Holy Week

I was sitting here on Good Friday evening, debating whether I should blog about movies or Holy Week.  I settled on Holy Week, which I think was the right thing to do.  I've got an excellent Top 5 movie list coming up, and a couple of movie reviews.

As of this Easter, I will have been a Catholic for 8 years.  Each year, Lent and Holy Week have become more important to me, I enjoy them more each year and I feel like I grow in my faith more each year.  This year has been especially good, and it will culminate with the Easter Vigil tomorrow night.

I was explaining the Easter Vigil to a non-denominational friend of mine.  I was going on about how beautiful it is, with the symbolism, the incense, the chanting, the transition from darkness to light that signals the Resurrection of Jesus, and this friend said that stuff just wasn't that exciting to them (or something like that).  Personally, I love the symbolism all throughout Lent, and especially now during the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil).  The holiness, symbolism and ceremony of the Catholic Holy Week helps me feel a closeness to God that grows every year.

Last night, our family went to Holy Thursday Mass, where we celebrated Jesus instituting the Eucharist (communion).  At Holy Thursday Mass, there is also foot washing, to follow Jesus' example at the Last Supper.  I didn't participate in foot washing, and neither did my wife, but both of our boys did.  In fact, my older son washed my younger son's feet...I have to admit, I got a little choked up.  I was very proud of him.

Today was the Veneration of the Cross service.  I had never been to this service before.  I definitely want to go again.  It was very new to me, so I'm sure I missed something.  I enjoyed the solemn beauty of this service, and was really able to reflect on the Christ's Passion and see that it was the ultimate act of love in a different way than I had previously experienced.  And, tomorrow night at 8:30 pm, we will go to the Easter Vigil, which I just love.

This is just such a terrific week.  It's wonderful to see so many of my fellow Parishioners attending all 3 masses of the Triduum, making the time to recognize the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and what that sacrifice really meant for all of us.  And then we wrap it all up with Easter, celebrating His Resurrection 2000 years ago.  I can't really describe what I'm feeling, and I'm not overly good at these "reflection" posts, so I'm just going to stop.  I pray that all of you are having a fulfilling Holy Week and are looking forward to celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

Distraction or Useful Tool?

I now have a smart phone.  I am the owner of a Blackberry Curve 9300.  Mine is black, not any of the fun colors shown there on the web page.  A friend of mine, who I think has a droid phone, congratulated me on going with 2005 technology.  The Blackberry phones don't have all the apps that you can get with a droid or an Iphone, but so far, I really like it.

Where I get worried though is that this will become a distraction for me, rather than a useful tool.  My hope when I bought this phone was to make it a useful tool in my life.  Five days in, I think it is a useful tool, though I've bordered on obsession with it.  I'm using it for my e-mail, and I've also gotten some apps that are useful for daily things.  Here's what I've picked up so far:

-A golf range finder GPS app - this was the first one I got.
-Blackberry traffic - this is a map application that provides directions.
-Weatherbug - this has been very helpful for getting the forecast, checking the radar, etc.
-Sports mobile - now I don't have to go to ESPN to get the scores
-A scientific calculator - because I'm an engineer
-IBrevieary - this is a Catholic Resource with prayers and such.  I'm hoping to make more time to pray during day, and hopefully this will help me.
-Olive Tree Bible Software with a New American Bible - This is the only app I've paid for.  I had to buy the Bible, but I thought it would be good to have with me as I try to make time to pray during the day.
-FatSecret Calorie Counter - I really want to lose 15 lbs or so, even 20 wouldn't hurt.  A friend used this and lost 50 lbs.  I started today and can still eat about 30 calories before bed.

That's all I've got for apps.  I'm trying really hard to avoid getting time wasters, like games and such.  Like I said above, the goal is useful tool, not distraction.  Hopefully this will prove to be a very useful tool.  If anybody has any suggestions of other apps that might be good to have on my phone, please let me know.