A Sound of Sheer Silence

Last night, I attended--for a time--Maundy Thursday services.  It was the first time I had been to Maundy Thursday, or Holy Week services at all, since 2021.  The services were held at my new parish, the one I have been attending fairly consistently since the middle of 2023.  It progressed in a fairly standard manner for the first part.  Instead of foot washing, there was hand washing, in which each person in turn was washed and then washed someone.  I've never seen the Mandatum done that way before, but it was fine.  After that, they were going to do Communion in the form of a sit down meal.  The problem was that I had plans to go to dinner with Danielle after, so I slipped out after the Peace before everyone sat down.  Which was a bit of a shame, because I always found the stripping of the altars very powerful, and I missed that. During the course of my (admittedly brief) time at the service, I mostly thought about the fact that I hadn't been since 2021. Prior to 2021, if you

Much that was called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility toward life. True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All men must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you’ve always known. --From the Orange Catholic Bible, as quoted in  Dune , Frank Herbert Lead them to Paradise. --The last words spoken by Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) in Dune: Part 2 (2024) 1. This is not going to come as a surprise to anyone who really knows me, but sometime around late junior high I read Dune.  I had seen the David Lynch movie version a couple of years before and thought it was cool but didn't really understand it (not an uncommon reaction to that film, whether one is ten as I was or an adult).  Reading the book