Getting Through the Weekend

I hate when life feels like it’s simply getting through one day or a weekend or even a week. We should have moments to pause and enjoy the stillness. On Holy Thursday, I was the cantor at the Mass and afterward felt so unsure of myself that I scurried out the side door of the church and walked home to let go of all the accumulated stress and proceeded to finish what I hadn’t completed during the workday.

On Good Friday, I was off work and was not the cantor at the Veneration of the Cross. Therefore, I was slightly more relaxed. But I still sang with the choir, which can be exhausting. For that reason, I chose to exhale a few moments in the Daily Mass Chapel, where three strong men had carried in the cross with the form of Jesus still on it. The beauty of the silence and the vision of flickering candles surrounding the altar where the body of Christ waited in the form of bread finally allowed me to let go – of everything. It was so beautiful that I quietly took a picture of it. Not being a photographer by vision or trade, I never can quite manage capturing the beauty I see. Lost in this image is the flickering candlelight, for example.

I never want to view the Triduum as a time to “get through.” It’s there to experience the path to the Cross and then the Resurrection at the Easter Vigil. It’s the peak of the church calendar – we celebrated the birth of Christ in December – but this was how his journey on Earth ended. Death. And then new life. He gave his life that we could live forever with God. We should never forget that im the midst of our busy lives we’re desperately trying to get through until the day we die. At that moment of our death, I wonder how much we ponder having gotten through.

Oh, well, that is what singing is for. Singing helps us to truly live. It’s a joyful gift from God, and if I’m allowed to sing at Masses, I will continue to do so out of gratitude for what God has done for me. I will do this even when life is a whirlwind of one event after another. I haven’t played my accordion in three days! The accordion is also what makes life worthwhile, the instrument being a beautiful gift from God. Always and forever.