Vere resurrexit! Well, Easter was a bit of a liturgical letdown, given I came home. No matter how much the TOR fathers may irk me with their liturgies at Franciscan, I always find myself appreciating their Masses more every time I come back to the Buffalo diocese.

The Easter vigil was depressing. At my old childhood parish, the church was probably not even 1/4 full. This despite there being one of the largest parishes in the diocese. I cannot explain this - it has always been full every year, including last year. I hate to think the people have simply ceased caring, but I am at a loss as to any other reason for this. In another ominous sign, the parish had 0 adult conversions this year of any sort, just 1 teen baptism and 4 teen confirmations. Of course, "grave pastoral reasons" existed (a church vastly empty on Easter Vigil signals a problem to be sure), so 3 readings were tossed overboard. All in all, very underwhelming and not terribly uplifting. Easter Sunday wasn't much better. The music was good, and the priest's substance at least was good, although his delivery was something else.

The best part of Easter was reading this homily, found in the Liturgy of the Hours for Holy Saturday. And reading this interview with Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, which suddenly ties much together for me. It also explains for me why the Novus Ordo is actually a gift from God - if your priest isn't much into the transcendent, it is glaringly obvious in a way that wasn't true with the old Mass.

In other news, I made it all the way with my Lenten sacrifice - and dropped about 20 pounds in the process. I celebrated heartily with a Mountain Dew this afternoon. Sadly, it is not as tasty as it used to be. Perhaps that is all for the better.

A blessed Easter to all.

(N.B. - I will take care of the depressing blog layout in a few days when I get back to my computer.)

- Posted by in Catholic at 3:57 PM