Skipping readings on Easter Vigil?

[feargalmac]

We had no readings, total time half an hour

 

[Phemie]

We had no readings, total time half an hour

NO readings? None at all? at the Easter Vigil???

 

[stbruno]

We had one of the local bishops celebrate our Vigil mass. We had 5 readings, one baptism, and 7 others receiving the other sacraments of initiation. It was a beautiful occasion.

 

[KarenElissa]

Then, it took about 20 minutes or so for the family to get dried and dressed. The choir ran out of verses so it got to the point that my pastor had to send the father of the family (who had already been baptized) to see what was taking so long.

That is nuts! We had 11 immersion baptisms (and 3 not) and I think we waited a minute or two for the last couple of people to finish changing. 20 minutes is nuts!

Now, the kids were about 10-14 years of age. I was curious as to why they got confirmed.

It is because the kids went through the RCIA process. Since they were baptized as adults (being past 7) they also receive Confirmation and First Communion at the same time, just like the adults do.

 

[SMHW]

That is nuts! We had 11 immersion baptisms (and 3 not) and I think we waited a minute or two for the last couple of people to finish changing. 20 minutes is nuts.

Seems like this parish needs batter changing facilities. But two minutes seems awfully fast, especially if you have teenage girls and/or people with long hair.

I’ve occasionally slipped into the restroom at the time the newly baptised were dressing and the the place was a disaster with water and wet towels everywhere! But that is well worth it in order to have full emersion baptisms.

 

[mtnutt]

I honestly don’t know how many readings we did, I didn’t count, but I do l know it was nearly an hour to complete them, the Exsultet and the service of the light. We had 14 immersion baptisms and I think we only had about a 5 - 10 minute wait for everyone to change. We did have everyone go up to bless themselves with the newly blessed water, to help keep things moving while everyone changed. I am on the RCIA team so I was out herding the newly baptized so they could process in as a group with Father. We told everyone not to worry about drying hair or anything, we told them they would be beautiful as they were. We had about the same number of candidates enter the church and 2 First Communions and the mass was only about 2 1/2 hours long.

 

[lyre]

Its all relative. I’ve been to Masses that were 3 hours and seemed like less than an hour, and Masses that were less than an hour and seemed like 3 hours.

 

[Gertabelle]

If the seven readings take too long we could always use seven readers and do them simultaneously.

How about if we also sing all seven responsorial psalms simultaneously in the background while the seven readings are read simultaneously – and definitely to the beat of a drum.



I always thought we were doing all the readings, but I think we only did 3 OT and 1NT. I guess it just seemed like more because I play the piano for the seven-minute long chanting of the Exodus reading, followed immediately by the response – it’s just a really long stretch of music.

Incidentally, this year’s vigil was packed for our small parish. Even our overflow area (the school cafeteria which opens to the small church sanctuary) was nearly full. And it was the most beautiful vigil I can remember since I began attending in 1980!

The deacon slaughtered the singing of the Exsultet, but his good heart and the beauty of the words dominated the moment. One of the altar servers rang the bells all through the Gloria, keeping her own beat to the music (which was not the same beat as the choir’s ), while another server rang the large church bell, mostly for the sake of the neighborhood as we can barely hear it inside the building.

We had a wonderfullly prayerful singing of the Litany of the Saints followed by eleven baptisms (eleven!!!), and four receptions into the Church. I had to fight back tears through all this so I could see the music to play the Alleluias after each baptism.

Easter Vigil is the reason I love Lent so much… I am carrying the memory of this year’s Easter in my heart, or maybe the experience is carrying me.

Gertie

 

[jc-servant]

In the past we had all 7 readings, but the past several years we have had 3-4 OT readings with responsorial psalms between. Honestly, I don’t know that it took anything away from this beautiful mass because everyone has time to read all of the readings since anyone not in RCIA must get there at least an hour early to have a seat.

The Exultant is chanted. The Litany of Saints is chanted with every saint chosen by someone getting confirmed being included along with all of the “usual” saints. We had 25 baptised this year plus about 100 total confirmed at the vigil in English. In our other building we had a simultaneous vigil in Spanish and I’m not certain how many chose to be received into the church over there, but I saw at least 20-30 people when I sprinted over there for a last minute “pit stop.” (Yes, our parish is HUGE.)

We ran about 2 hours 40 minutes even with all of the people involved due to some major planning. The reception afterward was still going about midnight when I dragged home to get some sleep before getting up to sing at the Sunday morning masses.

Our pastor lit the Easter fire in the narthex so that everyone could see instead of doing it outside the doors as was done in the past. (thankfully, the ceiling is really high and no smoke detectors right there.) The catechumens, non-Catholic candidates and Catholic’s needing confirmation plus their sponsors processed around the side aisles with lit candles as the deacon led in front up the main aisle to the altar with the Pascal candle chanting “Christ Our Light” Since we have a basilica style/cruciform church it was a beautiful lit cross shape in the dark church.