eyes and looking into the future.
I arrive back from my brief post-Easter break to a pile of mail. One of the first I open is unsolicited mail sent from America. It is from a “healing and renewal community” who do not give a return address. Amongst much encouragement to praise God, I find that I am compared to sewage water.…
I’m having a week off from blogging. Normal service will be resumed by 6 April 2005
Still reeling a bit from Holy Week and Easter, which were fantastic. Holy Week makes muscles hurt which never hurt in the same way at any other time of the year. There is nothing finer in the world than singing the Easter Exsultet and the gospel alleluias within a congregation that has journied to the…
Leave a Reply