03/05/2026

Holy Saturday

As I have grown older I have become aware how events that were exceptional in the past in our reminisces become "I remember how we used to" when in fact they only happened once or twice.

I do, however, remember with some clarity the impression that the Holy Saturday Liturgy made upon me as a young altar-boy.

It began at six in the morning with the priest and I being the only ones there. A small congregation began to trickle in. First the nuns from their convent and nursing-home then an Irishman, an insurance agent who became a very successful bookmaker then my own dad and never grew to be bigger than a dozen or so even with the other altar boys who had also arrived in dribs and drabs.

I still have the Missal with which I used to follow the events that were celebrated and even fascinated me. The words and tones of the Exsultet really did lift my soul out of the things of this world and I loved the rhythm of the prophecies punctuated by "Flectamus genua, Levate.

That was then but this is now and I know that even during those three or four paschal seasons that stick in my memory like melted incense on my cassock,  the boy that then I was was always capable of all the sins that have since then far too often marred my dutiful relationship with Our Father.

Today I am hoping to remain aware that I am in the presence of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSSPIRIT who knows me in the deepest part of my being where there is His Image and Likeness . He does not need me to confess my sins but I have to for it is only when my heart is purged of the things of this world that block out his forgiveness that I can make an acceptable offering and raise my eyes in true prayer to Our Father who art in heaven.