At the request of readers, I'm rounding up my favorite posts on Holy Week and Triduum. For wherever you are and wherever God may meet you this week...blessings on all of it, the mess and the joy. If you're expecting: Labor's Stages: A Triduum. If you have a new baby: Baby's First Holy Week. If you're a new parent, missing Triduum services for the first time: Wholly Weak (Or A Sick Mother's Reflections on Expectations). If you have little ones and can't make it to church: A Holy Week at Home. If you're busy preparing: The Forgotten Days of Holy Week. If you're burnt out: The Footwashing. If the weather (or world) doesn't look the way you hoped: Holy Snow. If you're gearing up to wrangle kids for many hours in the pews: Gospel, Interrupted. If you have a child with special needs: Where I Saw Christ, Back Row, Pink Coat. If you or your kids are sick and you're stuck at home: What An Upside-Down Holy Week Taught Me About Jesus. If you're grieving: Was It A … [Read more...] about how to Holy Week: a guide for where you are
church
to be vessel and passage
Right now are the waning days of pregnancy. Contractions come and go. Intense, then subsiding. I can't walk without waddling. Sleep is fitful, restless. Comfort is elusive. I wake a hundred times. Every morning the kids ask if the baby will be born today. No one knows. These are my last days to carry. To be a vessel. Soon I will become the passage. . . . Each time the priest lifts high the cup and plate, intoning the thundering prayer I've heard for decades, I try to understand. What does it mean for God to be held in human hands? To offer us a way to become holy? Eucharist is vessel and passage. Jesus said I am the Cup of Life and I am the Way, and people were so startled by his strange words that they remembered them, recited them under breath a thousand times, wrote them down and passed them on, pressed them into the hands of others saying, see? It is all here. If you can try to understand. If you can believe. What I believe is this. We gather … [Read more...] about to be vessel and passage
why you have to go to church
Why do you have to go to church, my child? I thought I wasn’t going to have to answer that question for a few more years. Maybe even a decade before you started stomping around with teenage eye rolls of disgust when I ask you to get dressed on Sunday morning, and not in those ratty jeans with the holes in the knees, either. But here we are today, already five minutes late and you’re standing at the back door whining in protest, your stubborn feet kicking the mud-caked shoes you refuse to put on so we can scramble into the car. Do you want my answer? Ok. This is why you have to go to church. . . . It’s good for you to go to church. Here’s part of what church means: faith, prayer, ritual, music, beauty, and community. Experts agree those are good things for growing kids, healthy like tall glasses of milk and long nights of sleep. But I don’t need an expert to tell me what I see on Sunday mornings. You leafing carefully through the hymnal pages, pointing when you find … [Read more...] about why you have to go to church
eat, pray, light, bless: celebrate a baptism anniversary
Our sweet babe just celebrated his first baptism anniversary. One trip around the sun, one whole year a Christian. It's a big milestone in our family. I've written about baptism anniversaries here and here , too. But I always find that these days sneak under the radar, despite circling the dates on the calendar and trying to plan a something-special to celebrate their big days. So here's my simple solution: four easy ways to celebrate a baptism anniversary with children. Grab one or grab 'em all. (In descending order of time/preparation/oops-I-completely-forgot-ness. Because baptism's got no room for shame.) 1. Eat a special meal or delicious dessert. FEAST. The Christian answer to every celebration. Make the child the center of the day. Make a fuss. Let him pick the dinner he wants (even if everyone's stuck eating chicken fingers) or surprise him with cake and ice cream for dessert. Pull out the photo album after dinner, and re-tell the story of his baptism: why you chose the … [Read more...] about eat, pray, light, bless: celebrate a baptism anniversary
