The Lord has risen, Alleluia!

I have just realized what a slacker I truly am….I had nothing posted for Easter, the most important feast in the Church.
How can a Catholic blog totally ignore Easter?

Not that we didn’t celebrate it, we had our Easter baskets and Easter egg hunt (I am betting that those chickens are madder than wet hens about their eggs being stolen by a bunny rabbit).

OK, so Easter has lost some of it’s meaning in the secular world. Those of us whom have children find it hard not to do the whole “Easter bunny” celebration.

We also have a hard time not being gluttonous after our fast and abstinence. When you give up sweets for Lent, then have mountains of chocolate within reach on the day after Lent, there will surely be an opportunity for the sin of gluttony.

We have to make sure though that the secular celebration does not over-shadow the true “reason for the season”.

We try to make sure we are at as many Stations of the Cross devotions, confession evenings, and Divine Mercy celebrations as we are able. We have our own personal abstinence choices and we try to "do" some works for others. We also try to pray more and say some Novena's.
Of course Easter cannot be complete without celebrating in our parish all the Triduum services and the Easter vigil Mass which may seem long and drawn out (especially those with toddlers) but what better way to celebrate Jesus’ life, death and resurrection than to welcome our new brothers and sisters into the Church and also offer up ourselves; our time, our sufferings, our burdens with Jesus’ sufferings upon the Cross.

Our 2yr old daughter wanted to “go swimming” with our parish priest in the Holy font after witnessing the Baptisms…..but unfortunately he denied with her request.
What a hoot!

You can’t see the joy on a child’s face on Easter morning, until you endure the suffering of your wallet in the Easter section of Wal-Mart.
Joy comes after the suffering.
You can’t have a rainbow without the rain.
You can’t have the resurrection without the cross.

Just as in the octave of Christmas, we should not forget “the reason for the season”.

Christ has risen, He has risen indeed!