8:00pm Mass, Palm Sunday

All my friends go to 8:00pm Mass at Dahlgren Chapel. It's kind of like a club. I don't always go, but when I do I recognize almost all the people there. The same two violinists, my friend Colin on piano, and the same group of about 20 singing the hymns.

At 8:00pm they do this thing where they sing the Lord's Prayer, and everyone knows it's coming, and we all hold hands. It's confusing not to just rattle off the prayer, but to have to SING it, but I'm getting used to it.

Father Pat Rogers, one of the younger Jesuits on campus (he's in his early forties, whereas Father King, mentioned in a previous post, has got to be 120 years old) was the principal celebrant today. He gave this very short homily about sitting with Jesus during Holy Week in his humanity. As if Jesus was someone very dear to us and it really did confuse us greatly and cause us grief as the events leading up to his death unfolded. It's nice to be reminded that all of this is personal, after all.

At communion, which I took even though I think I am not supposed to, I drank the wine for the first time ever. I usually think it's gross that dozens of people drink out of the same cup, but the girl holding the wine was directly in my path so I thought I'd go for it instead of awkwardly making my way around her.

I'd forgotten what church wine was like. It's pale and bitter and it sticks to your throat. I felt it still burning after five minutes of silence in my seat. I think maybe it's supposed to stick there, maybe it's supposed to remind you that God's promise, much like the wine, doesn't just go away once you've used it up. I sat in the front row, listening to Father Pat, and decided I liked that image.

Afterward, a few of us gathered in the quad and Drew helped me fold my palm fronds into a cross. It turned out pretty well. Father Pat came over and said there was a "sin vortex" around our group of friends and he just had to call people out on it. It took me a few minutes to figure out he was joking. He's an interesting priest. Elyse says he swears a lot.