Saturday Vigil

As we walked up to the church, I saw a flame that appeared to be in the front doors; I was a bit worried, but then I realized that it couldn't be an uncontrolled fire given that people were just standing around.  As I went up further, I found out that it was actually a flame on a stand and so we just walked past it & walked inside. The Mass started with all the lights going out, all the servers processing out of the church around the flame with the candles and four objects that appeared to be painted pine cones with screws on the ends (they were really plastic).

They lit the Paschal candle using a taper that was lit from the outside fire, said some prayers, and screwed these decorations into the candle.  We then processed inside, followed by the crowd and we stopped maybe halfway up the aisle to light all the candles that the crowd had received.

We finished processing up the aisle with only the (surprising amount of) light let off by these candles.  As soon as we were up to the altar, they flicked on the overhead lights and Mass began.  Before the consecration, we sang the litany of the saints (exact same tune as in America) and processed to the church's container for Holy water.  They blessed some water and poured it into the container, which I had thought was a huge baptismal font.

Then we said more prayers and everyone blew out their candles.  We processed back to the altar and continued with the Mass.

Love,

Jeremy