Into your hands I commend my spirit

Being mostly a Catholic country, the Philippines has been on holiday since yesterday, Maundy Thursday, the first day of the Easter Triduum. Yesterday, the mass, which commemorates the last supper, included a re-enactment of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and ended with the body of Christ (the consecrated hosts) being placed in the altar of repose, where they will stay until the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. There are no masses today, Good Friday. Instead, other prayer services commemorating the passion and death of Jesus are held: the recitation of and sermons about his seven last words, the way of the cross, and the chanting of the pasyon (the paschal narrative in poetry). There will be no masses tomorrow, Black Saturday, either. But vigils will be held in most churches, which will culminate early Sunday morning in the salubong (meeting), a celebration of the first meeting of the resurrected Christ with his mother Mary. This is a portion of the arched ceiling of the Binondo Church, which is covered with paintings depicting scenes from the life of Jesus. The rectangular paintings at the bottom are the guides for the way of the cross, half of which are on the other side of the church. In most churches, one just goes around the periphery. Here, it seems that one is meant to cross from one side of the church to the other as one prays and remembers the suffering and death that Jesus Christ had to go through.