Agony In the Garden

Garden of Gethsemane

Agony's garden

While Peter, James and John slept

Jesus prayed and wept

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While we anticipate the joy of Easter, we must also share in the agony our Savior experienced.  For it is for us that He suffered and died.  Only because of Good Friday can we celebrate our salvation on Easter Sunday with our Risen Lord.  

~~^j^~~

Happy Easter 

and

Thanks be to God!

Cathy

Please visit recuerda mi corazon for Haiku My Heart. There is always more beautiful words  there to enchant and encourage!!!

Happy Easter!!!!!

Brothers and Sisters: Do  you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?  Clear out the old yeast so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened.  For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.  Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8

Easter Morning Liturgy

Happy, Holy and Joyful Easter!!!  

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks be to God!

Cathy

Easter Blessings

Happy Easter!!!

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks be to God!!!

Cathy

Happy Easter

He is Risen, Alleluia.  Alleluia!!!!

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks be to God!

Easter Continues!

Therefore we thank Thee for our little light, that is dappled
with shadow.
We thank Thee who has moved us to building, to finding
to forming at the ends of our fingers and the beams
of our eyes.
And when we have built an altar to the invisible Light,
we may set thereon the little light for which our bodily
vision is made.
And we thank Thee that darkness reminds us of light.
O Light Invisible, we give Thee thanks for Thy Great glory!
T. S. Eliot

Our celebration of Easter continues this week as the Kellers and Stauffers from INDY arrive and join us here with the Ackermans from across town. We will celebrate the Resurrection with food and family. And for entertainment we will attend the Spring Musical performed by the Students of Memorial High school.

There will be the usual ham, sweet potatoes, veggies and pie. We will chat and laugh and eat way too much. The kids will giggle, the dogs will beg at table and there will be meaningful and not so meaningful conversation.

Then it will be off to the high school for this year's performance of Annie. It is always a thrill to watch kids sing and dance and this year will be no different. Kellie is a sophomore and part of the cast (we have been entertained by the students here since Kellie began as a wee extra when she was 4). Neil her brother is an extra. What fun we will have.

The traditions of the Church allow us to celebrate this Holy Season for fifty days, not just one. We are to "party" through the Ascension of Our Lord and into Pentecost and the arrival of the Holy Spirit. We are to celebrate who we are!!!!! We are the Body of Christ!

So everyone!!!! Do it!!!! CELEBRATE!!!!! We do have a lot about which to rejoice. Continue to worship and commemorate Our Lord's glorious resurrection for this is our legacy! Alleluia! Alleluia!!!

~~^j^~~
Thanks be to God!

He Is Risen!!
Alleluia! Alleluia!

~~~~~
Thanks be to God!

The Empty Tomb

I was gifted with is from a dear friend, Juliene! I share it with you now because it is not just a wonderful story, but gives us, me in particular, better insights into Jewish tradition. Please read and enjoy. And to Juliene, I say, "Thank you very much!"

Why Did Jesus Fold the Napkin?

Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection?
I never noticed this.

The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed
over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes.

The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly
folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin.

Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to
the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom
Jesus loved. She said, 'They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb,
and I don't know where they have put him!'

Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple outran Peter and got there first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying to the side.

Was that important? Absolutely!

Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin,
you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day.

The folded napkin had to do with the Master and servant
and every Jewish boy knew this tradition.

When the servant set the dinner table for the Master,
he made sure that it was exactly the way the Master wanted it.

The table was furnished perfectly and then the servant would wait,
just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the Master was finished.

Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.

The servant would then know to clear the table.
For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, 'I'm done'.

But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table.

Because..........

The folded napkin meant, 'I'm coming back!'

He is Coming Back!! Be Blessed!!!

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks be to God!

He is Risen, Alleluia!

The Risen Lord
porcelain by Therese Meisling

Two thoughts for the day. The first is offered as an introduction to Easter Sunday's Mass in Magnificat and written by Pope Benedict.

Faith in the resurrection of Jesus says that there is a future for every human being; the cry for unending life which is a part of the person is indeed answered. Through Jesus we do know 'the room where exiled love lays down its victory.' He himself is this place, and he calls us to be with him and in dependence on him. He calls us to keep this place open within the world so that he, the exiled love, may reappear over and over in the world...God exists; that is the real message of Easter. Anyone who even begins to grasp what this means knows what it means to be redeemed.

Pope Benedict XVI

The other is offered by Richard Rohr, O.F. M. in his book Radical Grace.

The Subversive, Risen Christ

Jesus is among us now in a new way as the Risen Christ, the Christ who is everywhere, beyond all limits of space and time. On Good Friday we say the relationship of all humanity to God: We kill what we should love. We're afraid of the gift that would free us. On Easter Sunday we celebrate Jesus coming back into a world that rejected Him.

If you have ever been rejected, you know how unlikely it is to come back into the midst of those who have said, We do not want you. Yet that's the eternal mystery we celebrate: God is always coming back into a world that for some unbelievable reason does not want God. It's almost impossible to believe that could be true. And yet Jesus, in his humility, finds ways to come back. Jesus knows we didn't like the first time what he had to say. We weren't ready for that much freedom or that much truth. Humankind can't bear that much reality or that much love in one moment of history.

So God had to come back in a disguised form. God had to come back, as it were, secretly, as a subversive, hidden--the Risen Christ. Now he can be everywhere, but we can't capture him. We can't name him too precisely. He can always break through in new and unexpected ways. That's the Risen Christ the world is never ready for and never expects, and sadly, does not even want. That's the Christ who energizes his Church, The Christ forever beyond our control.

from For Teens on the Risen Christ

We have been given so much in the love of God. If we could just accept the gift of life offered with humility by our Risen Lord! We are such frail lace tatted by the hand of God. The strength of the fiber is in the love of the Risen Lord and the intricacies of the life of that work is in the working of the Holy Spirit!

~~~~~~~

Thanks be to God! Alleluia!!!