Alleluia: Praise the Lord
Last Sunday we had a wonderful service with the students and families from Waka Hourua (senior school) joining us. This week we celebrate Mother’s Day and the Baptism of Marlie.
As we travel through the season of Eastertide, the fifty days from Easter Day to the Day of Pentecost, our worship has a distinctive celebratory or festal feel. We begin the service with Alleluia (“praise the Lord”) being added at the greeting, and at the end of the service. We also light the Paschal Candle signifying the light of Christ’s resurrection overcoming the darkness of the tomb, Christ defeating death. The “Gloria” is also reintroduced. These things contrast strongly with the Lenten penitential season. During the season of Easter we seek to minimise or remove the penitential elements of the service as we focus on the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection.
The sprinkling of Blessed Water over those gathered, which is usually confined to the Easter Season, is a visceral reminder of our baptisms and could also be connected to the washing of the disciples’ feet before the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. This is also appropriately done following a Baptism and before the Affirmation. These are some of the ways our liturgy adapts as we move through the church year, reflecting changes we feel as we continue the journey.
God Bless you
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