The Holiest of Holy Weeks

I love holy week and it's one of my favorite times of the year in the Catholic Church. I’ve always gone to Holy Thursday mass and the Good Friday service too.  This holy week has exceeded all other holy weeks in the amount of services and time spent in church. I’ll begin with Palm Sunday.  In the community that I live in there is one sister who does not speak the local native language of Igbo.  At the local parish all masses are in Igbo, which I obviously do not speak.  On Palm Sunday this sister decided to drive further into the city, so that we could go to the one parish where mass is done in English. I was very grateful for this, as it’s hard to fully participate in mass when you don’t always know what’s going on.  The Palm Sunday service at this parish was almost identical to the one I am used to attending at home. We began in the parking lot and did the procession into the church where mass continued as normal.

Holy week continued on Monday with a special mass at the cathedral. The mass was to honor the bishop in the Enugu diocese.  It was in Igbo, so other than the occasional translation from one of the sisters I didn’t understand what was being said.  The mass was done outside in a very large area probably the size of a football field. It was filled with people and probably a hundred priests. The mass was pretty long. There was lots of singing and the homily (when the bishop speaks) lasted for much longer than the average American homily. After mass people from different parts of the diocese and different organizations within the various churches presented the bishop with gifts. He was presented with gifts ranging from cases of water, to yams, to rice, to large live animals. I’ve never seen anything like it.  We got to leave at the beginning of the gift presentation for a while to visit one of the nearby markets, which I’ll talk about in a different post.  It was a nice little break from all the sitting. In total I think we were there about five hours. There was a lunch served to all the people at the end and Kaitlin and I were introduced to the bishop.  Do we have a celebration for the bishop like this in the states? If we do I’ve never heard of it.

We continued Holy Week on Wednesday with a morning of quiet reflection. We drove to a church compound I had not yet been to and sat outside in silence reading and reflecting for the morning. I enjoyed this. It was nice to go somewhere new and enjoy some time resting and reflecting under a nice shady tree. There were a few more bugs than I would like, but that’s a story for a different post.

Holy Thursday began with mass at the cathedral again. This mass is known as the Chrism Mass.  Like Monday there were hundreds of people from all over the diocese and several hundred priests. The priests were there to renew their vows.  It was also in Igbo, but the sisters did have a missal so I could read and follow along.  This mass ended with lunch for all the sisters and priests present.  Holy Thursday continued in the evening with the traditional Holy Thursday mass. They did the traditional washing of the disciples’ feet. Unlike my church at home, all of the people chosen to have their feet washed were men. After the service there was 24-hour adoration. The sisters and about a hundred other people had the first hour, which was good for me because I don’t think I would have been able to participate in the middle of the night.

Good Friday began in the afternoon with the Stations of the Cross.  The church acted out the Stations. It was pretty impressive.  We began in the church with Jesus in the garden right before he is handed over by Judas.  It was the most realistic production of the passion I have ever seen in person. There was fake blood and the guards very believably beat the man playing Jesus. The stations actually started outside and continued around the block. Unfortunately there were so many people that I couldn’t see many of the stations and since it wasn’t in English I couldn’t understand anything being said.  When we returned to the compound they put the man playing Jesus on the cross and had two other men on crosses to each side. At this point Jesus was covered in the fake blood and looked as exhausted as I would imagine Jesus would have been. Kaitlin and I had been warned by the U.S. Embassy in an email that we should be extra cautious during Holy Week, because it could be a potential time for terrorists against Christianity to attack. Well, after Jesus was hung on the cross there was a small explosion sound and smoke coming from right behind the compound wall. I jumped and thought for a split second we were being attacked. A little ridiculous I know, but no one had warned us that gunfire would be used to make the sound of thunder. So if you’re ever in Nigeria for the acting out of the Stations of the Cross, don’t panic when you here a small explosion. However I think in the future a drum might be more appropriate.  Good Friday continued with the typical service and veneration of the cross.

On Saturday I attended the vigil mass, which for those of you that know me well you will understand that is quite an accomplishment for me to stay up past a 11p.m. The vigil started at 10p.m. with the lighting of the candles. It continued with what I think was a pretty traditional Easter vigil. I have actually never been to an Easter vigil service that I can remember, so I don’t have much to compare it to. The one thing I’m pretty certain does not occur at home is dancing. There was so much dancing! People were dancing in the aisles, in the pews, and on the stage. The singing and dancing ended around 2 a.m. and to my surprise I managed to make it through the entire service without falling asleep. It was definitely a celebration and something I will not forget.

Happy Easter!