The Easter Event

As we celebrate the great Easter-event, we are reminded that this awesome season of life and hope spills over into a fifty- day celebration. In fact, at every Sunday Mass we celebrate the Easter-event: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again, we acclaim for 52 weeks a year in every corner of Christendom. The Risen Christ is here among us in a unique way to remind us that our lives our not purposeless, that we do not travel alone, that Someone cares and that one day we too shall shine bright and beautiful with the fullness of the Risen Christ’s love.

A meditative piece that I would like to offer comes from the writer Anne Dillard. This popular author had converted to Catholicism and here is how she looked at that step. She said that at a Catholic Mass surrounded by so many people from different backgrounds with many different colors, shapes and ages, she said, “I am taking a stand with these people. Here I am. One of the people who love God.”

We are part of a whole civilization in danger of forgetting the true God. We are in the fast lane of agnosticism or practical atheism which is established on this point of view: Even if there is a God, God really doesn’t matter to me.

The Easter Event is a gigantic spiritual huddle by which we hope to get inspired, challenged, comforted, forgiven, and loved by the person of Jesus Christ. Integral to Him is the restoration of the true God to pre-eminence in human life. It all begins by remembering God and God’s loving acts in human history.

The followers of Christ were forever changed by the victory of Christ over death and by meeting the Risen Lord in the weeks after Easter. May it happen again this Easter as we gather in prayer and are able to say, “I am taking a stand with these people. Here I am. One of the people who love God.”

What a promising message and astonishing admonition for this season of Easter joy! Allow the Risen Christ to break the chains that bind us, especially those that bind our families, so that we might open our hearts to make room for the One who sets us free-the great liberator, Jesus the Christ.

May we all continue to support and encourage one another as we pray: Stay with us Lord…Live in our hearts forever.

EASTER SUNDAY TABLE PRAYER

Leader: This is the day the Lord has made.Let us rejoice and be glad,let us praise the Lord for his goodness.For behold, Jesus diedand now lives for evermore. Alleluia!

ALL: He has gone before us.Yet he is with us for all time. Alleluia!
Leader: Lord,on this most holy daylet your blessing rest upon usand upon our table.Strengthen us in this time together.We ask this in Jesus' name.

ALL: Amen.

Leader: Blest are you, Lord our God,who gathers us together in Jesus' name.We thank you for sharing your life with us,both in this mealand in all the ways you sustain us,through Christ, our Risen Lord.

ALL: Amen.

SYMBOLS OF THE SEASON


THE EASTER CANDLE…stands tall in the Main Lobby of our school. It is the symbol of Christ, our light. The candle represents Christ, the beginning and end of all times and ages. Five wax nails are inserted into the candle to signify the wounds that Jesus received in his hands, feet and side when he was crucified. The candle will remain burning brightly for the next fifty days. It is the light of Christ’s revealing love.


WATER…is also one of the great symbols of the Season of Easter. It is a symbol of Baptism through which we are initiated into the Christian Community. The baptismal font of the church has sometimes been referred to as the womb of the church. Baptism bridges our human divisions and calls us to the unity of one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Vessels of water are placed in the main lobby to remind us of our baptismal call to be disciples of Christ Jesus.

The Risen Christ is here among us in a unique way to remind us that we do not travel alone, that Someone cares and that one day we too shall shine bright and beautiful with the fullness of the Risen Christ’s love.


SOME THOUGHTS ON EASTER BY SAINT AUGUSTINE

Let us chant Alleluia. Then the word of scripture will be accomplished,
the word not of combatants any more, but of victors:
Death has been swallowed up in victory!

Let us chant Alleluia here in the midst of dangers and temptations.
O blessed Alleluia of heaven!
No more anguish, no more adversity. No more enemy.
No more love of destruction.
Up above, praise to God, and here below, praise to God.

Praise mingled with fear here, but without disturbance above.
Here we chant in hope, there, in possession;
here it is Alleluia on the way,
there it is on arriving home.

THE HOLIEST OF WEEKS

The celebration of Holy Week 2010 begins with the liturgies of Palm or Passion Sunday this weekend. It has been the tradition that Palm Sunday initiates us into the holiest of octaves-the eight days of Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. We begin this holy observance of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ with the blessing of palm branches that recall his triumphal entry into the holy city of Jerusalem. We are all joyfully implored to an intense, lively and prayerful Holy Week. This week is a week like none other, which commemorates the activities surrounding the Christ-event.


THE EASTER TRIDUUM

HOLY THURSDAY: This is the night when Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist, our communion with Him. The mandatum, or washing of feet takes place at this liturgy. This action serves as the primary symbol of Christian service. At the conclusion of the liturgy, a procession leads the transfer of the Eucharist to a place of repose for private prayer and adoration until midnight. During this holy evening, we are all invited to prayer with Christ. We do this in remembrance of Jesus praying that first Holy Thursday, after the Passover Supper, in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is a night for prayer and penance.

GOOD FRIDAY: This is the day of Jesus’ death, the most solemn day on our Christian calendar. This is the only day out of the year when Mass is not celebrated. Good Friday is a day of penance for Christians. For Catholics, we are directed to abstain from meat on this day and to fast from eating between meals. We are encouraged to keep the Lenten fast until after the Easter Vigil Services of Holy Saturday Night.

HOLY SATURDAY: The awesome ceremony of the Easter Vigil begins the celebration of Easter. This eventful night includes Baptism and Confirmation of catechumens and candidates who will be received into full communion in the Church. The celebration of Easter spills over into a fifty-day celebration, ending on Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church.

