Triduum

It's Easter Monday, the "extra" holiday that we get tacked onto the Triduum here in NZ. And I am grateful. One of my friends at work asked what I'd be getting up to for Easter and I answered truthfully that I'd be spending a lot of time at church....

A few thoughts from the Triduum:

• Maundy Thursday: a silent meditative journey. Small daughter came with me as we both thought it was going to be the Last Supper and footwashing. She and I reflected and travelled through the journey laid out for us together, and got to wash each other's feet. Quite moving.
• We covered all the holy pictures and statues at home, to help us all remember where we were in the journey at home too. Amazing how much that black cover draws your eye, keeping the loss and the pain in front of us for those few days.
• Good Friday: the 3-hour vigil before the Cross, St Luke's used a forn of the stations of the cross to guide us through. I was struck by the phrase "the Lamb of God" - and got thinking about the time I was seconded to a meatworks. One thing I found out very quickly there: cows know what's coming but sheep don't. Sheep walk trustingly and fairly quietly up the ramp to the sticking station. Jesus knew, but he still walked trustingly. I spent a lot of time thinking about this one, alongside the suffering servant songs from Isaiah.
• Easter Saturday: the waiting day. Always seems to be quite empty, sad, but like after a death, life has to go on for the rest of us with Saturday chores and normal Saturday activities.
• We found that Maori TV was screening Jesus Christ Superstar on Saturday night and it was really interesting (once we got past the cringe-worthy 70s costuming and dance moves!!) - I can't remember ever seeing it from end to end and it proved quite a conversation point for hubby and me to reflect on some of the more human elements in the story.
• Easter Sunday: Surrexit Christus, Alleluia! Joy and laughter flower again, Easter egg hunts before church in the morning, flowers and candles blazing on the altar again, no more black and purple but white and gold, and the blessing of old old friends of ours from Lower Hutt here in Rotorua - we didn't know they were coming and they didn't know we were there! They came home to our place for lunch and then we explored the Whakamaru Dam together in the afternoon. It's a fascinating place for a safety geek to look at!

The retreat that my prayer group had done at Tyburn Monastery last Saturday was a good way to enter into Holy Week, and helped me focus on where we were going, the day before the palms and hosannas.

We were tired today but it was a good kind of tired. We did a few things like taking small daughter to see the model railway exhibition, and daughter and I did the groceries to fill up our sadly denuded fridge and pantry (we loved seeing our friends yesterday but there was 9 of us here eating lunch - even with pooling our resources our fridge got pretty cleaned out!). I also did a spot of shopping for me: I am delighted to note that I have now lost so much weight that my old jeans simply fall off my hips, so I went to find some winterish trousers. Couldn't find any new jeans (yet) but did find a couple of pairs of other things I like so that was good. And noted with some glee that I have dropped four dress sizes!

We also spent some time playing family Wii games (we love Wii Sports Resort - frisbee golf, in particular!), and then daughter and I had a game of cribbage before dinner.

And tomorrow is back to the grindstone. At least my nose has had time to heal somewhat during this time!