Easter Vigil 2020

Easter Vigil 2020 will be one for the books. Never would have imagined we would celebrate it remotely in our home chapel.  While certainly not the same as being in Church, we have tried to make the best of a difficult time.  

As we have had to experience Sundays without going to Mass, I have had plenty of time to reflect on how much structure Mass gives our Sundays.  We have had to find new ways to keep the Sabbath holy.  While we are separated, for a time, from most of the Sacraments, we still have our home chapel and our sacramentals.  Before the pandemic, we used our chapel for Liturgy of the Hours and personal prayer.  I could never have foreseen this new need we have of sacred space.  I am grateful to be surrounded by images of our Lord and His Saints, to sit in the glow of our blessed candles, and listen to the voices of my children singing along and responding to our call to prayer.  This time together means more than anything, these days.

While we can not participate in Mass, I am appreciative of the televised options; it seems to add a sense of sacred time to the day.  There is a comfort in seeing and hearing something that is so familiar, and yet feels so distant.

As it were, it was a nice way to begin the Easter season, even if it feels like we are still in a type of lent.  

Khristós voskrése! Voístinu voskrése!

Holy Saturday 2020

Holy Saturday is always like a mini Lent for us.  In the way we spiritually prepare for Easter all Lent, we prepare for Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.  Every year, I think I will most of the Paschal Candle before Holy Saturday, but it never really works that way.

We do MAKE the candle ahead of time so that it can be blessed at Candlemas in February.  The gold we use is blessed as part of the Epiphany blessing.

We started making a Paschal Candle for Easter when our oldest was little.  Back then I freehanded everything and used a nail to carve the candle.

 For a 3 x 9 inch candle I use a 4x6 image printed on sticker paper.

I use a craft knife to cut the pattern into the wax.

Then, I trench out the wax with one of the wax carving tools.

The kids use tempera paint to cover the areas that are carved.

We then wipe off the excess.

Some fine work.

To get the gold leaf to stick well, I use two types of gesso.  One of them is to prepare the surface of the wax, the other is to build up a sandable surface.

While the gesso was drying we worked on the chapel.

We use a fitted cover over the altar to attach the antependium.

Chapel set up for Easter Vigil.

The gesso gets sanded down and gold size gets applied.

Gold applied.

Everyone got candles this year...

Tenebrae

Tenebrae is a haunting and unique liturgy in the Church year.  It is a combination of the Office of Readings and Morning prayer.  During the recitation of Psalms, readings, canticles, responsories, and intercessions, candles are extinguished from the Tenebrae candle hearse, a candelabra made specifically for the occasion.

      

Born from a time when Churches were lit by candlelight, and the Triduum Services took place in the day time, before electric lights.  Tenebrae took place at night, often ending around midnight.  Throughout the service, everyone was cast into darkness.

Tenebrae factae sunt, Darkness fell over earth, was, traditionally, the eighth responsory for Holy Week and the fifth responsory of Matins for Good Friday.

Towards the end of the service, the last candle would be placed behind a sheet, to represent Christ going into the tomb, and then extinguished.  At that time, a loud ruckus would be made. The crotalus is a fairly traditional method for this noise.  The crotalus is also used to replace bells during the Easter Triduum.  I have seen two versions.  One is more of a gavel on a hinge, the other more of a rachet noisemaker.

from iccorsicana.org

This year seems a perfect time to celebrate Tenebrae at home to commemorate Good Friday.  While we do not have a Tenebrae candle hearse, we arranged the candles on the altar in an appropriate fashion.

There are six of us, and six psalms (three for the Office of Readings, three for Morning Prayer) so each person will get to extinguish a candle after a psalm.  At the end, I'll take the Easter candle from last year into the adjoining room, and extinguish it.  The kids will then go to bed in silence.

While our home celebration does not use the same responsories and rubrics that would have been used in antiquity, it is an opportunity to descend into the tomb and help all of us participate more fully in the mysteries of the Easter Triduum.

