Burying the Alleluia

Maria von Trapp, that diva of Catholic homemaking, wrote about the Austrian custom of "burying the Alleluia". Children would prepare a nice homemade sign with the word "Alleluia" and wrap it in a cloth and "bury" it at the foot of the statue of the Blessed Mother in church, or at home. You could also literally bury such a sign. It would be dug up, or retrieved from the base of the statue, at the first mass of Easter. In those days it would have been on Easter morning.
I picked up a nice idea from Elizabeth Foss. She has her kids decorate "Alleluia cards" which she then tucks away and puts in their Easter baskets. I like this idea. My older boy did a google image search and found two Alleluia images to make cards. We will do this tomorrow in time for the first Sunday of Lent.

Cracking open St.Mark

Mark is the shortest Gospel but it is packed with incident. My NAB introduction says it focuses on "Christology". Apparently Mark was writing, around A.D. 70, for Gentiles.
The introduction says there are four principal divisions of this Gospel. They lend themselves naturally to a ten-day, or so, schedule of readings:

1. The preparation for the public ministry of Jesus (1:1-13)

2. The mystery of Jesus (1:14 to 8-26)

3. The mystery begins to be revealed (8:27 to 9:32)

4. The full revelation of the mystery (9:33 to 16:8)

There are three endings, which I hope to get to by Holy Week!

Tonight I will read the first chapter and see how far I get. Comments welcome.