Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Easter Agape


As usual, the Easter Vigil in the Way lasted about six hours long.  My favorite song "Shema" is always sung during the Easter Vigil.  After the six hour long vigil, each community has an agape on their own.  The Team Catechists recommends a hotel, restaurant, or a home.  A home is preferable, but it always takes a lot of work to set up.  In addition to setting up the Easter Vigil, the home agape also has to be set up, and the community would go home to prepare the meal.  It's an all-day affair.  Who has the time to sleep?

I was looking forward to the roast turkey and roast lamb that I heard the brothers were going to prepare. In the end, the roast turkey turned out to be roast chicken, and the roast lamb turned out to be roast beef.  I guess no one could find a lamb to slaughter and cook.  Do they even sell lamb in the store?  At any rate, in an agape, table cloths, linen napkins, real silverware, and china dishes were used.  Christ has risen; therefore, it is fitting to use the finest in the agape.  Of course, some people find it more convenient to have the agape in a hotel.  In fact, some communities arranged to have their agape in the hotel; unfortunately, it can be very costly for families despite the hotel discount for children.  A family of five people, for example, can cost more than $100.   

There will be no celebration of the word this week, but the Team Catechists did mention another Great Mission during the Easter announcement.    

5 comments:

  1. Easter Vigil and Agape... Next year I surely will be with my community to celebrate together with them. All Catholics, and all Christians for that matter, should respect and tolerate each others way of celebrating our greatest holiday!

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  2. Dear Zoltan,

    I also plan to be with my community next Easter Vigil and Agape. I hope you and your community had a great Easter.

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  3. Dear Diana,

    You ask "Do they even sell lamb in the store?" I didn't see any whole lamb for sale, but I did see beautiful legs of lamb. I also found Frenched racks of lamb, which I bought for our Easter Dinner.

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  4. Dear Cathy,

    Thank you for that information. I should look in the stores for a leg of lamb. Lamb is perfect for Easter dinner! I wonder how they taste like.

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  5. Dear Diana,

    From personal experience I agree that lamb is the perfect meal for Easter Dinner and I guarantee that it's delicious. It's more expensive than most meats. The sale price for the Frenched rack of lamb was $9.99 per pound. The leg of lamb was $7.95 per pound, but it was too large since there were only a few of us who wanted to have lamb for Easter, which is why we ended up with the rack of lamb.
    FYI: Cost U Less and Payless are the best places to look for lamb. Happy hunting.

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