EASTER VIGIL AT LAVIGERIE HOUSE

The fecundity of our Lenten period this year crested in a delectable solemnity that the whole church celebrated and in Lavigerie house, it was a vivacious celebration that marked a momentous shift from the long Lenten experience to a succulent period, a moment as bright as a button, a time as glorious as the sun and yet a moment as jubilant as the old sleigh bells.

Prior to the eventual celebration was the arrival of various visitors from various religious communities and next was the assembling to start the celebration. It commenced with the blessing of the fire to be used during Easter and the procession with the Paschal candle following the assuetude of the church. As the celebration continued, there was a great encomium acclaiming the Lord Jesus risen as the exultet was being chanted lively and in lentitude by a clued-up parcel of choir members from the students’ body.

Blessing of the fire and singing of the Exulted

Then all the readings cited for the vigil followed suit with psalms well chanted as lively as the cricket. The apple pie order came when the Gloria was sung making the moment of the resurrection a true credence and not just a confabulation of affirming that he has risen.

The main celebrant of this bravura solemnity was Fr. Yago Abeledo who with prodigious humour led the mass with solemn incantations in an immaculate voice like an angle. In his enthralling homily, the main celebrant reflected on the meaning of resurrection with much accentuation on living in the here and now of our lives using different mind-sets to deal with problems that deny us the joy of being resurrected people. Still in such an eximious homily, Fr. Yago emphasised the need to be human in imitation of  Jesus. He said: "the man Jesus revealed such greatness and profundity in his humanity that at the end of a long process of meditation the apostles and those who knew him had to say: Only God himself could be so human. And they began to call him God". He thereby meant that in the resurrection event, God’s greatest communication to humanity took place, something worth celebrating as the resurrection of Jesus turned our crucifixions into life. He recapitulated his homily by exhorting the congregation to be people of light since they are the resurrected people and implored them to do this in the spirit of forgiveness, being in communion with all that exists since God’s land is where everything belongs.

With such a toothsome homily, the celebration proved a convivial moment that in this context would be rated interminable as witnessed by the grandiloquent praises that were going on to the Lord

During the liturgical celebration. Blessing of water

As the celebration was coalesced with the undenegated presence of various religious congregations, the night could not end without a singular gathering, one that witnessed the sharing of a delicious meal as one family of the resurrected people. 

Collines Kananura giving the Lavigerie Drum magazine to Gabriel Ouma 

This with the official launching of the annual magazine of Lavigerie House-LAVIGERIE DRUM coupled with the immense joy of resurrection made this moment a sempiternal and sebaceous moment of joy in Lavigerie House.    

Ocheng’ Tonny