Communion, the "Hallelujah Chorus", and an Easter basket.

All I really need are the first two.

At first, I got none. The church I went to, the same one as last year, didn't do communion nor the Hallelujah Chorus. I had forgotten that they didn't do either last year either. When I thought about it, I realized that communion for Easter really isn't an Easter thing (even though I had been raised that communion was always on Easter, even if it meant moving the monthly communion to Easter). That communion is Maundy Thursday, of course! I thought, where can I go to get communion? Was it too late, since the service I was at started at 10:30 and so ended at 11:30 which was well after most services? I was gonna just write everything off as a bad Easter, and try to have a decent time with family, but not getting communion affected me so bad I was crying as if something was majorly wrong. And so it seems it was. Some part of me (my soul?) was shaking with hurt. I went back to trying to figure out where could I find communion? And would I be able to go up to the minister and ask if it was too late to get communion and have him(her) accommodate me? (And would I be able to keep the tears from my eyes?) I decided to go to a Catholic church, for certainly they'd have done communion on Easter Sunday. Right? The only problem there was I'm not Catholic. Though I've been to plenty of Catholic services, I've never taken communion at a Catholic church - out of respect for their beliefs. But today I was going to, and then ask for forgiveness later, ask what would I need to do for them to make them okay. I decided to try the one right across the main road from my place. Sure enough, the Catholics there have communion every Sunday, and there was a 12:30pm service! Do I didn't have to ask for a special serving. In the pews, they had a book that on the inside cover gave the rules about taking communion, and who could and couldn't. There was a specific section about non-Catholic Christians, which taken one way sounded like I would be allowed! I asked the Priest to be sure, telling him I wasn't Catholic. He asked if I wanted communion and I said a certain "Yes". He said so long as I agreed to abide by the things set down in the book (about communion), and circled the part that was for Catholics, I could. I agreed, saying "Absolutely".

The point of that story is two-fold. One I stated at the beginning of this post. The other being that I promised myself if the Catholics let me take communion I would not again lump the individuals together with the church. I still don't agree with many of the specifics the Catholic church perpetuates nor like how it messes up the minds of people raised in it, but the actual people are individuals and so can be independently judged from the church as an institution. Therefore now, as with the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), I will defend Catholics when people speak bad about them out of ignorance.

Back to my Easter. As with most years, I got my dose of the Hallelujah Chorus by playing it for myself later in the day. And on Monday I went to CVS and bought everything I wanted to make myself an Easter basket on the post-Easter sale. I got just about $20 in the family's traditional egg hunt, so I'm saying that's what paid for the basket (even though I got it for myself).

I had a great time with the family at Aunt Bonnie's house. Despite being two hours late, for having gone to church twice, I still got to do everything: the egg hunt, the big dinner, time with the kids, and cards with the adults.

It was a good Easter.