Today is the vigil of Palm Sunday and while I should have taken to veiling last Sunday, Passiontide, life got in the way and it didn't happen. So, this morning I spent an hour veiling 19 holy images, statues and crucifixes in anticipation of tomorrow, and the start of Holy Week. The teeny tiny ones I just tucked away in a drawer.
On Good Friday, the 8 crucifixes will be unveiled at 3pm, the time our Lord breathed His last. On Holy Saturday, the remaining 11 statues and images will be unveiled and I will sit with the Holy Mother, reflecting on what she was feeling, mourning, and suffering.
So, why do I bother with this Catholic tradition while so many of our parishes have done away with it, not to mention homes that no longer practice it, you ask?
Here's my reason ~ I get to suffer the loneliness of being unable to gaze upon the One who sacrificed His life for our salvation ~ being unable to glance up at His Beloved Mother, who prays for you and me ~ being unable to look at the sweet saints I love, who answer my prayers and intercede for me and my family.
Lent has been a wonderful practice of prayer, Mass, abstinence, and reflection. Yet, it is a gradual process ~ day by day. Now the week ahead will have a POW, BAM!! effect on me. Those things I smile at will be hidden.
I will be reminded of the hypocrisy of the people of Palm Sunday, the Suffering in the Garden, the physical beating, crowning and abuse, the long and painful journey to Calvary, and the abominable Crucifixion. The unimaginable feelings of abandonment at the Tomb. Lent will have it's grand finale!
Easter will dawn and the sweetness of the Resurrection will be beyond words!
I pray that your Easter brings you love and peace and new beginnings!
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