Easter

A few weeks ago before Easter, my language tutor was telling me that his church has an Easter sunrise mass at 5:00 am on Easter Sunday morning. I was excited about this idea, and Nancy was too when I told her about it. So Easter Sunday morning Becki and I got ready to meet her at 4:45 to hunt up a sunrise service. Now it's still dark here at that hour, and we weren't sure which church would have the mass, but we headed out, hopeful.

We saw a few cars on the road, but we were pretty much the only pedestrians. Hmmm . . . When we arrived at the large Annunciation church downtown our hope faltered a bit. The church was entirely dark and both gates locked up and not a person in sight. I wasn't ready to give up. "What about the Synagogue Church?"

The Synagogue Church is a Catholic church that was built on the site of a synagogue from earlier times, and this is the church my language tutor goes to. Since he was the one who was telling me about the services, I figured they would probably be having the mass. Only problem was, this particular church is in the narrow, winding section of downtown Nazareth and none of us had ever been there before. I turned in the general direction I thought the church was in with Nancy and Becki coming along. Good sign: church bells! We followed the sound and then the only other person we saw in the streets, a woman who looked dressed for Easter sunrise mass. Sure enough, we turned a corner after her and found ourselves in the chapel of the Synagogue Church.

The three of us and that woman were the first to arrive. Others slowly gathered, each picking up a candle as they came in the door. I went and got three, not knowing exactly what we would be using them for. After a few comments and the beginning of the mass, we all stood and filed up to the front of the church to light our candles from a large one that the priest held. Nancy, Becki, and I followed the crowd into a courtyard just outside the chapel, where some boys were gearing up for a procession. When the priest joined us all, the procession began, and we jumped in too, circling the courtyard twice and then waiting while the priest waved some incense. Then my favorite part. After we'd come out of the church, someone had closed the doors, and the priest now approached these and knocked loudly a number of times before the doors were thrown open! Before the procession, all the chandeliers in the church hadn't been lit, but now they were all on--the empty tomb filled with light! The procession entered the church and then went through the main entrance back outside into the narrow, winding streets. I guess we went "around the block", singing the entire time with the bells ringing out.

Back at the church we handed over our candles and settled in for the rest of the mass. Becki leaned over to me: "Are we staying for the whole thing?" I shrugged. She persisted: "They're only halfway through the book!" Hmmmm . . . good point, and at the rate they were singing this mass, we'd be here for awhile yet. We decided that the next time everyone stood, we'd make our escape. Which is exactly what we did. On the way home, we all exclaimed at how glad we were that we found the church and what a lovely service it had been; now if only we could've understood it!

Waiting for things to begin . . .