Holy Week, then, is the celebration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It has no meaning apart from the celebration of Jesus Christ. It is upon Him whom we must place our focus this week. It is a living relationship with Him that we must value above all else. It is this loving and living relationship with the Redeemer Christ that must energize us all to live in His spirit of love, with hope and faith.

With war raging still and the international and national order unstable, coupled with the recent headlines surrounding the Catholic church, it would be prudent for us to spend time in prayer for tranquility, peace, reconciliation and goodwill, along with the establishment of justice, eradication of terror and a termination of hatred and hostility. Perhaps Holy week could become a week of intense prayer and fasting for these causes.

May God send upon all of us peace, love, goodness and the faith to believe in the Easter promise of eternal life.


A REFLECTION ON HOLY WEEK
By: Archbishop Oscar Romero


For the church, the many abuses of human life, liberty and dignity are a heartfelt suffering.
The church, entrusted with the earth’s glory, believes that in each person is the Creator’s image and that everyone who tramples it offends God.


As the holy defender of God’s rights and of God’s images, the church must cry out.
It takes as spittle on its face and lashes on its back, as the cross in its passion,
all that human beings suffer, even though they be unbelievers.


They suffer as God’s images. There is no dichotomy between humans and God’s image.
Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages
a human being abuses God’s image, and the church takes as its own
that cross, that martyrdom.

THE HOLIEST OF WEEKS

Fasting to Feasting

As we continue our journey of Lent this week, we pray that God may enlighten us to see some of the vanities we hold as necessities. We fast to call to mind the greater hunger and thirst we have for what matters in life; good relationships rather than material possessions. We give alms in order to aid those whose hunger and thirst that they can be can be satisfied with our assistance. May this last stretch of the Lenten Season be one of true repentance and sincere hearts that return to God.

FASTING TO FEASTING

Lent is a time for fasting but also a season for joyous feasting!During Lent, the Church calls on us to fast from certain things and feast on others. For example:

Fast from judging others...feast on Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from emphasis on differences...feast on the unity of life.
Fast from apparent darkness...feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness...feast on God's healing power.
Fast from words that pollute...feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent...feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger...feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism...feast on optimism.
Fast from worry...feast on divine order.
Fast from complaining...feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives...feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures...feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility...feast on nonresistance.
Fast from bitterness...feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self concern...feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety...feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragement...feast on hope.Fast from facts that depress...feast on truths that up lift.
Fast from lethargy...feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion...feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken...feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from shadows of sorrow...feast on sunlight of serenity.
Fast from idle gossip...feast on purposeful silence.

No and Yes For Lent

On Ash Wednesday, we gathered and were traced in the form of a cross with ashes. These ashes signaled entry into this most holy of seasons; a time of fasting, an opportunity to deprive the body and consequently make room for the spirit.

These days, we seem to harbor an extra motive for fasting. As a whole, America seems to be much too overweight. In fact, the Harper’s Index of Statistics states that, at the current rate of increase, all Americans will be overweight by the year 2059! While fasting from food can be a good practice and a sincere attempt at discipline, perhaps we need to be challenged a bit this Lent to another form of fasting or discipline; fasting from that which comes from our mouths. Consider this:

1) Fasting From Foul Language: The air around us is full of it. The F-word is commonplace, monotonously and boringly so, in movies, in song lyrics, in novels, in magazine articles and in everyday conversation. Crude talk and endless sexual double meaning pollutes commercials, TV shows and daily conversation. This has become so commonplace that we take it all in as part of normal discourse. But when locker room talk becomes the ordinary means of communication it coarsens us, devalues us. Certainly, foul language has no place in the life of a disciple of Jesus. So, the first practice for Lent for all of us is to watch our language. Remember, we are part of Christ’s gang!

2) Keep Judgments From Spilling Out From Our Mouths: This might be hard to do for the whole of Lent. , but maybe you could pick one day to keep your judgments to yourself. Friday is a good choice, in honor of Jesus’ crucifixion. This was also the day when Jesus granted paradise to the repentant thief. So, for each Friday of Lent, make no judgments about other people: about their motives, their goodness or badness, their social standing, their defects, their clothes, their color, their sexuality, their mistakes. We are fellow pilgrims and Christ died for all of us. For one day a week during Lent, avoid letting negative judgments come forth from your mouth.

3) Try to Control the Verbal Negatives That So Readily Come From Our Mouths: not just the hate language, but the put-downs, the jabs that hurt, the insults, the criticisms, the condemnations, the sarcasm, the harmful gossip, the rumor that smears. Again, if it’s too much to do on every day during Lent, make it just one day a week. You may want to choose Wednesday as your no-negative words day, as tradition holds that this was the day Judas let the words which betrayed Jesus fall from his mouth. Words can hurt. Avoid the verbal negatives for the Wednesdays of Lent!


4) Let the Word “No” Fall More Often From Your Mouth: Our “nos” define us every bit as much as our “yeses.” Jesus is our guide. When he cured the man possessed by a demon and that man wanted to follow him, he said no. “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” When Pilate questioned Jesus, he shook his head no and refused to answer. He said no to the pain-dulling hyssop offered to him on the cross. Be like Jesus for Lent. Say no to drugs. Say no to pre-marital sex. Say no to infidelity. Say no to cheating. Say no to lies. Say no to over-consumption. But say yes to truth. Say yes to words that encourage and heal. Say yes to charitable deeds and sharing. Say yes to prayer. Say yes to your family’s need for your presence and time. Say Yes to Jesus.


HAVE A HAPPY, PRODUCTIVE AND POSITIVE LENT!