Easter Vigil

The year before she died, our mother and I watched some Youtubes of liturgies of various Orthodox and Catholic churches, those in communion with Rome and those not in communion with Rome.  I'd started listening to them out of curiosity about different chant traditions.   I showed them to her when I noticed how, even though I had no idea what was being said in languages I had absolutely no knowledge of, I could figure out parts of the liturgy that corresponded to the familiar Catholic mass.  I knew from reading Willi Apel's and others books about Gregorian Chant that a lot of the parts of that liturgy were very ancient but didn't really appreciate how true that was before watching those videos from Orthodox congregations in Europe, Asia Africa, and North America singing in Syriac, Old Slavonic, various other Eastern European, Asian and African languages, some modern, some in old languages used for nothing but the liturgy.  Around the world, in places as unexpected (to me) as Korea where I hadn't known there were Orthodox Christians.

Our mother was as surprised as I was to be able to figure out what was going on at times, even in the expected order during the liturgy,  even though she had no more understanding of the languages than I did.   You don't usually expect to be moved in that way by watching Youtubes but it was quite an amazing experience.   The depth of connection to people we didn't even know existed, though that commonality was, perhaps, something of a mystical experience.  And the sense of connection can go much farther and much deeper than that, in the present time and for all time.

The modern Catholic Easter Vigil liturgy, full of texts from the Jewish scriptures, is the deepest and most comprehensive liturgy of the entire year.   Beginning with the lighting of a new fire and its spread on candles through the congregation, the recitation of the the Bible story of creation, the story of Abraham and Isaac, The call to Moses and the liberation of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, though the prophets and their radical vision of justice based on the equal status of all people to baptism - the baptism of new Christians is one of the most ancient of all Pascal practices - to the account of the Resurrection of Jesus, this year from the earliest and most plain spoken of the Gospels, Mark.   I can't be there but I can read the texts and I can remember and think about what it means.

 Easter Vigil is the first time since the beginning of Lent when the word "Alleluia" appears in the liturgy, chanted three times before the gospel is read.   Maybe you have to have been raised in a Church with that tradition but it's one of the most deeply emotional experiences there are, one many during this liturgy. So, that's how I'll end.  Alleluia.