Saturday, March 22, 2008

Celebration of the Lord's Passion

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Isa 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.

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My Spanish Crucifix with the Palms from Palm Sunday.

Today, we celebrate Good Friday, the commemoration of the Lord's Passion. The day started with the stations of the cross with 2 sets being prayed in the morning.

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I attended the 3PM liturgy and the schola sang for the 7PM liturgy. We sang the Lamentations of Jeremiah for the Veneration of the Holy Cross. It's mournful tones were especially suited to create the appropriate atmosphere for the veneration. I am pleased that we managed to reduce the number of crosses used from 11 the previous year to 5 this year.

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The bare altar during the readings.

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The solemn entrance and unveiling of the cross by Fr. Mark Michael.

For those of you in the UK or the US, there might be nothing special about these photos. But for visitors from Malaysia and Singapore, I hope you can appreciate the significance of these photos as one of the steps in reforming the reform.

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Any guesses?

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6 comments:

justin said...

Cassocks!

Andrew said...

=)

Rita said...

My dear Andrew,
Any feedback from your singing of the Lamentations? I bet its was good, and it sure beats endless repetitions of "The Old Rugged Cross" as I remember from your parish.

Can some of you come over and reform the reform where I live? We had women having their feet washed, no veiling, no stripping of the altar, and far too much music music coming from the organ on Good Friday.

Have a blessed Easter and thank you for all the photos, they certainly mean a lot to me.

war in the pocket said...

Great job, especially with all the difficult practice. Time to look forward to Easter!

M.J. said...

¡Feliz Pascua! Happy Easter!

Andrew said...

Thanks, all. Happy Easter!