One more Holy Week

Every year for about the previous five, when the end of Lent comes around, I wonder if this might be our last Holy Week in China. It has become one of the best parts of our Chinese lives, observing the Pascal Mystery in this environment. But I also know it cannot last. Our time in China will be limited in some way, despite the more than ten years we have spent here. However, there continues to be one more Holy Week beyond the preceding year.

Holy Thursday was as it has been most years. The Mass was reverent, and the music was beautiful. Every year for the foot-washing ritual, we sing the same hymn,爱的真谛 Ài de zhēndì, which means "love's truth" or "love's true meaning." We sing it at other times as well; notes scribbled in my hymnal indicate that it was also used for Communion (as it was again this morning). We normally sing it a cappella, anyway, so it is a good choice with the organ silenced during Triduum. Everyone knows how it goes without accompaniment. It's an especially lovely hymn to hear in the evening.

In some ways it reminds me of "The Servant Song," popular at my home church in Pennsylvania for the foot washing ritual. Not the melody, or the words, really. I think it is the comfort in recurrence.

Like most everywhere else, our Mass concluded with a Eucharistic Procession and adoration.




The Altar of Repose for the night was outside, in the courtyard. After we knelt for a while on the bricks, I noted to the kids it was just a warm-up for Stations of the Cross the next day. This was met with quiet groans.



Observing in Good Friday in China has become more important to me that I ever would have imagined a decade ago. There are a lot of hours spent kneeling in uncomfortable places, but the Chinese Chants keep reminding me how grateful we should for this.







The hymn for 朝拜十字架 Cháobài shízìjià, Adoration of the Cross, is another one of my favorites. It is so haunting, mournful, and hopeful.

我们敬拜你的十字架
我们歌颂你的复活
因为你借十字圣木
给世人带来了喜乐.
Wǒmen jìng bài nǐ de shízìjià
wǒmen gēsòng nǐ de fùhuó 
yīnwèi nǐ jiè shízì shèng mù 
gěi shìrén dài láile xǐlè

"We worship your cross and we sing of your resurrection because through the holy wood you brought joy to the world."

The Easter Vigil began in the dark. And then there was Easter's 新火 Xīn huǒ. New Fire.







Before the Gloria....



...and after



What a privilege to witness the adult baptisms at the Vigil! The Catholic life is not an easy choice to make in Urban China, but every year, there are so many more.

请为我们祈祷 Qǐng wèi wǒmen qídǎo

If this is our last Holy Week in China, or if there is to be yet a sequence of "one more," I hope that in all these years of blogging the experiences I have conveyed how it has been so awesome (and I mean that in the truest, traditional sense of the word).

主真复活 Zhǔ zhēn fùhuó
阿来路亚 Ā lē lù yà!