easter fun, part II

saturday, evening. we’re out walking around... for the life of me i can’t remember why. i don’t think we were at the university on the internet... but it’s always a possibility. something in the back of my head is telling me that we were out to a restaurant and on the way home.

at any rate... we’re rounding the corner to the round that comes up to the apartment, just right next to the church across from where we live.


we know there’s something going on, because there is a big crowd of people gathered around the main entrance, that of the newer part of the church.


there’s a fire going... and the priest is saying some stuff. we’re just watching, trying to figure out what’s going on.

suddenly (lol...), a lady with a bunch of candles come over and hands us one. we’re trapped... and now we’ve gotta play with them. it’s about 9 pm.

there’s a candle lit from the fire... a bit one... like 2 or 3 three tall. from it, a smaller one -- perhaps several -- gets lit. the priest starts lighting other candles of those around, and as you go in, someone passes the flame on to your candle... and people spread it around to everyone present.


we go in, and there’s a nice little easter mass.

we were drug into a “veillée pascale,” or easter vigil. it was nice.

i think it was the first mass that i’ve actually made it all the way through... with perhaps the exception of the midnight mass that we went to the year before in provo.

now... i’m not sure if this is only an easter thing (i’m not near as up to snuff on my religions as i ought to be...) or what, but it was the first of the like i’ve been witness to. they did an adult baptism. i don’t know if it was a convert baptism, or just someone that was from an inactive family and later in life decided that they wanted to be in on it all... not sure. but... it was cool. the priest said that there were some 3000 adult baptisms taking place that evening in all of france... and i thought it was a pretty unique experience, being from the heart of mormondom and all.

i like going to the services of other religions... it makes me feel happy. i’ve never really liked how we expect people to listen to our missionaries and accept them and their message, or to come and be curious about us... and yet i would dare say most members of the LDS church never go and experience anything other than their own theologies.