As someone raised Catholic, I am no stranger to tradition and ceremony. Alas, as I grow older, I drift further away from the traditions that once were a given part of my life - lighting the Advent wreath, big Christmas dinners (divided amongst 2 households of parents often in one stressful day, but dinners nice nonetheless), morning Mass during Lent, the tradition of remembering it was Lent after blithely indulging in a ham sandwich on a Friday, and of course, my favorite religious holiday, Easter (sorry, couldn't compete with the heathen Halloween celebration as a child).
Today, a friend of mine took me to her church on the west side of Detroit. She grew up in Detroit, still lives here, and always patiently explains what this or that gutted building used to be whenever we tool around the area. Before heading to church today for Good Friday services, we went to Greektown and got Greek Easter bread, knotted and topped with sesame seeds and a colored hardboiled egg (mine was pink!). Then we drove back to her church and stopped off at the fish fry in the basement. I met some of her buddies, older women who filled me in on "pastor" Terry Jones' present plan to protest extremists ("hello Pot, I'm Kettle, pleased to meet!") at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn.
Then on to church, where I was not struck down by lightning...probably an act of Divine Grace. The outside structure of the church was beautiful and imposing, though surrounded by typical Detroit blight...the inside, though, was phenomenal. The church was established in 1893 and you could see that it was still deeply cared for, despite a roster of a mere 220 parishoner families. The service took me back to my childhood in Vegas, though I never experienced any service in such a beautiful setting. And lots and lots of icons! There was a life-size Jesus reclining in a glass tomb on one side, and statues, stained glass windows, and blue and gold everywhere. I loved it, and I enjoyed the service...but I felt like a tourist after having been gone so long from being a practicing Catholic. The Good Friday service includes a reading of the Passion, honoring the crucified Jesus (a.k.a. kissing Jesus' feet on a crucifix), Communion, then exiting without any music/pomp/circumstance. I don't know if I will go to Easter Mass. I always liked Easter Mass as a child, though I did not often go to Good Friday services. As an adult, I feel that maybe Good Friday is as important to attend as Easter is...there is no Easter without Good Friday!
Well, not very descriptive, more of a chronicle of my out-of-the-ordinary excursion today - wish I had pictures!
