I'm awake with jetlag here in Malaysia at 2:30am. As I was laying awake thinking, I felt something that I've been feeling all evening- that I am unprepared to celebrate Easter tomorrow morning. This year, I have been living life as normal during Lent and even this special week because we've been in transition I haven't done any Holy week preparation. Our church in Rabat had a Passover Sedar thursday, a Good Friday service yesterday, and then is having a sunrise service and regular service today. But all I've done so far is go to an Easter egg hunt for little kids (Sam was super cute by the way- being one of the big kids and finding/picking up a purple Easter egg- pics to come Mimi :-) ).
Anyway, I decided that I just couldn't go to church tomorrow to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus without a bit of reflection on the meaning of his suffering and death for me. So I came to the internet and found an Easter Vigil service with prayers and liturgy and readings from the OT and NT. How glorious!
I suppose I should add that I've only attended an Easter Vigil once, but that it is one of my very favorite Easter memories- it's a service held Saturday night before Easter around midnight. Part of the service reflects on the complete and utter darkness that Jesus entered for us in death, and part of it reflects the joy of his conquering of death. But this is also the time when some traditional churches do baptisms for the year and there is a rededication of our baptismal vows too. If you are a Christian and have never had the opportunity to worship in a liturgical church, I wholeheartedly recommend it- especially during Lent or Easter. The depth of the prayers and crafted words are so powerful. I'm going to link the site that I used tonight here
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/prep-eastervigil.html
and these next two links are parts of it that were especially powerful to me
The Easter Proclamation
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/exultet.html
and the Renewal of Baptismal Promises
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/baptismalpromises.html
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1 comment:
sorry about your jet lag, but that's a great site you've found. i went to easter vigils in high school [something lutherans are good at] and always loved them.
happy easter, christ is risen!
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