Our Easter Vigil is scheduled to start at 4PM.

[hedgehog]

It's been creeping earlier and earlier every year. We used to start in the dark, but I think we'll be going home in the day light this year! I guess it's OK: our priest is in such poor health that I don't think he can manage a late night Vigil. (Admittedly, by 10PM I'm ready for bed, myself!) I hope he doesn't rush it like last year, though. He cut all the readings short to bring everything in under 2 hours. Easter vigil can be a long service, but c'mon; it's the EASTER VIGIL!

[CBHagman]

1. Easter vigil is not for sissies.

I used to go to the Dominican House in DC for Easter vigil. For starters, we had to arrive early, perhaps by 10:00 or 10:30, in order to even get a seat in the chapel. I usually wound up using the extra time to rope a Dominican into hearing my confession.

When the service started, we all filed out to the courtyard for the Easter fire -- very striking sight, that -- and then back into the darkened chapel. Depending on the number of readings, the service could go on well into the night, and of course if they were baptizing someone (and sang a litany of the saints, too), we didn't know when we were going home.

We were always punchy by late in the service. Fortunately the Dominicans capped it all off with a reception in the wee hours of the morning. Then it was back home for a long sleep.

[knitter4democracy]

2. I thought canon law said that the candles had to be lit at midnight.

At least, that's what one of our old priests told me one year when I asked why we did things in the middle of the night.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. ALL Vigil masses are supposed to

start after sunset, following Jewish tradition of it being the next day then. But an awful lot of priests and bishops use Vatican II as an excuse to do whatever suits them.

Of course I can sympathize with older priests but they could take naps so they wouldn't be too tired at Easter Vigil (or any Vigil) and if they don't live in the rectory by the church, and their night vision is bad, they could surely find a parishioner to drive them home. (What's up with them not living in the rectory, anyway?)

[knitter4democracy]

4. In Orthodox tradition, starting after sunset isn't enough.

Our vigils start around 11pm so that the announcement that He is risen can be at midnight. I thought the Catholic Church had the same canon laws on that.

[Matilda]

6. Catholic churches used to do the same, pre Vatican II.

The blessing of the fire (outside the church), the blessing of the baptismal water, the uncovering
of the statues (which were draped in purple afte the Holy Thursday Mass), all took place between
11.00 and midnight, then the first Mass of Easter began with the official start of the new day,
at 12.00. Canon Law says only that the Easter Vigil should start after sunset and finish before
sunrise of the following day.

Our church has gradually moved the starting time forward until now it's 7.30 - as daylight saving
time ended here last weekend, it will now just be dark at 7.30. The Mass finishes around 8.45.
That's pretty short these days, but my parish is Jesuit, and they do tend to write their own rules.

[hedgehog]

8. I would love to do that and I am a person who has trouble staying awake at night.

If we can't take some extra trouble to celebrate Easter, why are we in Church the rest of the year!

[hedgehog]

5. I just hope it goes better than last year.

Last year our priest was recovering from a heart attack and kept telling everyone he could die at any time. He started out Palm Sunday with a case of pneumonia and could barely talk. As we went through Holy Week, he insisted on doing all the very physical parts of the Liturgy himself even though we have a retired priest who is in much better shape who attended every service. I kept being distracted from the prayers wondering if the priest was going to drop dead in the next five minutes! I half expected the Easter Vigil to be canceled. The Vigil itself was almost perfunctory because so much was trimmed. I should make clear that what was trimmed were parts that various lay people in the Congress had done over the years, such as a reading of Genesis accompanied by the choir. All the priest's "starring" parts were retained. When it was all done, our priest boasted about how he'd brought the Vigil in under two hours. All I could figure out is that someone had been complaining about the long services. My attitude is that if the Vigil is too long for you, go to Mass on Sunday morning. Of course, if you go on Sunday morning, you're going to have to scrunch into the pew with the Easter Catholics!

[hedgehog]

7. ARGGGG! An update!

So today, our pastor replaced the Passion according to St. Like with an abbreviated passion according to St. Matthew! Then he announced that he planned on bringing in all the Holy Week services at an hour or less! This was done without touching base with Parish Council. The music director told me he thinks that attendance at the Easter Vigil will increase if it is kept short and early. My reaction is, what's the point of that! It's like serving turkey loaf on paper plates for Thanksgiving because it's more convenient!

[Matilda]

9. Perhaps they should look more at the presentation than the time.

Early in the 90s, our Pastoral Associate was a professional actress, and she began a custom of
dramatizing the liturgy that was very successful. Her Passion in particular was very powerful - as
a regular participant, I can say that I've never got as much from the liturgy as I did working with
her - and people started coming from all over Sydney to see it. They were literally spilling out
the doors and down the front steps. She left the parish about eight years ago, but the tradition
has continued, albeit not quite as dramatically strong, and we have very good attendances, standing
room only for our Passion, which lasts around an hour, plus all the rest of the service - Veneration
of the Cross, etc., so the whole thing is about an hour and a half.

I have noticed that over the past three or four years, we're not getting the attendances we used to
on Holy Thursday or for the Vigil, although we have beautiful ceremonies, with lots of lay people
involved, and I can only put it down to increasing secularism, and I don't know what the answer to
that one is. Ours is one of Sydney's better-known churches, but even our Sunday attendances have
been dropping off in recent years, although it's a progressive and innovative parish, and people
come from quite a distance to attend Mass there. I'm not sure if it's just that people are more
materialistic these days, or perhaps it's a general dissatisfaction with the Vatican hierarchy, who
sometimes do seem to live on a different planet.