23 April 2011

light a little candle, say a prayer

It seems like the 100th post was so long ago, but really it was only 2 weeks ago. But today is another important day, well at least for Christians - Holy Saturday.
And today we went to the Easter Vigil, which is probably still going on now. It goes until 2am because half of it is in Spanish (they can't do two separate ones). We left after an hour and a half. But at least we got to stay for the best part.
My favorite part of this is the lighting of the candles. We each get a candle, even the little kids, and then after the priest brings us all outside, we gather around a big fire and he says a prayer. Then one person begins to light another person's candle and they turn to light those of people around them. And slowly the flames disperse and more and more candles get lit and the dark sky gets a little lighter. We are in the back, so the flames don't get to us for a while. But then we all go inside and hold our light candles. We hold them very still for a while before blowing them out all at once.
That's what I love about it - the candles are a wonderful tradition that bring us all together as parishioners, as Catholics, and as humans. We might have nothing in common with each other, but we are all the same in one way - we are all humans and we are all innately the same. In one way (like religion) or another.

1 comment:

  1. that was nice Meg~ I like that too, the candles and the peace and silence. I liked hearing all teh Spanish parts~ it sounds so nice even if I don't understand a lot, the words are nice. :)
    love,mom xoxo

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