Easter Vigil

Saturday night I attended the Easter Vigil service at St. Jerome’s Catholic Church in El Cerrito, Calif. to see my friend Carolyn become a Catholic. Carolyn, who is in her sixties (I hope she won’t mind my saying that!) decided sometime in the last year that she wanted to become a member of the church she had been attending for quite some time and she began what Catholics call the “Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults,” or RCIA.

The evening began with a bonfire in the church’s courtyard. The priest lit the paschal candle from the bonfire and then we proceeded in silence into the darkened church. We all had candles and the priest passed down the center aisle with the paschal candle and we all lit our small candles from it. After some beautiful music, several readings and the homily, the priest introduced Carolyn as the night’s only catechumen and invited her forward with her sponsor. Together, they walked to the baptismal, which a deacon began filling with holy water as the congregation sang. Then, after repeating her statement of faith, Carolyn was baptized, bowing her head over the baptismal bowl as the priest pourd water from a pitcher over her head: “In the name of the Father” (little douse of water), “In the name of the Son” (trickle of water), “and the Holy Spirit” (FLOOD of water!). Carolyn came up, flashed her 1000-watt grin and raised two clenched fists in the air in victory. A few minutes later, she was confirmed, taking the name Martha, for both her mother and the saint. And a few minutes after that, she took her first communion – three church sacraments in one night.

Now, what does all this have to do with prayer beads? Well, I am not a Catholic and much of the service was indecipherable to me. Also, as I am not a Catholic, I am not welcome to take communion in their church. So I brought along my prayer beads – a Protestant rosary of rose quartz and jade (pictured above) – and when the congregation engaged in a call and response section I could not follow, and when they went for communion, I brought out my beads, sat quietly with them in my lap, and said some prayers. Some I took from a phrase in the prayers going on about me: “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again” on the weeks beads. At other times, I said the 23rd Psalm on the same beads. At other times, I just breathed in and out on each bead that universal cry of the divine: “I am. I am. I am.” It kept me connected to a 2-1/2 hour service that wasn’t, shall we say, in my usual language.

I was so honored to be invited to Carolyn’s service. There are seven sacraments in the Catholic Church and Carolyn experience three of them in one night. It was a big deal. To those of us for whom the Christian rituals have meaning, it is a truly special moment when you see someone you love and admire take the body and blood of Christ for the first time. And I brought Carolyn a gift – a certificate wrapped in a box and tied with a bow promising her I would make her a Catholic rosary with beads of her choice. We hope to go shopping together later this week – I am sure I’ll make another blog entry on it.