Holy Thursday Seder

Holy Thursday has always been one of my favorite celebrations in the liturgical calendar - it's different from all the others.  It usually promises a poignant liturgy - with the washing of the feet, the commissioning of disciples with the new law of love, the consecration of people who serve the church, the procession of the Host to the side altar, and the the calm in the garden before the storm of Good Friday.  And when I was younger Holy Thursday meant family visits to three churches after the Holy Thursday Mass at our own parish.  I really miss family traditions like that one - solitary visits to the many churches in my new neighborhood are just not the same.

Thanks to some good friends, however, I think I have a new NYC Holy Thursday tradition.  I've been invited to their Seder two years running now, and I've not approached Catholic liturgy - particularly Holy Thursday - in the same way.  The similarities are palpable - the unleavened bread, the wine, the song, the focus on nourishment, the role of memory, etc.  But there's a theme of a Seder dinner that is often missing in the Catholic Eucharist - the urgent expectation of God's liberation of enslaved people is just powerful and empowering.  Remembering God's action on behalf of the people of Israel offers an important reminder of what the salvific act of  Christ's crucifixion is all about.

St. Patrick's Day in NYC

So I'm a bit Irish.  But I'd never been to a St. Patrick's Day parade.  Needless to say, NYC's a great place to cut your teeth with just about anything - and the city's Irish (and not so Irish!) decedents did not disappoint!  A few highlights from my 12+ hour participation in the celebration:  a sea of Irish and American flags making their way up 6th in the bright March sunshine, the changing demographics of the city evident in the different ethnicities marching behind the banners of some of the city's oldest Catholic high schools, the spontaneous performances by drum corps and bagpipe troops in just about every pub we stopped in along the East Side, and the new 9/11 rebel songs that all the guys in uniform seemed to know.  As the Saw Doctors sing, "What a day, oh what a day!"