In wee youth, now flown, there was what, was called: The Watch.
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After the final service at the Cathedral on Good Friday, it was obligatory for witnesses to be On Watch over the tomb of Jesus, as He was by then, gone from us and not alive.
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The Watch extended until Midnight Mass Easter Sunday morning and volunteers for the watch were requested to watch over the altar of Jesus to keep an eye on His, figurative Tomb….
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In the Cathedral, now draped in purple.
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As with many customs of Mother Church, sadly, The Watch has largely been neglected of late and yet, there are still men who keep The Watch in the very darkest of hours.
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Any Catholic, in any Church or Cathedral in Christendom, could keep watch, but in wee youth it was deemed logical that the men and younger boys would keep the late hours Watch.
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I remember that my appointed hour was always 2 AM until 3 AM, when my relief arrived.
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If my relief did not arrive, I Watched until it came to me, when it came to me, in those dark hours of late night and early morn on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
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While I understood that it made sense in the modern era for the men and grown boys of the parish to keep the late night and wee morning hours…..
‘The Penitent Magdalene’: Caravaggio, 1597
It always struck me a stunning curiosity that the parish women, without whom, a Catholic parish of any size simply could not function, were encouraged to take the hours deemed easier and safer of The Watch, as, we know from our reading, it was of course, the women, who kept The Watch Original, outside the Tomb of Our Saviour Jesus all ’round the clock.
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Mother Church does change in a cosmetic sense, but never in a doctrinal sense:
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For instance, for many centuries, Cathedrals and Churches were never closed.
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Ever.
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It is a sadness to me now to see how tightly locked and barred is the House of Jesus, when not in official use.
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I have read that Papa Francis has said that the:
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“Church must always be open to the poor and to those with aching spiritual needs,” and I commend Him for that thought.
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I surmise that Papa Francis was not speaking of The Church being, literally, open all day and night, but if He were talking of such a plan, I roundly commend Him for it, as:
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The Church of Jesus, never should be bolted, locked or barred.
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If the precipitate reason for padlocking God’s Church is the potentiality of being sacked by vandals coming in, I suggest to Papa Francis that He decree that The Watch of Passion Week be extended throughout the year so that God’s House may remain open always and be always accessible to those who have need of Her solace–whose name is legion.
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Let The Watch be universal and every day and night.
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My dears, Jesus is now dead and gone from us and we Watch over His Precious Tomb remembering and strengthened by His Words to Simon Peter:
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“Canst thou not watch with me an hour without falling asleep?”
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Jesus of course forgives, with His Love, all manner of human frailty, and He would of course, forgive us this night our dosing off a bit.
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The origin of The Watch derives from the Words of Jesus to Simon Peter:
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“Watch a little while with me.”
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He has said to us, in a different context:
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“Again a little while, I am with you, again a little while, I am not with you.”
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As this is written, in the small hours of Holy Saturday, Jesus is not with us.
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He is in His Tomb.
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His Cathedral is bare and barren.
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But for those of us who keep The Watch.
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When I was a wee one, an English Naval Officer, whose station of duty in America was The Naval Medical Hospital in Bethesda, was very curious about The Watch of Passion Week.
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The officer was not a Catholic, but, as with all naval men, he was well familiar with the notion of the watch, most particularly in the wee hours.
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So it was that the English Naval Officer was very impressed with The Catholic notion of The watch over the Tomb of Jesus and every year, for three, consecutive, Passion Weeks, he joined my brothers and I On Watch, in the darkest hours and he later wrote us that he had, on years’ later reflection and reading, become himself a Catholic.
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God does move in ways most mysterious.
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In my family, we ever after referred to this as :
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“Our Passion Week Watch conversion.”
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So, now, we Watch, you and I, until Jesus returns in Glory to us Easter Sunday morning.
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Until that time, you and I keep:
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The Watch.
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In our Cathedrals, in our hearts and thoughts.
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We Watch.
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I will pray for you my dears, if you pray for me.
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Do you and I have our Easter Sunday deal to do that?
Mary of Magdalene was the very first Watch Keeper over the Tomb of Jesus. She was called later, By Augustine, “The Apostle to The Apostles.” Such was her significance to Jesus and His followers.
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Mary was most prominent during Jesus’ last days. When Jesus was crucified by The Romans, Mary Magdalene was there supporting him in His final moments and after, mourning His death. She stayed with Him at the cross after the other disciples, save for Saint John The Beloved One, had fled. She was at his burial, and she is the only person that all four Gospels say was first to realize that Jesus had Risen and to testify to that central teaching of faith.
“Mary Magdalene Approaching the Tomb”
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Gian Girolamo Savoldo, painted 1535-1540
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The rich man ought not be taxed at all~~Instead, the rich man ought be compelled to employ and train the poor man~~directly~~personally~~man to man~~
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~~In sunshine and in shadow~~I hold tight to the Republican view of time and money~~I write night and day~~yet~~while impecunious~~I am vastly overpaid~~in that taking pay to do what I love is unfair~~to my employer~~in a fair system~~under such circumstances~~I should pay him~~not he me~~I am far, far too old a man to be sexually confused~~praise Jesus~~but I am yet young enough to be politically confused~~is anyone not~~in an absolute sense~~I am a Catholic Royalist~~in a practical sense~~I am a Classical Liberal~~a Gaullist~~a Bonapartist~~an American Nationalist Republican~~in either sense~~my head is soon for the chopping block~~to hasten my interlude with Madame La Guillotine~~I write without fear~and without favor of~any man~~~Non Sibi~~Finis Origine Pendet~~~Κύριε ἐλέησον~~Rejoice and Glad!!
Amen~~
~The Original Angry Bird~~The Catholic University of America Screaming Red Cardinal Mascot~~
~~EX LIBRIS~~
~~THEOS EK MĒCHANĒS~~
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