Friday, March 14, 2008

Friday Five: Time for Palms

Over at RevGalBlogPals, Mother Laura asks:

Can you believe Daylight Savings Time is here already? It's hard to get used to the new, earlier onset. My family has been getting up and out a little late and a little sleepy in the mornings.

And can you believe that in two days it will be Palm Sunday for Western Christians? Our Lent is almost over, while our Orthodox sisters and brothers, whose liturgical year follows the older Julian calendar, are just starting theirs. Nicholas did a recent book report on George Washington, and we were surprised to find out that our first President's birthday was originally Feb. 11, since he was born just before the change to the Gregorian calendar. Apparently the change almost caused rioting, as some indignant people were sure that they were being cheated out of eleven days of their lives!

(Mother Laura featured a music video of "Ride On, Ride On in Majesty" which is lovely, but this is still the song that I think of each Palm Sunday. In my one choir experience at the firehouse Sunday school, we sang this -- pretty ambitious for a bunch of fifth-graders!)

To help you adjust--and enjoy the process--here's a Friday Five about time and transitions....

1. If you could travel to any historical time period, which would it be, and why?
This is a hard one -- so many choices. And a lot would depend on where as well as when. But I think for my first time travel experience I'd want to go to New York City in the 1920s, in some capacity where I could hobnob with the early staff of The New Yorker.

2. What futuristic/science fiction development would you most like to see?
That's easy! Time travel!

3. Which do you enjoy more: remembering the past, or dreaming for the future?
Well, I certainly have more past than future at this point! And I do enjoy remembering, researching, reading and talking about the past. Yet, I still enjoy dreaming about the future. And of course, the future is as yet untainted by regrets and might-have-beens. So I'd have to say the latter.

4. What do you find most memorable about this year's Lent?
Once again, as three years ago, my church is undergoing transition and self-examination. (A different church this time.) With my former church, three years later all concerned are in a very good place. I hope and pray that will be the case here in three years, or even sooner.

5. How will you spend your time during this upcoming Holy Week? What part do you look forward to most?
We will have a Taize worship service on Thursday, and a Tenebrae service with special choir music on Friday. And of course Easter Sunday will be a big celebration. Of the three I think I most look forward to Thursday, at least I hope that it will be the deep experience of Maundy Thursdays past. I will miss, still, our old custom in City of Lakes of having a Holy Saturday breakfast and Bible study -- and not just because of the hot cross buns!

Even if you don't blog yourself, you can answer some or all of the above questions in a comment!

4 comments:

Dorcas (aka SingingOwl) said...

I've never been part of a Taize service. Wish I could join you. And I like the idea of the Saturday breakfast! I may think about that for next year.

Maria Tafoya said...

We're doing some Taize music for Palm Sunday. I'm busy being confident in advance that it will go well.

Love your answer about the future. Another thing the future is untainted with is "We've always done it this way."

Dr. Laura Marie Grimes said...

Beautiful video--I wish I could hear it sung, as I don't know the piece. We sang Cantique de Jean Racine but that was in high school choir.

Have a blessed Taize and all else in Holy Week.

Elaine (aka...Purple) said...

Taize is one of my favorite worship spaces to be in. Hope it is wonderful...and the hot cross buns.