Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter!

Today is not a day for blogging, but rather for rejoicing - celebrating the miracle of the Resurrection with our loved ones. God bless!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Good Friday

Today is the most solemn and serious day in the Catholic Liturgical calendar: Good Friday.

A day for prayer and fasting and meditation.

A day for reflection. 

As a child, I found Good Friday hard to comprehend. As an adult, I am certain of one thing: that my understanding is not as perfect as I may think, "for now we see through a glass, darkly".

But that in itself is comforting to me. I don't have to fully understand God's plan. I don't have to understand how He "perfects" our tragedies and our mistakes and our sinful actions to His will.

I can simply accept it. 

This Easter, dear friends are grieving: it is their first Easter after the loss of their children.  

All of their children. 

And I know they are not alone, for friends in Haiti have told me of similar stories: men and women bent in grief over the loss of beloved children. I know it is a bitter story repeated across our broken world.

Please pray with me that in their grief the Promise of the Resurrection will bring them a measure of peace and comfort.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Maundy Thursday

Holy (or Maundy) Thursday is the solemn observation of the Last Supper, of the heartbreaking betrayal of Judas, of the torment in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It is a time of prayer and meditation, and we personally will observe a simplified Seder this evening in remembrance. This year, the selected Gospel is Luke, and we will also be re-reading and meditating/praying the Passion this evening.

This evening's observances are the beginning of the Easter Triduum, consisting of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil.

The Second Vatican Council, in restoring the Triduum to it's rightful place in the Liturgical Calendar urged us to remember: "Christ redeemed us all and gave perfect glory to God principally through his paschal mystery: dying he destroyed our death and rising he restored our life. Therefore the Easter Triduum of the passion and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the entire liturgical year." (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, # 18)
 
Here are a few links for those who may wish to read more:

http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/thurs.php

http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/story.php?id=36022

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1059