Holy Week

It's Holy Week.  So far, I'm 0 for 2 on Triduum services.  Our plans for Maundy Thursday got way-laid by unexpected Kennedy Center tickets, and tonight everyone backed out on me for the late Good Friday service; I didn't want to go all the way into town alone, so I just stayed home. At least I wore a black sweater today.  Wish I liked and tolerated the churches in my neighborhood better.....it would make it easier to avoid the excuse of not going to Mass because I don't want to go all the way downtown by myself. I also need to find more friends who aren't singing in church choirs who actually want to go to Mass without me having to talk/guilt them into it.

No one wanted to get out of bed early for Palm Sunday, so I acquiesced to going to the 5:30 Mass with them.  Still, I got stood up by two of the guys with new excuses that afternoon why they couldn't come to that Mass!  Anyway, Morgan and I managed to make it down to St. Matthew's on time and got a decent seat.  While we were waiting for Mass to begin, we saw our friend Peter come in and go sit in one of the side chapels (this was unexpected, since he's usually at the church way out northwest where he's on parish council).  Other than that, I didn't see anyone in the congregation I knew.

It wasn't as bad a service as I had feared.  Usually I avoid this Mass, since they usually do nasty Catholic contemporary music, but, I guess Holy Week is sufficiently solemn that they did more traditional things that night.

Whilst the praise choir sang "Hosanna to the Son of David" to a Richard Proulx (R.I.P. February 18, BTW) setting of chant, mode VII, the clergy and eucharistic ministers processed from the sacristy to a table in the back of the narthex for the blessing of the palms.  The priests each carried arm bouquets of palm branches, miniature red carnations, and white baby's breath, and the crucifix was similarly adorned with palms and flowers and red ribbons.  I shouldn't have worn glasses to this Mass.  The priest came by and sprinkled holy water all over my lenses.

The processional hymn was the traditional St. Theodulph (All glory, laud, and honor), yet, it felt rather weird singing the modern English you's instead of the original thee's and thou's, and the amplified piano accompaniment was anemic compared the the glorious majesty of the full pipe organ they could have used.  They only sang three verses, too.

For the responsorial psalm antiphon and the gospel acclamation, they did dismal little ditties by a composer identified as "Muller." The rest of the service music included eucharistic acclamations from David Hass' Mass of Light and the breaking of the bread from the Celtic Mass of Finian O'Carroll.

This is the Sunday when the Passion Gospel is read and acted out.  Instead of using a full cast, they had a deacon (a young priest, actually) and two layreaders alternate reading pages.  Then, towards the end, they had the congregation sing "passion acclamations," the first of which was the chorus from that dreadful Lucien Deiss hymn, "Keep in Mind," and the second of which was a Taize dirge. The sung acclamations just didn't work, in my mind.

For the offertory, the praise choir sang "Behold the Savior," and during communion, they did the hymn "All you who pass this way" and a rather jazzy arrangement of the old spiritual, "Were you there."

The closing hymn was "O sacred head surrounded," partially done a capella.  There was no postlude (no organ, alas).

The priest's homily seemed to express his thoughts about recent political current events with the Israeli prime minister and the White House, and he bewailed the U.S.-Israel relationship being at its lowest ebb ever.  I suppose that has some relationship to the theme of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, but I was really expecting more of an apologetic over the latest sex abuse scandal and the Vatican's defense of the Pope's reputation, if we were going to do current events.

I've always found this particular Sunday to be a bit confusing.  Of course, we get two Gospel readings, but still, the order of things just doesn't seem right.  The palm Gospel always talks about the entry into Jerusalem, which seems chronologically correct.  But then, we get that long Passion Gospel, and yet, we have to talk about those things all over again on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  So, we leave church on Palm Sunday having crucified and killed off Jesus, but when we get to Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday, for you Romans), suddenly Christ is risen, and he's been reincarnated so he can do the Seder meal with his disciples all over again.  Then we kill him again on Friday.

Eh.  I'll try to make it to an Easter Vigil tomorrow night.