Your friend Jim George thinks you'd be a great addition to Ricochet, so we'd like to offer you a special deal: You can become a member for no initial charge for one month!
Ricochet is a community of like-minded people who enjoy writing about and discussing politics (usually of the center-right nature), culture, sports, history, and just about every other topic under the sun in a fully moderated environment. We’re so sure you’ll like Ricochet, we’ll let you join and get your first month for free. Kick the tires: read the always eclectic member feed, write some posts, join discussions, participate in a live chat or two, and listen to a few of our over 50 (free) podcasts on every conceivable topic, hosted by some of the biggest names on the right, for 30 days on us. We’re confident you’re gonna love it.
As the sanctuary is open, might you and the other flower guild women who choose, choose to pray while adorning the sanctuary with flowers regardless? Even if done individually and at diffeeent times? Now that you’ve written, I think I’ll let our priest know I will be bringing some flowers. When I stop by to pray. Easter will come.
My mother loves to tell about the woman in charge of the flowers at her church who was very very careful the afternoon before the Easter Vigil, making sure each plant was displayed to perfection, spending at least a full hour tweaking everything on the altar to her satisfaction.
The Easter Vigil Mass starts outside the church, as the priest lights a sacred fire and then the Paschal Candle. The whole congregation waits in darkness, and then all light candles from the Paschal flame, and then eventually the lights come back up and the Mass gets under way.
The priest told the altar boys to remove all the plants before Mass began, and bring them back in right before the lights came up. They did not take the same care arranging the display.
The poor woman’s shock and horror was audible to everyone, and she nearly had a conniption right there at the Vigil…
Possibly, I saw some lillies at the supermarket this morning, but I don’t know where they usually get them all from.
We’re not supposed to coordinate any gatherings, so I’m not sure…
I like the idea of buying several and just putting them there next Saturday. Thanks for the inspiration.
Easter will come. God will be with you all.
Keep the Faith. Literally, this year.
Flower guild usually buys from a commercial distributor but no telling how that’s working now. Our larger supermarkets are still stocking flowers and I imagine they have Easter flowers on order. I’ll go in and grab whatever is there and is fragrant and beautiful and bring in. I have always liked the flowered cross the best anyway – all the little blossoms brought from home gardens. Lovingly brought and prayerfully placed in the sanctuary. Feeling more like Easter already. Thank you.
Men!
I stuck a hyacinth from Easter last year (not a church flower, one of my own flowers) in the ground and it’s growing beautifully in my side yard:
My grandma had Easter lilies that bloomed this time of year.
We have been forbidden from gathering in large groups and cannot enter the church. But in many areas we remain free to visit the church grounds outside. My priest came outside to hand me a prayer guide when he spotted me walking our exterior Stations of the Cross (we have them inside as well).
It would be great to come individually to lay flowers around our chapels on Easter morning. It reminds me of Therese the Little Flower.
My parish has taken inspiration from a suggestion on social media that, in lieu of Palm Sunday mass, we can adorn our home doorways with palm leaves or whatever greenery is available.
Any suggestions for lockdown Easter egg hunts or other Easter activities for kids?
catholictothemax.org is giving away blessed palms for shipping costs. Check the website. I ordered mine! (They also have great hats and t-shirts and other things.)
Do you suppose boxwood will work? Not much else green here in NH yet. I’ll clip a bunch to put up. I like it!
The loss of this annual ritual, an occasion for fellowship tying a small group together over the generations, is real, as will be the unprecedented (?) wholesale cancellation or outright banning of Easter, Pasha, and Passover services.
Please stop by the April group writing sign up sheet, with the broad theme “April Flowers.” Yes, it is April showers and May flowers in the old rhyme, and I’ve linked the two with good cause in this particular spring season. If you have a thought on work, we still have some openings in March, so you are welcome to make however brief a post and I will be happy to link it against a past open day, capturing your thoughts into the easily searchable theme. Tired of binge watching your streaming service? Cast an eye back across the wide range of different, delightful, and downright entertaining and informative past contributions. See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.