Waiting

The Saturday night Easter Vigil Mass service is one of my favorite religious celebrations. The multitude of readings, the blessing of the water, the candles in the darkness, and the shared anticipation of the Easter Morning soon to come make for a very unique and meaningful liturgy.

When we were kids, we would often spend Easter weekend at our grandparent's house in a small town in Iowa. Since the church was less than a block away and we didn't like having to get up and dressed up on Easter morning, we would often attend the Easter Vigil Mass service. Sometimes it was tough to make it through the readings and overall length of the Mass service, but it was always worth it in the end. Even as a kid you knew that the evening was different from any other and you felt that you were part of something special.

Unfortunately, the things that make the Easter Vigil so special are not conducive to attendance by families with young children. The late evening start time and length--to say nothing of the open flames--make it all but impossible for us to take part at this stage of our lives. Hopefully, when the boys are a little older (and more patient and less destructive), we'll be able to hit the Vigil Mass service again. And I hope they'll find it as special as I did as a child (and still do today).

UPDATE: Steve from St.Paul e-mails with a clarification:

I enjoyed your post about the Easter Vigil, but I do have to point out a small error. You referred to the "Easter Vigil Mass" in your post. It actually is a service, not a mass. In the Catholic Church, there are no masses said between Holy Thursday and Easter. On both Good Friday and Holy Saturday, there are services, but the Eucharistic prayer isn't said. There is communion distributed, but the wafers that they use were consecrated at Holy Thursday mass.

It's a common confusion.