Easter at Notre Dame

A Blessed Easter to one and all. He is Risen, as He said - Alleluia!

After celebrating a lovely Triduum at the Basilica, I had the great privilege and pleasure of preaching the Easter Vigil. Having worked as a sacristan at the Basilica for so many Easters, it was a very special honor to be able to concelebrate all of the liturgies as a priest and especially to preach the great Vigil.

After the Vigil we celebrated well into the night at Moreau Seminary. The post-Vigil soiree at Moreau is always one of the highlights of the year.

This year, as I walked to the party, I had a humorous encounter with a Notre Dame student (in the custody of security) who had been 'celebrating' the Lord's Resurrection with some friends and decided to go for a swim in the lake. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I presumed he was reenacting part of the Lord's Passion as recorded by Mark: "A certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked." God bless our rectors, is all I have to say!

By Easter Sunday morning, our Old College chapel was appropriately decorated . . .

and we had lovely weather to enjoy the spring flowers that have been in bloom.

For the men who remained during the holiday, Fr. Kevin planned an Easter lunch - and Joe and Dan helped out by getting the turkey into the deep frier.

Fr. Kevin did the carving, with help from Mike and his dad who was visiting from Detroit with Mike's mom, and three of his brothers.

There were, of course, plenty of Peeps . . .

. . . and lots of wonderful people.

The celebration continued at Corby Hall later in the evening with a social and supper - and then it was back to church for the student Mass at 9:00 pm. Thankfully, the University remains on holiday tomorrow, and we can ease back into things on Tuesday. We have a short week to rest up and prepare for Ordinations next weekend!