Busy now, getting everything ready for the great services that start tomorrow. I'll be at our Cathedral in the morning for the Chrism Mass. It may not be the most inspring of liturgies - we've had the same opening hymn for as long as I can remember - but its inspiration lies in the coming together around the altar of all the priests and a huge number of people. Only the Mass during the visit of St Therese's relics in the autumn will have surpassed the numbers that come.
Then, in the afternoon we will be preparing for our evening 3 Churches Mass of the Lord's Supper. This was described by someone today as "experimental". I don't know about that, rather it's the result of a committed group thinking and praying through what we think this wonderful liturgy is about. Yes, it will be a little different, but not, preserve us, gimicky. All the ingredients will be there, just some of them presented differently. I'm really looking forward to the Watching taking place in the garden at the centre of Corpus Christ School where we hold our 3 Churches Masses.
In between everything else, I got to the bank today - huge queue as it is the last day of the month plus being just before the long weekend. Then to the barber's - another queue. The boss lady came out, and and as I was next she did mine first. Naturally, as I was having a haircut, the weather got colder today! And no, that's not me, it's just a picture off the internet on the right!
And so to the second of my Pietas. This one is from the Cathedral at Florence. It was sculpted my Michelangelo several decades after the St Peter's one, when he was older and wiser. The body of Jesus looks more dead. Some of the piece looks rough and unfinished, which was a hallmark of Michelangelo's later work. The figure at the top is Nicodemus, believed by some to be a self-portrait of the sculptor. Nicodemus seems to be contemplating his own mortality in the presence of his dead Lord. His attitude is very touching, I think, in this wonderful depiction of a very touching scene. Look and think...
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