Easter Joy Continues!

This week is the Ascension! Here in the United States, some states celebrate the Ascension on Thursday, June 2nd, and others have moved it to Ascension Sunday, June 5th!

This is not the only day to be celebrating though. The celebration of Pentecost is coming soon on Sunday, June 12th. Pentecost marks the end of the Easter season! So Happy Easter today too!

Several weeks back we had hoped to get this blog rolling again. So Lauren asked Nathan to write something for the blog. Here is Nathan's post!!!

April 25, 2011

Happy Easter!  The Lord has truly risen and the Easter bunny has made his way through many houses to fill it with candies, chocolates, and other goodies.  No matter how a person celebrates, it seems that Easter is always a time full of joy. 

One of the great joys that Lauren and I had this Easter was the privilege of seeing one of our friends enter the Catholic Church on Saturday night at the Easter Vigil.  He did what some in the more “nerdy-Catholic “circles call the “tri-fector.”  He was Baptized, Confirmed, and received his first Holy Communion.  The smile on his face after the evening radiated joy.   

The joy of our friend is the same joy that all of us should try to live out in our daily lives.  One could be reminded of the great cry of the Easter people of God from the Psalms, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad” (Psalm 118:24).  Joy is the gift that God gives his children in the Resurrection of Jesus. 

In a special way this joy is what should be lived out in all of our daily activities and in a special way during the days of the Easter Season.  That’s right!  Easter has a season just like baseball and the theatre.  J  The season of Easter starts on Easter day and goes until Pentecost, which surpasses the number of days in Lent from 40 to 50.  This is a great Catholic “secret” (or people thought we already knew) Easter is longer than Lent.  That means there are more days of celebrations then there are of fasting.  But there is a deeper significance here than eating your favorite candy for the next 50 days.  It is in the Resurrection that Love conquers death and it is in that Love that we should contemplate during this Easter season.  It is in that Love that will bring us great joy these next 50 days and during our daily lives.  

Jesus said, “So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22).  What a cool though, “no one will take your joy from you.”  That is because it has been given to you by God and if you receive it as the gift that it is, you can never lose it.  This Easter season, you and me (and others who we tell) can be filled with the joy of the Risen Jesus, as each one of us strives to live each day in the Presence of the God who loves us!