Stockemer Family Fun: Easter

I think the Stockemer household may finally be back to our normal schedule (which happens to be a complete lack of a schedule, but it's normal for us none the less). Holy Week was a very hectic time around here, albeit a time of great beauty and a time of thanksgiving.

We started the week off with the RCIA Easter Vigil Retreat on Palm Sunday night. This was a change from past years, when the retreat was on Holy Saturday morning. The change was made in an effort to make the whole week a "retreat" of sorts - to encourage the Elect and Candidates to truly use the week to reflect upon their journey up to this point, and how their journey will continue as fully initiated Catholics- as well as to lessen the number of things normally crammed in to Holy Saturday morning.
The structure of the retreat was also changed a bit by having the group broken up into four small groups to go around to "stations" that would each discuss the four sacraments to be received in the coming week (baptism, reconciliation, confirmation and Eucharist) and address any questions there might be. We then all shared a simple meal and concluded the retreat with reflection questions.
I think the best addition to the retreat lasted all day. At the end of the regular Sunday session the RCIA director read the first part of the gospel story of the woman found in adultery. She stopped the story at the part when the crowd started to pick up rocks to stone the woman. At this point everyone (elect, candidates and sponsors alike) were invited forward to take a rock with them that they were to carry with them all day and bring back with them to the retreat. These were pretty good sized rocks - larger than a good sized onion. After the final reflection question the rest of the gospel story was read, where Jesus says that he who is without sin may cast the first stone, and one by one they dropped their rocks and left. Jesus then turned to the woman and asked if no one was there to condemn her, and she said no, so he replied "Then neither do I. Go and sin no more". Everyone was invited to leave their rocks on a table as they left the retreat, as a symbol of turning away from their past sins they had been carrying around with them. It was really neat to see the whole thing play out. While not everyone took the "assignment" as seriously as they could have, there were several people that really did take their rock everywhere with them - one lady took hers to her workout class! We really do need more sponsors like her!
The rest of Holy Week was equally busy. Monday night was the Reconciliation service for the candidates (as was mentioned in a previous post). Tuesday and Wednesday were thankfully "rest" days (no PSR during spring break - woo hoo!) Thursday was the Mass of the Lord's Supper with the washing of the feet and the 2nd grade Eucharistic procession to the Chapel of Repose (where Jesus is kept in the Blessed Sacrament until the Easter Vigil). The morning of Good Friday we started setting up for the Holy Saturday Rites as well as the Easter Vigil reception, and that evening was the Celebration of the Lord's Passion with the veneration of the cross. The whole week was a beautiful opportunity to reflect on Jesus' sacrifice for us, and the immense opportunity that has been given to us as Christians to follow his teachings and strive to one day be reunited with him in heaven - what a gift!
Holy Saturday morning we celebrated the Holy Saturday Rites and had practiced for the vigil, followed by the final setup for the vigil (the stuff that couldn't be done ahead of time so the candidates and elect wouldn't see it). After having a few hour break, we were back up at church for the Easter Vigil (Melanie stayed with Grams and Gramps and Uncle John). If you haven't been to an Easter Vigil, I highly recommend it. It isn't exactly "kid friendly" (there are seven readings in addition to the baptisms, confirmations and those receiving first communion) and it averages out to about a 3 hour service (at least at SEAS it is, but we had 38 people come into the church. I'm sure if your respective parish has a smaller RCIA group the mass time would be shorter accordingly). I love walking into the sanctuary that is completely dark except for the candles being held by those processing in - you really feel that something special is going to happen. And after the candles are blown out and we listen to the first reading in the dark, your sense of smell is heightened and you can smell all the flowers that have been brought in for the decorations, and it's just so sweet! To be so close to all these people receiving the sacraments is truly a blessing!

Here's Matt with his neophyte, Rich

After we cleaned up from the Milk and Honey reception we picked Melanie up (it was just after 12:30) and went home and crashed. We slept in until 8:45(!!!) when Melanie woke up (she did go to bed several hours before us, after all). It was nice to be able to just take our time getting ready. We were at Matt's parents house at 12:00 and went to my aunt's house around 2:30. It was a nice restful day after such a busy week!

Here are a few pictures of Melanie's first Easter.