The Silly Episcopalian

Today marks the beginning of the Triduum: the three most holy days of the church year.  And I LOVE these three days every year. Maundy Thursday kicks it off with a Eucharist followed by the stripping of the altar and reading the 22nd Psalm: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?      Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? 2  O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;      and by night, but find no rest. 3  Yet you are holy,      enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4  In you our ancestors trusted;      they trusted, and you delivered them. 5  To you they cried, and were saved;      in you they trusted, and were not put to shame. 6  But I am a worm, and not human;      scorned by others, and despised by the people. 7  All who see me mock at me;      they make mouths at me, they shake their heads; 8  “Commit your cause to the  Lord ; let him deliver—      let him rescue the one in whom he delights!” 9  Yet it was you who to

I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath  right now.  I'm still early on, but I love it so far.  I decided that I need to do a lot more reading, and I definitely want to make it "significant" reading.  I was supposed to read this in an English class in high school, but I either BS-ed my way through it or just didn't remember it. Anyway: I'm at the point where Tom and Casy (the former preacher) arrive at the Joad family's home just as they are packing to go to California.  The family is sitting down to dinner and Granma finds out that a preacher has traveled there with Tom, and she demands a grace before dinner.  Casy explains that he's not a preacher anymore, but Granma still insists.  And so this happens: ... And on the preacher's face there was a look not of prayer, but of thought; and in his tone not supplication, but conjecture. "I been thinkin," he said.  "I been in the hills, thinkin', almost you might say like Jesus went into

Hosanna! I love that word.  It's not something that we transfer to colloquial/secular speech as we do with "alleluia."  But it's still a joyful shout.  Plus it's appropriate for us to say it during Lent. Hosanna! Palm Sunday is the day where we get to sing it and shout it and enjoy it! The order of service is different: start with a Gospel reading, then procession, then open the rest of the mass up, and read the Passion during what would be the "normal" Gospel time. I always thought of the Passion as this HUGE reading that we all had to slog through, and most people stop concentrating about halfway through it.  We've all heard it before, said the "crucify him" responses, etc.  Got through the marathon of it and boom, mass continued.  Today the Passion was split into 2 readings.  I liked it that way because it was in more manageable chunks; helps me digest it better AND ponder it more deeply. I'd never been to St. Stephen'