Jim Martin over at America magazine asks the question that’s on every Catholic’s mind but no one is willing to voice. As somone who’s sat through the Vigil myself, I think he might be on to something:
Last year I asked one of my relatives if she was going to the Vigil Mass. “Are you kidding?” she said. No matter how much I encouraged her to go, and no matter how much I touted the dramatic lighting of the Paschal Candle, the beautiful readings, the amazing spectacle of seeing adult baptisms, she was turned off by what she called (and I remember this word vividly) its
“ridiculous” length. Is it time to start thinking about shortening the Easter Vigil?