Holy Thursday

Our journey in Holy Week continued tonight when we attended our parish’s simple supper and then Holy Thursday Mass to celebrate Jesus’ Last Supper, the evening in which the Eucharist was instituted. (The Eucharist, I must add, that we will FINALLY be able to share in so, so soon!!! WooHoo!!!)

The dinner was very nice — most people were supposed to bring a salad of some type, and then a smaller number of people were to bring breads or dinner rolls or the like. Then, there were a few types of soup. And, of course, no dessert! We sat with a few different people, and I have to say that I really enjoy each time we go to whole parish events because we always end up meeting new people. Plus, I also enjoy that I have noticed that each time we go to things like that, I always seem to know more people than I knew the last time we went to something like that.

During the dinner, one of the other gals from RCIA and I discussed the ins and outs of whether to keep the kids in public school or opt for Catholic school. So many pros and cons on both sides. (Most of the cons for Catholic school, other than the cost, boil down to the boys’ special needs that might be better served in the public school.) Then, we were all able to visit a bit before heading off to Mass.

This was the first Catholic Mass that I had been to with incense. (As an Episcopalian though, I had been to a few services with incense, and had even been the one to do it before when I was an acolyte/altar server.) It probably didn’t help that I think I’m getting a chest cold, because then I couldn’t help but cough several times at the beginning of Mass.

The music at Mass was different than the music is for the Mass we usually go to on Sunday, although it is apparently what they do at the Sunday evening Mass. It was a small band with guitars, drums, etc. Admittedly, that’s not normally my thing — I like traditional church music. But, this was nice — contemporary without being too far from traditional.

After the homily, the altar servers brought out 12 folding chairs, and Father invited the candidates and the elect who were going to participate in the foot washing. We all discussed afterwards that we didn’t realize we were going to be facing the whole congregation during the foot washing! It was all a very humbling experience to have one of my feet washed right there in front of the whole congregation by Father. It made me think of how humbling that also must have been for the apostles when Jesus washed their feet. I just can’t even imagine that — and, obviously, that was why they argued that He shouldn’t wash their feet. (We actually discussed later in our discussion time that sometimes, the hard part of doing good for others/serving others is also allowing them to then serve us.)

One nice thing during the foot washing was when Father told Eric that he needed to pull up his pant leg just a bit more. I instinctively just reached over and pulled it up for him. Father said (with a laugh), “She has to do everything for you, huh?” Eric said, “That’s why I married her.” Then, Father said to him, “You chose well.” That was a nice compliment that I will try to file away to remember during the next time I’m feeling down.

And, now I will admit, I have no snappy way that I want to end this entry. And, so, until tomorrow night when I hope to write on the Way of the Cross that I plan to attend, I will sign off.

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