Easter in Quarantine

Holy Week & Easter

 Just a few fun things to remember from our Holy Week & Easter...

Spy Wednesday: treasure hunt for the 30 silver pieces representing the ones Judas betrayed Christ for. We used the money to give to the poor.

Tracing and colouring pictures from Holy Week.

 

Our Stations of the Cross we coloured this year. 

  

Mine and Joseph's chalkboard writing to remember the Lenten themes.

Holy Thursday: baking pretzels that recall the Lenten penance of dairy, egg, sugar-free eating and are made in the form of arms crossed in prayer. Colouring Da Vinci's Last Supper. 

Good Friday: the boys' annual Lego recreation of the Passion scene, complete with poor Judas who despaired of forgiveness.

Easter!! An Easter egg hunt. 

 

We spent Easter weekend in Saskatoon and Humboldt. Saturday night was at a great hotel, swimming, eating delivery Pizza Hut, more swimming, and watching Ten Commandments. Sunday morning we attended the Latin Mass for Easter and were blown away by the beautiful music. Sunday afternoon we headed to Humboldt to eat (an amazing Easter supper!), visit, and play with cousins. We arrived home late and tired, but oh so happy! Christ is Risen! Truly!

Notable Easter Kids' Quotes:

Our town Rodeo was on Good Friday.
John Paul: "Probably Jewish people are at the rodeo right now."

Holy Saturday morning:
"What do you want for breakfast?"
Emilie: "I want a meat stick!"

Regina Caeli

The Regina Caeli. Sung from Easter until Pentecost. There is a tradition that St. Gregory the Great, on his way to visit St. Luke's painting of the Blessed Virgin one Easter morning in Rome, heard some angels singing the first three lines. Thus inspired, he added the fourth line. Believe this story if you wish. I'm certain it is far more beautiful than any story of how Dan Schutte wrote his songs (I think that's what they are called).

I miss singing the Regina Caeli once the Easter season ends. Catholicism has a way about it. It cycles from season to season with just the right amount of time appropriated. Each season, then, is both familiar and new. "Behold I make all things new" is undoubtedly applicable to the liturgical life.

Though our time is fleeting, the "New" Millette Choir continues to sing. And then, like packing away our Christmas tree and manger, we will sadly store this treasure until next year. In the meantime, there are many ever new "old" chants to be learned and cherished.

That Easter Day with Joy was Bright

We had a very low key Easter at home this year, not quite by choice. Life happens. But Jesus still rose from the dead. And despite a very difficult-to-get-through (read: terrible music, chaotic liturgy) Easter day Mass... well, that Easter day with Joy was (still) bright! 

"The easy ones are for Emilie!"

Scene from the tomb:

Emilie is decidedly not a baby anymore. I can't believe how grown up she looks. But don't let her cute looks fool you. She's a tantrum-throwing, screaming almost 2-year-old. And she's sometimes super sweet. 

 

 

And the boys can be pretty cute, ahem, handsome too:

 

A blessed Easter from our family to yours!

Don't forget your Regina Caeli!

On Fleeing the Tomb

He is Risen! Alleluia! A most blessed Easter to you. And now for some exciting news that we've been waiting for a long time to happen.

Yes, this is an actual picture of our house. Yes, that is a sold sign. It was a whirlwind of a Holy Week. Becca and I, after a novena to St. Joseph, complete with the burying of a statue of his, upside down, in the snow, had our house appraised. The numbers seemed good, so we went ahead and pulled the trigger on the listing. Two and a half days later our agent stopped by to tell us of an offer which was right at our asking price. St. Joseph came through! We sold our house!

Now what? We trust our beloved saint to see us through to the next step. For now I have applied to be the executive director of the ministerial formation team for the diocese of Saskatoon. If all goes well we hope to be looking for a house shortly, and be moving within two months! Thank you St. Joseph! All glory to Christ the Risen King! As He fled the tomb, we feel, in some small way, to also be fleeing our tomb, so to speak. I guess it's true that if we are buried with Christ, we too shall rise with Him. Or is that, if we bury a St. Joseph's statue upside down with Christ, we shall rise? Deo Gratias!

UPDATE:

What's this? The "SOLD" sign in our front yard is missing? And it seems that the Diocese of Saskatoon doesn't even have an executive director of ministerial formation role?

C'est la vie. On another note, the boys came out of their room all excited this morning. They said: "Happy Easter!" I told them that Jesus didn't rise from the dead this year. They looked quite heartbroken, the poor things. April Fools and all.

Music Mondays: Broadway to Hell

Happy Easter to everyone! The joke around these parts was "Merry Christm...er.. Happy Easter!" We woke up to a dusting of snow and lots of cold. But, as Fr. Andrew so innocently said in his homily on Easter morning, the glory of Christ, as described at the Transfiguration, is dazzling as white as snow. Amen. And, because I can, Alleluia too.

The night before was anything but dazzling. I went with my sister to St. Paul's Cathedral in Saskatoon for the Easter Vigil. It started out as normal. A fire. The beautiful prayers. The proclamation of light. However, we soon noticed that the regular choir from years past was absent. This piano player started playing, in a distracting manner, during the sacred Exultet. Then the first reading came. From Genesis. The piano started up. Creation sounds (?) gave undertone to the reading. Wispy soprano trills and powerful bass staccatos. Emotion was building. And then, the choir which had abruptly arranged themselves in the front of the church near the Paschal candle, started swaying and breaking into a chorus describing how God saw it was good. Mass became a cheap Broadway musical! Because that's why we go to Mass, after all. Well Broadway, or is it hell (?) hath no fury as compared to what was unleashed. My sister and I had our jaws drop. More reading of creation. More chorus. I half expected a person dressed as a globe to come bouncing out. What happens next I cannot say. Because we walked out of the Easter Vigil. We walked out in shame. Shame for what Christ's victory over death has become... a cheap (and awful) Broadway musical. A new meaning to incense at Mass. The Church used to warn that messing with the Mass was a mortal sin. I suppose people don't even believe in mortal sin anymore, let alone care to worship, on the most solemn of nights, with dignity, truth, and beauty. We walked out of the Easter Vigil. I still need to let that sink in. My sister went to catch another Vigil (with a Las Vegas flare to it...). I went back to the hotel and had a long shower.

Nevertheless, joy of joys, we went to the Latin Mass the next morning! Oh the prayers. The real sweet smelling incense. The Regina Caelis and Victimae Paschali Laudes. The Lord, in His great kindness, erased the stunning memory of the night before. It was beautiful. Of course everything concluded with a organ-filled Jesus Christ is Risen Today.

This great Easter carol is rooted in the 14th century and was originally titled: Surrexit Christus Hodie. It has seen many modifications and additions throughout the years. It is both solemn and joyful. As Fr. George Rutler explains in his book, The Stories of Hymns:

"[It] is a little like the way of the Church when she is faithful to herself: there are some celebrations too joyful for ordinary happiness. To be solemn is not necessarily to be sad; it can be a very high happiness. When that is forgotten, the sacred dance can be twisted by touchy-feely affectation into superficial hugging and self-conscious cuteness. And so it is in the 'Church of What's Happening Now.' But it cannot be so in the Church Catholic" (p. 95).

And thus Fr. Rutler accurately describes my experience of Easter this year. Enjoy the solemn, and sacred, hymn of praise:

BONUS:

The boys had breakfast in bed at the hotel. 

Princess Emilie hogs the main bed to herself.

Last Easter

 This Easter

 The family

And picking up a bit of bunny poo when we got home!