Thanks to a nice little visit from Streptococcus (also known as strep throat), I have been laid out all weekend. So, on this holiest of weeks for Christians, I did not make it to church even once. I didn't get to see the stripping of the altar on Maundy Thursday. I wasn't there to hear the loud slamming of the stone during the Tenebrae on Good Friday. I was supposed to guest preach at Trinity Church, Soulard, for my favorite liturgy of the year, the Great Vigil of Easter, on Saturday, and I missed that too. Finally, I wasn't quite well enough (and still too contagious) to darken a church door on Easter Sunday, the biggest celebration Christians know.

Were I eight years-old, I might have seen this as a welcome reprieve. Except for the body aches and the extremely painful ...