My Easter weekend was a good, relaxing time.
I went to the Easter Vigil on Saturday night with my friend Mark. We went to St. Agnes, a more traditional Catholic Church. The readings from the Bible were read in English, the Psalms were sung Latin, and the prayers for the Mass were sung in Latin. The Mass lasted about two and a half hours all together. It was a very lovely, solemn and joyful Mass all around.
Easter Morning, I joined Charlie and his family for Easter Brunch. It started with cocktails at Charlie’s place, and then we went to the Green Mill, a restaurant near his place. It was a very nice brunch. While Green Mill is normally known for their Pizza, this brunch had great breakfast food along with great pasta and meat dishes, including ham, roast beef and chicken cordon bleu. After that great meal, we went to a park near Charlie’s place and played some cornhole, a bean bag game. It was a good day with pretty good weather.
I’ve been working on my stamp collections every day some and been having a good time with that! I’ve been finding some great deals on stamps on ebay actually. When some of the great deals I got come in the mail, I’ll have to post pictures of them.
NOTE TO READERS: Save your stamps for me (please!)…. I can use them! Rip around the stamp and save! Apparently, newer stamps are hard to come by for various reasons including most people use the general forever stamps and because they are harder to get off the paper (so a number are lost in that process).
Tidbits by Thomas:
I went to Mass on Maundy Thursday with Chris and Dillon. I think the reading is appropriate to understanding the meaning of Easter. Of the four Gospels, John does not have “last supper” story as the others have or as depicted by Da Vinci. Rather John replaces it with this story about love. This summarizes the meaning of Easter in that Jesus came to love and to serve others, and this passage should serve as a reminder for Christian behavior:
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.”
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
