If attendance is an indicator of success, our Holy Week and Easter services were successful this year. In previous years I've had to abandon the outdoor Stations of the Cross in which we follow a little route around the centre of the village because nobody had turned up to join me, but this year there were ten souls including Clarke who is 14 and autistic and after each station wanted to know where we were going next whereupon, having been told, he expressed his incredulity with enthusiasm. We had more people at the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies than I think any time since I arrived in Swanvale Halt, and that was also true of the Dawn Mass on Easter Day. Several congregation members who might normally be expected to turn up later in the day were there for that early service, but the others held up decently too. 74 (including 6 under-16s) at the main mass is no great shakes compared to pre-pandemic days, but it's still a slight advance on 2022.
Once the rain stopped today, I went out for a wander around the paths and lanes east of Swanvale Halt. I'm pretty sure I've been to all these places before, if not approaching them from that direction! As ever the Surrey hills present an intriguing patchwork of textures and visions.
For some of us, this Easter was the gateway to death and not to life. You did very well. But what can any of us do?
ReplyDeleteSometimes it just feels as though the dark side is winning. That brings us to the message of the cross in all its terrible beauty.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, the message of the Cross being that the victory has already been won - and not by us. The dark may dream it's winning, but it's already defeated.
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