Easter Has Been Over For A While Now.

[Ed Normile]

Do you still feel the glory of his resurrection? Do you remember how you felt during the good friday reading. Have you carried any of this with you this far into the new year? Its easy to become emotional during Easter week hearing the story of the passion, preparing for His rising. We should carry that feeling with us throughout the year, the message is timeless, its promise is there for us each day to guide us and to inspire our actions. Lent is gone now, but we can still make a sacrifice every now and then, just to keep in practise, and a fine thing to offer these sacrifices up for would be the Holy Souls in Purgatory, sacrificing that they may rise, rise and see the face of Christ, to bask in His Presence, to feel the warmth of His light.

ed

[MissScripture]

Easter isn't over! It lasts for 50 days!

[Seven77]

[quote name='MissScripture' timestamp='1304738972' post='2238279']
Easter isn't over! It lasts for 50 days!
[/quote]

+100

[Ed Normile]

[quote name='MissScripture' timestamp='1304738972' post='2238279']
Easter isn't over! It lasts for 50 days!
[/quote]

True, the Easter season ends on Pentecost, but the Easter octave ended on Divine Mercy Sunday, but what I was referring to was the actual holiday of Easter, which is Easter day, the Sunday of his resurrection, perhaps I did nor clarify this, although I think I did allude to it slightly writing about both His Resurrection and lent being over.

ed

[Chamomile]

Christ is risen!

[Tony]

so it is fine to make sacrifices during the 50 day easter season. That was never clear to me

[kafka]

[quote name='Seven77' timestamp='1304784004' post='2238415']
+100
[/quote]
+ forever.

[JenDeMaria]

[quote name='Ed Normile' timestamp='1304737842' post='2238270']
Do you still feel the glory of his resurrection? Do you remember how you felt during the good friday reading. Have you carried any of this with you this far into the new year? Its easy to become emotional during Easter week hearing the story of the passion, preparing for His rising. We should carry that feeling with us throughout the year, the message is timeless, its promise is there for us each day to guide us and to inspire our actions. Lent is gone now, but we can still make a sacrifice every now and then, just to keep in practise, and a fine thing to offer these sacrifices up for would be the Holy Souls in Purgatory, sacrificing that they may rise, rise and see the face of Christ, to bask in His Presence, to feel the warmth of His light.

ed
[/quote]

I feel this way every year. The Tridium is so emotional and so powerful and the Easter Vigil puts me on a high note that feels so transcendent that I feel as though I could just burst with bliss for at least a week... and then slowly but surely I wind back down.

I think the trick is that it can't just be an emotion. It can't just be something we celebrate because it's on the liturgical calendar and we have Easter for another 40 some days because the Church says so. It can't just be a sugar high, double allelujahs and Easter lilies. There has to be something to trigger the intellect and the will, too.

So I've been trying to meditate on the meaning of Easter this year -- what it means to me and its significance in the whole story of salvation. I think I've realized that perhaps even because the resurrection is so easy for me to accept as an article of faith and because I grew up seeing it as a fulfillment of the Passion rather than an event in itself, I still feel as though I've barely scratched the surface.

Thoughts:

1) As a convert, Easter is the anniversary of my entrance into the Church as a (conditional) catechumen. I think about what an amazing gift I was given in my membership in this Church and how much I love the Bride of Christ and our Good God who gave us an amazing Pope, many good Bishops and so very many priests who sacrifice themselves on a daily basis in imitation of Our Lord without thanks or recognition

2)Through Lent we plumb the depth of our commitment to the faith and to Christ who himself demonstrated the level of sacrifice our faith requires. At Easter we renew our baptismal promises with joy, certain that we will continue to sacrifice throughout our earthly pilgrimage but that our trials will be rewarded just as generously as Christ's Passion was rewarded with the victory of his resurrection and ascension into Heaven.

3) This season is a foretaste of that Heavenly reward we will experience after the long Lent of our lives is through -- and then we will walk with him in triumph and joy just as his disciples did during the 40 days of that first Easter.

4) It is a guarantee that we are members of a living body which will never die and which will hold us and all the saints, the whole family of God, in a communion of love and peace eternally

5) Easter is a seal we can place upon our arm and on our heart that all things are possible with God and that the One who destroyed death forever can lead us through the valley of the shadow of death and then lift us up to the place he has destined for us if we will only accept His Will in faith and perseverance

[Chamomile]

Every Sunday is a little Easter

[JenDeMaria]

[quote name='Chamomile' timestamp='1304879053' post='2238744']
Every Sunday is a little Easter
[/quote]

And conversely, St Athanasius calls Easter "the Great Sunday" [url="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1169.htm"]CCC 1169[/url]