On Tuesday evening of Holy Week, about 150 members and guests of Holy Cross Parish gathered in the assembly room of the parish center for the celebration of the traditional Jewish Seder Meal.

The event was sponsored by the youth group C.L.Y.D.E. (Christian Living Youth Doing Everything) under the direction of Michael Hardin, a member of the parish Liturgy Committee, as their service and gift to the parish. They had sold doughnuts during Lent to earn sufficient funds so that the event could be provided without charge to the participants.

Because the Seder meal is ideally a home and family celebration of the Passover, the teenagers set up the room with soft lights and decorations to simulate as much as possible a family gathering. Each table chose a "Father" to lead the ritual prayers, a "Mother" to light the festival candles, and a "Youngest Child" to ask the traditional questions about the meaning of "pesach," the Hebrew meaning "passover."

Louis Erbs, Director of the Adult Choir and also member of the Liturgy Committee, was the narrator. He welcomed the participants, gave a brief history of the feast being celebrated and explained the meaning of the foods provided and gave directions as the Seder Meal progressed. Each place was set with a wine glass, napkin, and plate on which was placed a serving of haroses (a condiment of apples, raisins, nuts and cinnamon), celery to be dipped in salt water symbolizing the tears of the Israelites, a piece of horseradish symbolizing the suffering and bitter herbs they had to eat on their journey out of Egypt, and a piece of matzoh which is the traditional unleavened bread symbolizing both the feast of the spring wheat harvest and the fact that the Israelites did not have time to let their bread rise in their haste to leave Egypt after the angel of death passed over their homes and killed the first born son of the Egyptian households. During the ceremony, plates of roasted lamb were served to each table; in ancient times the lamb was sacrificed and its blood smeared on the door posts of the house as a sign to the angel of death to pass over their home and leave them safe.

Each "family" provided their own kosher wine for the pouring of the four traditional cups of wine during the Seder Meal. In his narration, Lou Erbs pointed out the connections with Christian tradition. The prayers said over the bread and wine at the preparation of the gifts in the Mass are based on the Kiddush, or blessing of the cups of wine and the foods of the Seder. Scripture scholars are in general agreement that it was following the blessing of the third cup of wine after the meal that Jesus instituted the Eucharist when he celebrated the Passover with His disciples the night before he died.