Early that Friday morning . . .

Strange how one can remember something from many years ago and not be able to remember what I had for dinner yesterday!
That's a bit of what is going on here.
Holy Thursday brings to mind the time I was almost arrested. It happened in the middle of the night, sometime between Thursday and Friday - Good Friday.
It happened in 1953!
How's that for remembering something from a long time ago?
I was a freshman in high school back then and while I truly cannot remember how it happened, I strongly suspect that I was the organizer of this episode.
Back then what we today call The Triduum looked nothing like what we know today.
Holy Thursday Mass was not in the evening. We had no evening Masses at all, never, ever.
Mass on Holy Thursday was in the morning. In my home parish, SS. Cyril and Methodius, the old one in the Harper/Van Dyke area on the Eastside of Detroit, Mass was at 9:00. The Mass ended with a procession around the church that ended at a side altar, well decorated with flowers and candles.
There our Eucharistic Vigil began.
It went all through the day, into the evening and all through the night.
There was a massive sign up chart in the back of the building and people were encouraged for weeks ahead of time to sign up for at least one hour of vigil.
And, yes, people signed and committed and kept vigil.
Parish groups and organizations kept their hours.
Families and individuals, even those belonging to one of the organizations, kept their own hours.
That Vigil was well attended, prayerfully so, through the day, the night and right up to the Good Friday Service, which, by the way, also was at 9:00 in the morning.
And that is where the arrest story enters in.
I suspect that I came up with the idea.
Let's keep a really difficult hour of vigil.
That was the suggestion to my ninth grade classmates.
And many of my friends bought into the idea.
We were going to keep our special vigil from 2:00 to 3:00 in the morning!
Long about 1:30 that morning, we began emerging from our homes into the darkness. We all lived rather close together so, as we walked from our homes to the church, we joined together, growing in numbers.
There was a sizable number of us by the time we were crossing the street from Marcus to St. Cyril.
And that is when the police car pulled up to the scene.
Imagine!
This significant number of teens, out in the middle of the night, right there, gathered together in the street.
And the scene unfolded.
The officer asked, "What are you kids doing out at this hour?"
"We are going to church," was our reply.
Is it any wonder that the police in that squad car were somewhat skeptical?
Going to church!
Right! Sure!
Teenagers!
In the middle of the night!
Going to church!
Fortunately, the church building was right there in view.
And the lights were on.
And there were cars in the parking lot.
And people could be seen entering and leaving.
We did wind up with a police escort to the church doors.
But we did it.
We went to church.
At 2:00 Good Friday morning.
And we kept our Vigil.
And we took the time for that Vigil; we made the time for it.
Which gets me thinking.
Today folks are so busy, so hurried.
Can't take time for that!
Just to sit!
In silence!
Too much real stuff to do.
Too bad because we really need that quiet time in our lives, maybe not at 2:00 in the morning but sometime in the day and not just today, Holy Thursday, but every day.
Maybe these days we need the police to stop us for not taking the time!
Anyhow all these years later, on another Holy Thursday, I am remembering how I almost got arrested but did not because I was going to church!