8 Days of What??

For Kevin and I, the theme for this year’s “Octave of” most accurately expresses the nexus of this annual event. This is a nexus that we are just now realizing on our third year. The inspiration for Octave of actually came from a conversation I had with Kevin while we were watching Jeopardy in Ypsilanti, and one of us said “hey, what’s one week where we could eat hamburgers every day?!” So this may or may not be only an attempt to give meaning to a meaningless week of indulgence but this is what I’ve discovered...

The Octave of Easter is one week and a day (octave=8) where we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. One Sunday is not enough to contain our joy... so the Church made there be 8 Sundays in a row (see what the papacy could do for you!). I wont go as far as to say that our version of the octave is a proper or pious celebration of the Eight Days of Eastertide, but I do say this=

 For Kevin and I (and I believe everyone who has joined us for our tour de grease), the “Octave of” has given body and findability to a celebration of the Eastertide (not just in the sense that our bodies have become more findable through increased girth). Even as a Christian who is attempting devotion, I’ve realized that before Kevin and I started making our annual 8 day pilgrimage to diners and burger stands, I had never really had an experience of the Octave of Easter that was different than my experience of the other 365 days of the calendar. I once went to holy mass every day during the Octave of Easter, but that was when I was in the seminary and was required to go to mass every day of the year. Our Octave of __ tradition keeps this week from just becoming another week. 

...Maybe we’re just hungry after having lived on a half a loaf of bread for 40 days. St. Francis, pray for us; all you holy men and women, pray for us - for we have a failed sense of piety. We’re just trying to bring 2000 years of Catholic Tradition into our small Ypsi/Arbor world. This is a celebration of Easter that our weak nature can grasp. Is it going to far to say we’re expressing the incarnational reality of God here? Could this lead us to holiness!? Lord have mercy...

With this plea, we announce this year’s Octave of ___. After much debate and after considerations of tantalizing prospects of burritos, Old Country Buffets, and BBQ ribs, we decided that the 2013 Octave of ___ will be...

...Stay tuned to this station!