Exulting!

I'm sorry he got sick. But I'm really glad I got to sing the Exsultet!

I love the Easter vigil. Somehow we used to finish it under three hours with all eight possible readings. For some reason we now barely manage that with only the minimum five. I miss the ones we don't get to hear anymore, especially the Genesis reading with Jacob and Isaac, on which Michael Card's song God Will Provide the Lamb was based.

A funny conclusion from a child

The young man who used to be our assistant music director before he moved away has come back, with his wife and young children, and was in the church to rehearse while I was setting up the music area for this evening's vigil. "I've got to tell you this," he began.

He then related how they'd been preparing to come to the Holy Thursday service, which was an unusual day and for their three-year-old son to be coming to church. So he asked if they were going to the white room, which his dad concluded referred to our music room. But before realizing this his dad asked, "The white room?"

"Yeah," his son replied, "Where Mr. Tom lives."

Well, around Easter that's almost true, I guess.

Opposite problems

You want us all to leave you alone.

I wish just one other person would remember and be with me.

Blessings

First, no one directly asked me about my childhood at the end of the meeting.

Second, someone found the car key I dropped this morning before I realized it was missing.

Biggest: I am deeply loved.
because all of this is better to think about than wanting to die.

why do i so often feel so hopeless?

Measuring progress - days become weeks

21, so 3.

I don't expect I'll post about this on a weekly basis, at least not for long. But for now, it's good to keep reminding myself how God continues to provide grace. I'm still weak, but am trying to trust Him each day. 

If there's a next time I post about this, I'll have to drop the label "Lent" . . . 

Today's words

From the Dictionary Devil puzzle:

amphimixis /ˌam(p)-fi-ˈmik-səs/ - the union of gametes in sexual reproduction

Because in scientific usage, fertilization won't do? Perhaps this is a more general term?

novation /nō-ˈvā-shən/ - the substitution of a new legal obligation for an old one

This could be a useful word. This happens all the time. I've quit managing my credit by this approach.

pasquinade /ˌpa-skwə-ˈnād/ - 1. a lampoon posted in a public place 2. satirical writing : satire

I believe I've recently encountered this word in its second sense, and perhaps have run into it in the first sense before, as used in the puzzle, as well. 

wainscot /ˈwān-skət , -ˌskōt , -ˌskät/ - 1. British : a fine grade of oak imported for woodwork
2a. (1) : a usually paneled wooden lining of an interior wall (2) : a lining of an interior wall irrespective of material  b. the lower three or four feet (about one meter) of an interior wall when finished differently from the remainder of the wall

I was also familiar with this word, but only in its 2b definition, but not in the 2a(1) definition used in the puzzle.