Easter in Quarantine
I am sitting right now, watching the Easter Vigil Mass from my couch. It’s my favorite Mass of the year, and I wondered what it would be like not being able to be part of it. Yeah, I’ve had to miss before, but then I could always rest in the knowledge that many others were gathering to celebrate this glorious day. But how do you have a celebration with so few people? With only the priests and necessary readers? How does the majesty of the Easter Vigil translate without the people? We are an Easter People, a People of the Eucharist, and yet, we cannot gather to celebrate Easter, we cannot gather to receive Christ in the Eucharist. The answer came almost immediately. A couple years ago, I wrote about the beauty of the candles and the flames that could be divided, but never diminished . The Vigil starts in darkness, with an Easter Fire outside and the light is brought in by the Easter Candle. Candlelight dominates the first half of the Liturgy of the Word. But this year, it was t...