I went to St. James Cathedral ["http://www.saintjamescathedral.org/"] for Easter morning Eucharist. The music was amazing, and it was kinda cool to experience something not too far off from St. Thomas ["http://www.saintthomaschurch.org/"] (yes, I'm only adding the link now to this place because I was lazy before). One thing that caught my curiosity though: in the opening and closing processions, they led off with this weird "flying" thing, basically a bunch of really long ribbon attached to a really long pole that the person just twirled around. I wish I had my camera for that. I still wonder what the heck that was.
Last night I went to a Krishna Das ["http://www.krishnadas.com/"] concert, sort of in place of Easter Vigil. The concert apparently was set up as a collaborative of several yoga groups in Chicago: Yoga Now ["http://www.yoganowchicago.com/"], Generations Yoga ["http://www.genyoga.com/"], North Shore Yoga ["http://www.nsyoga.com/"], and Heaven Meets Earth ["http://www.heavenmeetsearthyoga.com/index.html"]. Krishna Das is a five-person band that does westernized yoga chanting, accompanied by harmonium, violin, tabla, guitar and drum set. For each of the songs the lead singer would lead us in a chant in a call-and-response. It was kind of cool. It took me a while to settle in (I'd never really been to one of these things before), but towards the end of the evening I felt a sense of peace that I've gotten only at FCA/TNBS/prayer group meetings.
Man, I wish I'd brought my camera to Chicago now. I guess you'll just have to use your imaginations to conjure up what I witnessed the last couple days, and hope that next time I see some amazing stuff I'll be fortunate enough to capture it. Because these were some amazing sights.
So, Happy Easter! ... I guess. I'm gonna leave you with a thought as many of us now turn to the season of celebration. It's one that originated while I was composing one of my Lenten devo posts from the last couple weeks, so as a result it's kind of been on the back burner. Basically I used Lent to increase my time spent devoted to God and being spiritual and all that stuff, but what I've found is the problem of waxing on at Ash Wednesday, and then waxing off on Easter. So, here's what I want to know:
What does it mean when "Christ is risen" ? Does it mean we can celebrate by being selfish again like we were before Lent started? I certainly hope not. I hope that rather we can celebrate rightly by acknowledging the significance of Easter, but instead of using Lent to merely take a pause from our former habits, we turn whatever disciplines we built up into a life-long habit.
No comments:
Post a Comment