The Secret Garden chapel

[ceebeegee]

I went to Good Friday services this evening and sat through a long-ass (2 hour) service. There was a reading (plainchant, really) of the Passion (St. John's version), a veneration of the cross and a bunch of other things that took up lots of time. St. Mary's can eat up some darn time! I remember an Easter vigil service that was going on 3 hours! At any rate, as I was leaving the altar after Communion, I noticed this beautiful little chapel off to the right, filled with flora. After the service I snuck over there and checked it out--it was this tiny little side chapel (St. Mary's has a bunch of side chapels) that had all these floral arrangements clustered around the altar--I'm assuming they're altar flowers for the Easter services. The chapel was FULL of them, just jam-packed with beautiful flowers--lilies and roses and azeleas and honeysuckle and callalilies and orchids...just so beautiful. Beautiful beyond words. I hooked in there and obviously several other parishioners had also noticed the chapel because I was joined by at least 7 other people. We all sat in the chairs or lit candles, just gazing at this beauty. It was SO beautiful. If there'd been a chapel in the secret garden, it would've looked like this.

I sat there for a long while, just breathing in the lilies and the roses, and lit candles for my grandparents. I always think about my maternal grandparents at that church, since it's so actor-friendly.