Smorgasbord #24
Easter Edition
Hello friends! This is Smorgasbord, a self-service buffet of ideas. The capirotada of newsletters. Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Happy Easter! I hope you had a holy Triduum and are now basking in the glory of the resurrection and enjoying a proper feast. As I write these lines, my blood sugar is through the roof due to copious amounts of morning buns, jelly beans, and Reese’s peanut butter eggs my kids shared with me. Let’s get into it.
Triduum
A few years ago, Diana and I decided we would wash each others feet on Holy Thursday as part of our family tradition. The kids love it, and they even fight over who gets to wash whose feet.
After this, I took Oliver, our oldest, to Mass. After Mass, we visited the altar of repose, and I constantly asked him how he was doing. About twenty minutes in, he said he was done. When I told him we were going home, he asked if we could go to one more Church. I had told him about the visit to the seven temples tradition, but decided against doing that this year, because it can take a few hours to go visit seven Churches. So we drove down the street to St. Joseph’s. Oliver had allergies and was sneezing hard. “I’ve got a kleenex—a clean one,” said a lady in the second altar of repose. It was a life saver. I think it’s funny she felt the need to clarify the kleenex was clean.
On Good Friday, we went over to the Church for live Stations of the Cross. A group of parishioners put together the representation of the passion of Christ, which is always very powerful to witness. We didn’t stay for veneration of the cross, but watched the Good Friday liturgy that Pope Francis lead in the Vatican. The kids didn’t find it as interesting as I did.
We tried to limit screen time on Holy Saturday, which proved challenging. We had to deal with Oliver’s allergies which got worse. Thank God for friends who are pediatricians. I had told Diana I wanted to go to the vigil Mass, and since it started at 7:30, once our babies were in bed, I went.
Our pastor pulled out all the stops. Processing into the Church with candles lit from the fire of the Paschal candle and remaining in a low light setting during the liturgy of the word was special. The cloud of incense was impossible to ignore. A small army of altar servers, two priests, and two deacons, plus the choir.
My favorite part was right before the Gloria, when the lights of the Church went on at its brightest setting, the organist turned it up to eleven in terms of volume and intensity with wich she was playing, the altar servers ringing bells. It was glorious.
Twelve souls were claimed for Christ, and seeing each one of them get baptized, confirmed, and receiving our Lord in the Eucharist for the first time was such a special thing to witness.
Easter Sunday morning was a rainy one, hence the sweaters in our picture after Mass. The Church was packed and our 2 yo was having a hard time, but we managed. We had morning buns, eggs and bacon for breakast. I made Diana a Mimosa and I spiked my orange juice with some gin. We enjoyed a good amount of candy from the kids Easter baskets while we watched a movie. Finally, we had an Easter egg hunt.
We Who Wrestle with God
On March 24th, I attended Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s lecture tour at the Arizona Financial Theatre. His son, Julian Peterson, was the opening act. Julian sang a few cover songs and an original one; apparently, he’s working on an album. I had no idea he sang.
Mikhaila, Dr. Peterson’s daughter, took the stage after her brother. She talked about getting a sense of God's presence and feeling she was saved, which caused the uproar of what I assume was the Protestants in attendance. Shortly after this, she introduced her dad.
I think Dr. Peterson was making a case for being Christian today since the deterioration of society is directly related to the abandonment of Judeo-Christian values. However, I was surprised he didn’t talk at all about his wife Tammy’s conversion to Catholicism.
When I first discovered Dr. Peterson’s work, I was bothered by his ambiguity about whether he was a Christian. After all, he talks like a biblical scholar and has spent a good chunk of his career studying the Bible. Eventually, I got over it and read “12 Rules for Life,” an excellent book for men who need a kick in the pants to start their journey to find purpose, which many lack.
However, in the Q&A, Mikhaila brought up a question from the audience where a couple was expecting their first child. They were not religious but wanted to bring their kid up in the Church, to which Dr. Peterson responded that a good thing could be poorly executed. He said he regretted not taking his kids to Church growing up, so he advised the couple to do their best to learn as much as possible alongside their child.
I’m curious if Dr. Peterson will eventually join the Catholic Church. Part of me thinks he would lose a percentage of his audience by doing so, but it might not be a big deal for someone who has been canceled if he realizes that eternity is at stake here. The fact that his next book is called “We Who Wrestle with God” should clue us in for what’s next. I, for one, am all about it.
Read/Write
If you haven’t checked out Puros Cuentos, where I’m publishing micro fiction, check it out! Recently I wrote Lost Keys, and a couple stories published straight to Notes, based on prompts by
Unfortunately, I wasn’t selected to participate in
‘s Gibberish Writing Competition 2024 (GCW 24). However, I’ll try to write stories based on the prompts from it. If you’re interested in following the five brave souls selected for this challenge, you can fnd them here.I’m hooked on
’s serial novel Remembrance. I’m ashamed to admit I’m late to jump on the bandwagon, since the last chapter was just published BUT on the other hand, now I can binge read it without waiting a week for the next chapter. [Roll Safe Meme]
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Sobremesa
How was your Triduum? Tell me everything.
Have you wrestled with God?
Do you lose your keys often?
I’m curious about the visit to seven temples tradition. When and where did this tradition originate? I know of six Catholic churches all within 45 minutes from my house, so I’d love to do this tradition one year.
I spent the Triduum pretty much at home dealing with physical pain from an fibromyalgia flare. I honestly didn't expect it to worsen, but it did. I called into our Lector coordinator and asked her to find me a replacement for Vigil, knowing that it'd be imprudent to try the physical and mental feat of a 2.5 hour emotional, late-night liturgy outdoors in my condition. Then I put down my phone and cried.
By Sunday afternoon, I was mostly back to my normal self. I was able to get to Spanish Mass, which ended up being a real blessing and a sweet hug from my community and from God.