Seminary Boy
“We were given only bread and tea for breakfast. A cold silent stillness descended on the valley and college grounds. In the course of the long morning, punctuated by the sound of the rattle, the retreat father gave two homilies. He no longer concentrated on our sins, and the penalties for them, but on the terrible price Jesus had paid for our salvation.
The liturgy of the day was long and sombre. Gathering in the stripped sanctuary, the celebrants sang in Gregorian chant the entire account of t...he Passion by St John. The choir sang the words of the crowds to a setting of Victoria. When the celebrant sang: ‘Ecce Rex vester,’ ‘Behold your King,’ the choir responded: ‘Tolle, tolle, crucifige eum,’ ‘Away with him. Away with him. Crucify him.’ After this a splinter of what was claimed to be the actual wood of the original cross was venerated in a gold reliquarium. We queued in the aisle to kiss the object, while the choir sang a polyphonic setting of the Lamentations: ‘My people what have I done to Thee.’ The college fell silent again as we continued to fast and to pray and read in private.MoreLess
The liturgy of the day was long and sombre. Gathering in the stripped sanctuary, the celebrants sang in Gregorian chant the entire account of t...he Passion by St John. The choir sang the words of the crowds to a setting of Victoria. When the celebrant sang: ‘Ecce Rex vester,’ ‘Behold your King,’ the choir responded: ‘Tolle, tolle, crucifige eum,’ ‘Away with him. Away with him. Crucify him.’ After this a splinter of what was claimed to be the actual wood of the original cross was venerated in a gold reliquarium. We queued in the aisle to kiss the object, while the choir sang a polyphonic setting of the Lamentations: ‘My people what have I done to Thee.’ The college fell silent again as we continued to fast and to pray and read in private.MoreLess
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