This article isn't very well-written ...

"Early date for Easter has church scrambling" - Asbury Park Press, 3/9/08:

Cross off the feast of St. Patrick on March 17.

Insert an arrow to move the solemnity of St. Joseph, an important holiday for many ethnic Italians, from March 19 to March 15.

Draw another arrow to switch the feast of the Annunciation from March 25 to March 31.

Like a collision of freight cars at a train depot, the more weighty days of Holy Week have bumped the three other feasts out of the way.

I had secretly hoped, through some miraculous mistake, that this evening's Gospel would come from the daily readings because the Palm Sunday reading¹ is sooo long! No chance.

And my Daughters of St. Paul missal² doesn't mark out the roles, so I had to hold the heavy, flopsy pew missal.

As a kid, I remember loathing the "Crowd's" lines. Why is it my part to cry "Crucify Him!"

As I get older and more cynical, it gets easier to read those lines ... and mean them.

¹ There are, in fact, two Gospel readings in the Palm Sunday liturgy.

² With Scripture commentary by Fr. Harrington from the Sacra Pagina Commentary Series. How can I not feel that I've backed the right horse?!

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Discussing baptismal rites in reaction to the Vatican's call for a return to traditional trinitarian language, the description came out of a ritual involving the sprinkling of rose petals.

One of the older ladies side-barred to her friend, "Didn't they throw rose petals at Christ when he entered Jerusalem?"

I thought to myself that I'm not looking forward to getting old and having the mind go.

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The processional hymn was the Campus Crusade classic mantra Our God Reigns which only I and the cantor were familiar with. No one else was singing.

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From the same Press article:

Here at the Jersey Shore, it means an earlier than normal spring kickoff for Jenkinson's Amusements on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach and Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, both of which traditionally begin weekend operations on Easter weekend, when parents in the know line up to buy half-priced tickets.

My friend wants to go Good Friday if the weather's decent. She hasn't a religious impulse in her body. We still have tons of tickets that she bought for us half-price last year. Still good, perpetually good.

tags technorati : palm sunday jenkinsons