Notes from Holy Week

A missing face, new faces and holy ground.

Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday, where we tell the story of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This Palm Sunday, my first on Skid Row, we had our own triumphal entry. We welcomed a new “parishioner” who served as my reader for her return to the Church. It was a magical moment that extended into Holy Thursday, where D assisted me during the Eucharistic Procession as one of the leaders of the procession, along with another new friend, M.

The procession on Holy Thursday is a beautiful ritual. We recall, in a tangible way, that this was the night Jesus was betrayed, the night he shared his last meal with his beloved disciples. Jesus is arrested on Holy Thursday and turned over to be tried, convicted and executed the next day. To recall this, the priest places a ciborium (the brass container that holds the consecrated hosts) on the Altar and then venerates the Blessed Sacrament. Then, placing a special liturgical garment on, the Humeral Veil, he wraps his hands in the cloth of the veil and picks up the ciborium and processes to a “place of repose” where the Blessed Sacrament is put away until Easter Vigil. Holy Thursday Mass is the last Mass until Easter Vigil. The Holy Thursday Mass does not formally end as other liturgies do with a blessing and dismissal. The Holy Thursday Mass ends with the priest and altar servers quietly leaving the sanctuary in solemn silence.

Here is a quick video recap of the celebrations and commemorations for Holy Week at the Cecil. The highlight was a visit by Gouda, a sweet young pup who lives at the Cecil with his person.

My friend Rose was absent from both services, which was a bit of a disappointment, but the lives of the folks at the Cecil are topsy-turvy which leads to an inability to always commit to scheduled events. Rose paid me a visit the following Tuesday and felt bad that she missed both services. Rose and I agreed to find ways to help her keep a more regular schedule.

On Palm Sunday, we had a bit of a shake-up. One of the residents, Jacob, had a pretty significant breakdown and was charging around the building in a rage. It got dicey at one point when we inadvertently, and very importantly, learned that there is only one path of ingress and egress. That meant that when my friends from Esotouric were trying to get in and out of the building, they had no choice but to walk inches away from a person exhibiting serious rage-filled psychosis. It was jarring and horrid.

Luckily, no one got hurt. Even more luckily, LAFD was doing high-rise training at the Cecil on Palm Sunday and I made a great connection with the Captain, Danny. We have had a couple of good conversations on making the Cecil safer in situations like this.

I am still a bit irked at the headlines about the Cecil calling it infamous when the ground lease was listed for sale. The Cecil does not need to be called “infamous.” It is a special place that has fallen victim to bad press. If people keep emphasizing the bad at the Cecil, it will continue to be infamous.

Help me change the narrative about the Cecil. There are good people there who are struggling in ways many of us probably can’t understand. The struggles are solvable with the right help. The Cecil is really Holy Ground, a place where people heal, grow and rise to new and better places.

The work that I do at the Cecil is not easy. It’s beautiful, fulfilling and important work, but it’s not easy. And I didn’t make the Cecil Holy Ground. It has always been there. I’m just helping everyone find the holiness for themselves.

The work I do at the Cecil is only possible with support from our community. Please consider a monthly or one-time gift to help us support the residents at the Cecil. There are some people who have only our Church for family support.