Empty tabernacle, and cleared alter at Our Lady of Fatima Church in the convent grounds.
Alter of repose.
We had the Passion of Christ Service at 3 p.m. at the convent church followed by Stations of the Cross on the grounds.
It's great to see families participating. It was everyone reading the Stations, parents and young people as well as the Sisters. Beautiful.
The man with white hair and the lady in the hat know the sisters and are the latest visitors here. I don't know much about them yet. They arrived right when we went into the silence observations so we haven't been able to talk much.
I only took a picture of some of the 14 stations on the grounds.
We started headed towards the entrance gate, along the driveway, then turned to the right and went all around the grounds.
You can see some of the huge trees in the background.
The picture below is of the cemetery on the grounds. There aren't too many people buried here.
This cross is in the area where the cemetery is.
This arch is over the entrance to the cemetery. We walked by all of this as we walked to the next station.
The last station is close to the entrance of the church.
The Blessed Sacrament which is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, is then removed and placed in a private place, to show that Jesus died and was in the tomb until the Resurrection.
It always feels so "empty" in the church when Jesus is not there. It's an awful feeling.
After this everyone leaves in silence.
We go on our way to do evening chores, etc. Then return to dinner. It is a simple dinner both last night and this evening. We eat bread with cheese or butter.
The Triduum is like one loooooong service that starts on Thursday evening with the Mass of the Last Supper where Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the Priesthood, then gets arrested, then the Passion and Stations of the cross when he is crucified, and ends with the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening with the Resurrection.
Easter is an 8 day celebration! It starts at the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening.
We will be going into Punta Gorda for the Easter Vigil Saturday night.
I will be going with Fr Aric to one of the Villages to celebrate Easter Morning Mass. We will need to leave before 6 a.m. to get there on time for the 8 a.m. Mass.
The sisters will have another priest come to the church here and celebrate Mass at 11:00 a.m. I don't know if I will be back by then.
More to come...