A joyful Easter Vigil

When we got to church about twenty minutes before the Easter Vigil was scheduled to start, Myles paced the grounds of the seminary, trying to figure out where exactly the Easter Fire was going to be lit. He looked in the places where it happened in the previous two years and found nothing. It was then Randy noticed the activity on a second-floor outdoor corridor and the roof a floor above that.

"Seminarians on the roof?" Myles asked when he saw them, too.

It's all after the jump.

That's one way to light it.



The Easter Candle was lit, and the fire was spread, candle to candle.





I was certain that something was going to happen at the Gloria given how the Easter Fire was lit. I was happily not wrong.

阿里路亚!

Attending Easter Vigil in China has become such a special event for our family. The Mass is so solemn, and so joyful. The Fire, the Exsultet, the Baptisms, Myles' first Easter Vigil Communion, which he proudly reminded me while he struggled to stay awake until after Communion (he made it!)--such an Alleluia occasion!

After Mass was over, one priest led some seminarians in a robust, cheer-like round of declaring Jesus Christ truly risen! and Alleluia! Other people crowded around the pot that held the newly blessed Holy Water, wanting to be sure they got a bottle to take home. The newly baptised, mostly adults but even a few whole families, remained inside the church, standing for photographs in front of the altar.

Everywhere I turned, people were full of Easter joy. And why shouldn't they be?



As we heard repeatedly in the homily, 耶稣基督真的复活了!

阿里路亚!