exult, I SAID EXULT!

     Holy week is awesome! So, as you may know SPIRITUS receives formation every Thursday; either through Cor Iesu or private formation sessions. The line up for formation this year has been incredible! We have been so blessed to receive formation from some priests who are on fire for the Lord, some awesome lay people, we even had a two hour formation session with Bishop David Ricken himself! His secretaries do not even get that much private time with him! One of the priests we are so blessed to receive formation from is Father Peter Mitchell, currently assigned to Saint Mary of the Immaculate in Greenville (go there!). With him we have covered spiritual warfare and how Our Lady totally just wins, Divine Mercy, and the Mass. So now that you have that background I can talk a little bit about Holy Week 2015, which was totally awesome! Long story short, I spent most of my time at Saint Mary the Immaculate in Greenville. On Holy Thursday we had an awesome Mass (you could not find any empty seat) followed by a Eucharistic Procession to the gymnasium, followed by a youth night shindig at Father Peter's (complete with Ice cream, dancing, and tiki torches), followed by adoration until midnight. Good Friday started with Liturgy of the Hours, followed by the Sacrament of Reconciliation, followed by four hours in prayer, followed by Mass. Then came the pinnacle; the Easter Vigil. This year was my second time attending the Easter Vigil and let me just say, if you have never been, GO! Out of all the Masses I have ever been to in my short twenty years of life, this Easter Vigil took the cake as far as intensity goes. First, the fire was an actual bonfire and Father almost lit himself on fire trying to light the Easter Candle. We did seven Old Testament readings with a responsorial psalm and prayer for each one (woo salvation history!), then of course the Epistle, Gospel, and Homily were all ridiculously amazing, so we pretty much had the whole kitten kaboodle as far as the Liturgy of the Word goes. Then came the Baptismal Liturgy, I do not think I will ever forget this. The presence of God was so intense, the entire Church seemed to be shaking with the glory of God; I remember feeling like I had no idea what was going on but that whatever it was, it was awesome! Then the pinnacle of the pinnacle, I received the Eucharist, and everything was right with the world. All the times that I was frustrated and challenged in Lent were worth it, if only for this moment. The words of the Exsultet describe the experience of the Easter Vigil Mass at Saint Mary of the Immaculate in Greenville to a T; "Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven, exult, let Angel ministers of God exult, let the trumpet of salvation sound aloud our mighty King's triumph! Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let all corners of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness. Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice, arrayed with the lightning of his glory, let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples." - The Exsultet: The Proclamation Of Easter
       How does this relate to SPIRITUS? Well, I had the greatest Holy Week of my life so far, and if it was not for the formation I have been so blessed to receive through SPIRITUS I would (probably) never have ended up at Saint Mary of the Immaculate in Greenville. Holy Week would probably still have been awesome, because I mean, it's Holy Week; but it was so providential that I wound up in Greenville with my family for Easter 2015, it was something we all needed desperately. Praise the Lord for the Catholic Church, for the Resurrection, for on fire priests, and for SPIRITUS! Viva Cristo Rey!