What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Change your life

    [This post is reposted from a previous year. No-one who has ever kept the triduum with me has ever told me that what I promised fell short of their experience].

    Every year I make a promise to people. I say that if they keep the triduum with me at St Mary’s then it will change their life and change their faith.

    The Triduum is the three days from Maundy Thursday to Easter Day. Although the various services take place over several days, it is really one big feast, which is what makes it so extraordinary when you keep it in one place and experience the whole thing. It really is life changing stuff.

    I blogged a bit about it [one] year, and it might be worth pointing people to those blog posts:

    Maundy Thursday
    Veneration of the Cross
    Three Hour Devotions
    Good Friday Evening
    Holy Saturday – all hands on deck!
    The Vigil

    I’d say you’d kept the Triduum with me if you come to the Maundy Thursday evening service, two of the three services on Good Friday (try for the three hours if you can), the clean and polish on Saturday and the early fire Vigil and the main Festival Mass on Sunday.

    It really is life-changing if you do it all and there are people around who will testify to just that.

18 responses to “The Beloved”

  1. Anglican Mainstream » Same-sex blessing in Glasgow

    […] Read here […]

    Reply
  2. An Exercise in the Fundamentals of Orthodoxy » Blog Archive » Same Sex Blessing in Scotland

    […] blessing took place on Sunday 23rd (just passed), conducted by the Provost of Glasgow. From the Provost’s own blog , the following: Today I celebrated a Eucharist in circumstances which were new to me but which […]

    Reply
  3. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    I am pleased to hear about this. If and when my partner and I have a civil partnership, it would mean so much to me to have a priest there to bless it, and it breaks my heart that my own church might deny me that.

    Reply
  4. Stephen Avatar
    Stephen

    As a Christian and as a priest I understand the wonder of the Eucharist to permeate everything we do with the presence of Christ, so I am not surprised to hear of the wonderful way this touched you, and the gift of Christ Really Present (once again as promised)
    I often think of that psalm as I elevate the Host. He reached down from on high and touched me. Never does it fail to work.
    Thank you for ministering to these two guys in this way at this wonderful time, and sharing this with us. No doubt at some personal cost.

    Reply
  5. david power Avatar
    david power

    Truly what one reads here is what the great Bonhoffer described as “cheap grace”.
    People so comfortable in their sin they could not imagine what type of liberation Christ could truly offer them ,and instead bury everything in a feelgood language that reaches out for Glory but demands a rupture with Nature and reality .
    Love covers a multitude of sins,and how St Paul must wince at your understanding of his words.

    Reply
  6. tim lusk Avatar
    tim lusk

    God’s blessings on you buddy as you continue tobe open to God’s grace and to, as any good priest would, share it with all.

    Reply
  7. pax58 Avatar
    pax58

    I grew up in southern West Virginia, USA. It was fairly common for couples to get married soon after a pregnancy had happened. One of my friends was pregnant with twins, I was setting next to my uncle. The priest started the fertility prayer and my uncle said out loud, “Good God, she’s carrying two, how many more do you want her to have?”
    Everyone, including the priest had a good laugh.

    Reply
  8. pax58 Avatar
    pax58

    Thanks for the post Kevin, I liked the seniment and also the warmth of seeing the eucharist through the leases of important occassions. Just for fun: when I just started college, one of my friends from high school got pregnant, with twins. As was the custom where I grew up, a hasty wedding was planned.
    The groom and the bride were kneeing at the rail while the priest prayed a prayer for fertitlity, my funny uncle turned around to me and said out loud, “what does he want? They are aready getting two, does he want a dozen?” Everyone on my side of the church starting laughing, which I am sure the bride and groom woul d have also done if they had heard him.

    Reply

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