'Be Kind to your Priest and Church musician' Week (this week and next)

If there's some special project you really think your pastor, or your parish music director, needs to get on board with, this week and next might not be the time to bring it to them. This is the very busiest week for them, and next week is when they recuperate.

I confess some of the busy-ness is self-imposed, but there is a good reason: if you are committed to the celebration of the Church's liturgy, then of all times actually to celebrate it, this is that week! So, while minimalism is always an option (and there is a constituency for it!), many of us find that idea rather soul-deadening.

So, we have the solemn liturgies of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Vigil, and Easter Sunday. In addition are the needed rehearsals, for choirs and cantors who are volunteers and have family and work concerns. In addition, I want to lead some of the Liturgy of the Hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; my music director wants to provide some music for some of that, but I keep telling him he doesn't have to (he has a lot already).

In addition, I have scheduled extra time for confessions this week, as an experiment: will they come? I'll let you know.

If all that weren't enough, we've had three deaths in the two parishes, so two funerals are scheduled for Wednesday, and I'm waiting to hear from the funeral home what the third family wants. My only option is to have a Wednesday evening funeral, with burial on Thursday; otherwise, the funeral has to wait until Easter Monday.

Don't feel so sorry for me; I have two other priests who help. Our music director is really in a bind this week.