Easter Vigil at the Church of the Sacred Heart

It’s very cold this year, about two degrees Celsius, and the altar servers are shivering as Fr. Kevin blesses the fire and prepares the huge paschal candle. He cuts a cross into it and then the Alpha and Omega signs plus the year 2013, after which he inserts five grains of incense in the form of a cross. The candle is then lit and processed into the warm church – to the relief of the altar servers and the 90 or so people of the congregation who have braved the chilly weather.

The church is in complete darkness but each worshipper holds a small candle and a line is formed as each candle is lit from the paschal candle. People turn to each other, lighting each other’s candle with polite generosity until the church is filled with pinpricks of glimmering light. The cry is repeated:

The Light of Christ! – Thanks be to God!

For the next two hours there will be readings, prayers, acclamations, responses, psalms, a homily, singing in Latin and in English, supported by a cantor, choir and organ. At one point all the electric lights will suddenly be switched on and all the church candles will be lit  – I counted about two dozen church candles; large round ones on the altar, tall thin ones behind, several solitary ones of different sizes, and some single candles high on the side walls that are lit only once a year. The church, blazing with fierce white light is, for just a moment, disconcertingly unfamiliar, until the eyes adjust and the remembered shapes resolve themselves.

The Light of Christ! – Thanks be to God!

Three adults will be baptised at the front of the church, by the main altar, and several more will be confirmed. As they make their responses, some confidently, others less so, the congregation wills them on. And then it is time for the entire congregation to renew its baptismal promises, the responses extra loud and forceful.

Several pews in front of me are a couple clearly new to the occasion, unsure when to sit, when to stand, when to kneel, the length of the ceremony probably more than they bargained for. The man gives up and decides to sit throughout, his companion holds out for longer and then copies him.  I pray for their patience and that they will lose themselves in the sights and the sounds of the liturgy, and find comfort and warmth in the unspoken companionship of the occasion.

Shortly after, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the mass of every day, brings the night to its conclusion.

All over the world the same ceremony is being performed in the same way to the same God - and will be until He comes again.

Happy Easter!