Candlemas 2020

Candlemas is easily one of my favorite holidays of the Church year.  This year was delightful.  I am afraid I only have pictures of some of the candles and not all the pageantry.  This year, the Feast of the Presentation was also a Sunday and was the Sunday that we celebrate the consecrated religious of our Dioceses.  The Bishop blessed the candles and led a candlelit procession with all the religious men and women being honored this year.  It was wonderful

For our part, I have gotten into the habit of only making the candles we need at a time, and getting them blessed, as needed.  For Candlemas, I made sure to make our Advent candles and our Easter candle for this year.  

We even got out the fancy self-fitting mold maker to fix the ends so they fit our advent wreath a little better.

All Soul's Day 2019 and Icon Mounting

We had an excellent All Saints Day into All Souls Day weekend.  Saturday we hosted a baby shower sprinkle for a wonderful family that is having their first girl after 5 boys.  To distract the children we went to a Russian Food Festival.

To cap the weekend off, I mounted one of the many icon prints I have needed to take care of for the chapel.  It seems appropriate that I tested out my woodworking skills on an icon of St. Joseph.  A few ruff edges and imperfections, but all things considered, I think it looks pretty good.

St. Joesph, Pray for Us.

Candlemas

Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
&
Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary

February 2nd

One of the things I miss most about teaching, is the rhythm of the school year.  Teachers are teased about their ever changing bulletin boards, but the reality is they are an excellent example of the ebb and flow of the school year.  There is always something to be putting away until next year, something to be doing right now, and something to be preparing for.  Working outside of a school system now, it is very easy to get stuck in a rut where every day is just a continuation of the previous; there is always work to do and what doesn't get done today will need to get done tomorrow.  My consolation, then, is that the Church gives us seasons and feasts to give rhythm and flow the the whole year.

Today, Candlemas, is one of my favorite feast days.  Two feast days, really.  In Jewish custom, not only did the first born male need to be purchased back from God with two turtledoves or two young pigeons, but a woman who had given birth was considered unclean, so purification was necessary.  Hence the two feast days.

The Gospel for today does a better job explaining:

Luke 2:22-40 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And inspired by the Spirit[a] he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,

according to thy word;

for mine eyes have seen thy salvation

which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and for glory to thy people Israel.”

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,

“Behold, this child is set for the fall[b] and rising of many in Israel,

and for a sign that is spoken against

(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also),

that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phan′u-el, of the tribe of Asher; she was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God, and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

Because of Simeon's words about Jesus being the light to the gentiles, the Church has traditionally blessed the candles to be used during the coming year: Candlemas.

There was an excellent article written in 1942 by a Fr. John Bolen titled The Wax Candle in the Liturgy, and I highly recommend reading it.  Years ago, when we started making candles for our home use, we used paraffin wax.  It was cheap and easy to work with, but recently we have switched to 100% beeswax.  If you are looking for a reason to switch to beeswax candles, the interwebs will give you plenty of reasons.  I do not, however, dip all our candles.  We use tin molds to make both tapers and pillar candles.  In my mind, it is out of economy.  When we dip candles, you always have to have around 4 lbs of wax melted so that the candles don't get stumpy.  When we pour candles, we can use every last drop.

In the sense that we prepare candles before actual Candlemas, we started celebrating weeks ago!

This year, we made white candles, as well as colored candles for our Advent wreath.  The colors we choose were Violet and Rose.  I recommend dye flakes vs pigments.  They are easy to measure and mix, and don't clog the candles.

We then took the candles to Mass with us, and they were blessed!

 We had a wonderful dinner by candlelight, and enjoyed an evening remembering that Christ came into the world to be a light to all of us.

Everything does taste better by candle light....

 

The Nativity scene will be packed up tomorrow, as we close out Christmastide and we will start gathering everything to start Lent in a few weeks.  All the best from our family to your's.  May your evening be a blessed one, and the coming year be full of grace and peace.