Blessed Easter – The Vigil from Chicago, by Pr. Rossow

Each year our parish (Bethany – Naperville, Illinois) marks the Easter Vigil. It is an abbreviated service, about an hour and a half, not the entire night in vigil. It starts with a procession from a bonfire outside the church and into the dark sanctuary with each member and the men’s choir carrying candles. We also initiate the new paschal candle and as is traditional, confirm the adult catechumens.

We offer this example in support of BJS’s goal of promoting the historic liturgy. You may want to look into adding this to your Holy Week spiritual exercise. (We have several other video examples of the liturgy, including from Pastor Weedon that we hope to get to you in the weeks to come.)

Here is a portion of the service. We hope to get some other video of the bonfire and other potions of the service added later. (Don’t adjust your sets. It will be silent at first but after a few seconds you will hear the sound. If you look closely you will see through the windows the rest of the procession carrying their candles coming in from the bonfire. Very cool!)

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

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