On Friday, Katie and I attended the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion at the Cathedral, beginning at 1 pm.

The bishop wasn’t there- I’m just assuming he was in South Bend (remember this is the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend) at the co-Cathedral over there.

The place was, as you’d expect, packed. We squeezed in a tight space about 3 rows from the front – when I have no small potential disruptions with me, believe you me I’m going to sit as close to the front as I can. The rector celebrated, assisted by, I think five other priests and perhaps four servers.

The service began with snare drum in the back, providing a slow and solemn beginning to the procession.  The gospel was proclaimed by three of the priests in sections (not speaking parts), with each section divided by congregational singing of Were you there? a hymn which I like, but doesn’t serve us well in that function, I think.

Ever spoiled by my brief encounters with Eastern Christianity, both Catholic and Orthodox, as well as monastic liturgy, I think I understand now how congregational responsorials are supposed to work in the context of liturgy, and it’s really not in the sense of "Someone talk for a long time…" "SING!" "Someone talk for a while again" "SING!". It’s more.."You chant" "Now we chant" "Now you chant again." "Chant!" "You! Chant!" "Your turn to chant  ‘Lord Have Mercy’!’ A lot of times!" It is profoundly participatory and doesn’t jolt you from one mode to the other.

But anyway. The no-instrumentals ideal was broken at the procession with the cross, in which the "This is the wood of the cross" proclamation was a setting by Howard Hughes, SM in which the congregation sings "Holy is God, holy and strong, holy and living for ever," in this case, to a blasting organ. I didn’t quite grasp the use of the organ at that point.

Veneration was of a large cross with no corpus, and took about 35-40 minutes, I’d say.  To watch and pray as you witness the throngs venerate the cross is so moving. The older woman with her middle-aged son with Down’s Syndrome, the parents with small children, the business people, the hipsters, the self-conscious teens, the elderly couple who shuffled up to the cross, arm in arm, then kissed the cross, together, as one. What crosses do they all bear, turning to Christ in their own Via Crucis?

The music during veneration included "Sing MY Tongue the Savior’s Glory," "O Sacred Head Surrounded," "Father, I Put My LIfe in Your Hands," "What Wondrous Love isThis," and several Latin pieces which the choir sang, but which weren’t, unfortunately, identified in the program.

The service lasted for about two hours, confessions afterwards, with lines of about twenty people formed for each set of confessionals.

The wood of the cross set up in the silence of the cathedral afterwards, a silence broken by creaking kneelers and shuffling feet, all in half-darkness, waiting.