Triduum Try This at Home Guide

Although the Triduum -- Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil -- is an especially important time to participate in Christian community (aka, Body of Christ), you may also observe it at home. For years I've made an effort to mirror beloved customs and liturgical activities in my domestic church. On this Maundy Thursday, I'm happy to share my Triduum Try This at Home Guide.

Holy (Maundy) Thursday at home:

• Strip religious chotchkes from all walls and surfaces.
• Give someone a pedicure.
• Meditate on all the events leading up to the Crucifixion, especially the scene at Gethsemane without dozing off like those slacker disciples.

Good Friday at home:

• Don't eat.
• Don't talk.
• Choose from among the approximately 3,381 Requiems as background music for the day.
• Switch your lights on and off at 3:00 PM.
• Slam doors.

Preparation for Easter Vigil if you're going to church: Take 10 mgs. of Loratadine approximately two hours before arriving to offset the olfactory impact of lilies.

Easter Vigil at home:

• Get Baptismal and Confirmation candles out of the freezer where they've been stored.
• Take a bath while wrapped in a shmatteh and reciting your baptismal promises.
• Take 10 mgs. of Loratadine.
• Circa 1:00 am, sing the Hallelujah chorus while restoring your religious chotchkes and filling your home with lilies.

Gentle Gentile Reminder for Holy Week

Dearly Beloved Sisters and Brothers,

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God always and everywhere for your presence in my life. Soon and very soon we will enter into the ramped up mysteries of Holy Week. As we wait in hopeful joy for the Light of the World to burst forth once again, I feel called by Almighty God again this year to remind you:

We do not make the arduous journey to Golgatha for this:

And this, too, is very wrong:*

*Peeps must be yellow.

What Wondrous Love is This*

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this
That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

*Appalachian Folk Hymn