I'm on Verily! (A 7Qt Triduum Recap)

Happy Easter week, everyone! We are still in the Octave of Easter, that glorious stretch of 8 days where we celebrate Easter Sunday every day! The Triduum, which runs from Holy Thursday evening to Easter Sunday evening, is always packed with a lot of prayer and liturgy, and this year was no different. However, there were also a couple surprises tossed in the mix. So I thought I would mention some notable parts of the Triduum this year. Hop on over to Kelly's place for some more quick takes from the blogosphere! 


1. Holy Thursday included my debut on Verily Magazine! 
For several months, I have dreamed of having an article published on Verily. It's such a classy, wholesome, wonderful women's magazine-if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend looking exploring the website. Anyways, I find the way in which I got published highly ironic. I mainly write about theology, chastity, and marriage-this is what my friends and family know me for and expect; it's what I expect from myself! In fact, here's a snippet of a conversation that I had with a relative about my published piece: 
Hey, so I got published on Verily!
Really???? Whoa. 
Yeah, you know what I wrote about? 
Uh...
Underwear. 
Like, the "Theology of Underwear"????
No; it's not a religious magazine. I wrote about underwear. 
If you're interested in seeing what I have to say on this topic, then you can check out my article on Verily: "Why Beautiful Underwear Isn't Just for Marriage." 

2. I know we're in Easter now, but I just have to tell y'all how I discovered a version of the song, "Were You There," that I like!
This hymn is sung in so many churches throughout Lent and on Good Friday, but I just have never been that big of a fan. When I saw this song listed in the program at our parish's service on Good Friday, I cringed, but I was not surprised to see it. Well, I was not expecting what came forth from the choir loft! The choir sang Raymond Haan's setting of "Were You There" as a meditation piece after Communion, and it was beautiful. I found a video of another choir singing this, if you want to hear what it sounds like: 

3. Priests are amazing, and I think we can forget the amazing ways in which they sacrifice for us.  
On Palm Sunday, I greeted one of the priests at my parish, and he looked through his bleary eyes at me, gave me a smile, and talked about how exciting it was that Holy Week was upon us. I was thinking about this more as I sat in the church on Good Friday afternoon. Several feet behind me, people lined up next to two confessionals. I had been excited when my parish announced that there would be 3 hours for Confessions on Good Friday, and I had this weird notion that, since we had two priests, they would each take 1 1/2 hour shifts or something like that. After all, they had lengthy liturgies and Easter preparations filling so much of their time! Nope, when I showed up for Confession, both priests were in Confessionals, offering the Sacrament to the penitents who waited in consistently full lines. What an incredible witness of sacrificial love!

4. I got to see one of my beautiful friends be fully received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil! 
The Easter Vigil is one of my top-favorite liturgies, and I was so full of joy and happiness at getting to see my friend and her sons receive such a huge outpouring of God's graces and gifts. Even if I don't know any of the candidates or catechumens, I always get really excited to see people receive God's graces, gifts, and Sacraments at this liturgy.  Plus, there's lots of fire, which is awesome. On the topic of the Vigil, Haley Stewart-as a convert to Catholicism-wrote a beautiful reflection about the Easter Vigil and new Catholics-check it out!

5. On Easter Sunday,  at the age of 92, Mother Angelica died. 

From epic pew.

This is huge, people. Mother Angelica founded EWTN, a Catholic television network, which streams to over 250 households across the world. She founded a religious order, faithfully and blindly followed God's path for her through many twists and turns, and she has impacted countless individuals (myself included). Her sass and spunk have attracted many people to her, and her words have the ability to reach to a variety of individuals, non-Catholic and Catholic alike. Now, I really, really want her to be canonized-after all, once she's canonized we can dress up as Pirate Nuns for All Saints & Halloween parties, and that's just fantastic ;) 

6. Over the Triduum weekend, we watched a couple episodes of Daredevil-and it's been taking some interesting turns.
I am enjoying this season a lot, but there have been some aspects that have surprised me. Without giving away any spoilers, as of this point (I have seen the first six episodes), Matt is ticking me off, Elektra is making me mad, and Foggy and Karen are being pretty awesome. I'm pretty interested to see where the season leads! For those of you who like a cappella music, someone introduced me to this wonderful version of the Daredevil intro music, which is quite fabulous: 

7. We had a themed Easter menu, and it was awesome. 

I'm not going to win any awards for
sushi making, but it's sure tasty!

On Easter, we hear about how the stone was "rolled away" from the tomb, and our food matched this theme. On Holy Saturday evening, we feasted on Vietnamese Summer Rolls (I had never heard of these until I read the More Feasts cookbook, and now I love them). Easter Sunday morning, after 8:30 a.m. Mass (how we both functioned on little sleep and no nap on Easter is beyond me!) we feasted on Cinnamon Rolls, lunch was comprised of sushi rolls, and dinner included bacon rolls. It was an easy and delicious menu to put together, and it was a ton of fun to create! (It all began when I asked my husband what he wanted as part of our Easter meal, and he said "sushi!" Things just escalated rather quickly from there) 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope that you all have a wonderful beginning to your weekend!