| Eve of Easter! | |||||
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Holy Thursday is the day (night) on which Jesus celebrated His Last Supper with His friends that supper being what we celebrate at our Masses (He told His friends to "Do this in memory of Me"); on Good Friday Jesus died on the cross for our sins; Holy Saturday is the day between Jesus' death and His Resurrection which occurs on Easter Sunday. So you see--I DO know about it but for some reason I put the wrong day as my ti Today IS Holy Saturday the eve of Easter and we attended Mass at St. Augustine's at 6pm. I enjoy going to Mass there--the church is small; the congregation is small but committed; the singing is usually "exciting" and "fun" to listen to. In addition the people there are extremely friendly and welcoming. We decided that we would go there today to be able to enjoy all these things--and so we did. Fr. John is an elderly priest from Ireland; he is white-haired and still speaks with a brogue even after being here for many years. His homily today was really good and I will try to BRIEFLY summarize the thoughts he left with me. He started off by saying that the women who visited Jesus' tomb after His death were most concerned about the stone that they would have to move--a VERY VERY HEAVY stone which had already been moved when they arrived. So it turned out not to be a problem for them. Fr. John then told a story about a family who had made reservations for a "suite" at a fancy hotel and were extremely disappointed when they arrived to find that their room was very small had no view and was uncomfortable. The next morning they complained to the manager who asked if they had opened the door inside the room; they admitted that they had not done so. Off they all went to the room---- Once there the manager told them to open the door. That door which they thought opened into a closet opened instead into a beautiful room with a fantastic view good ventilation and lots of light. By NOT opening that door they missed out on all of this. According to Fr. John this is how some of us live our lives... We live our lives as if there is nothing more nothing on the "other side" of the door. All we have to do is open those doors that are presented to us in faith and we will one day see all that God has waiting for us on the other side. We cannot be afraid to open those doors in our lives; if we are we might be like those travelers and miss the beauty and light that is awaiting us God's reward for living a good life. To me this confirms the definition of faith that I have always loved: "Faith is believing in things we cannot see; the reward of that faith is seeing the things in which we have believed." There is so much to look forward to; I can wait but I try to live the kind of life that will help me get there. Well I guess Fr. John got to me with that homily and it truly brought into my heart the real meaning of Easter. It is not Jesus' death that redeemed us but rather His resurrection and we should be thankful for that every single day of our lives. Tomorrow Easter Sunday Sid and I will be heading off to our little trip to Lockport and Houma. We haven't decided exactly what time we'll leave but since we went to Mass this evening we don't have to get up too early and can still leave at a reasonable time. Check-in at our motel is 3pm but the clerk said that we could probably get in there earlier so that's what we'll try to do; then we'll head to Lockport to visit with Mom and to see Bec and her kids. Later we'll have supper at Jess' before going to our motel. Plans to attend my classmate's funeral haven't been finalized yet but I'm sure we'll be able to work something out. I still plan to babysit for Jess so she can get some hours done at work after which we'll head back here to the Cottage. That's it for tonight. Have a wonderful evening and a Blessed Easter! QUOTE: "The biggest tragedy in America is not the great waste of natural resources--though this is tragic; the biggest tragedy is the waste of human resources because the average person goes to his grave with his music still in him." --Oliver Wendell Holmes NOTE: The words "I can't"--these tell us a lot about a person. When I first started teaching one of the grade levels was divided by "ability" and I remember someone in my class one day telling me that they "couldn't learn" something that I was teaching because they were the "dumb" ones in the class. I don't think I ever got angry with a group of kids like I did that day! I wasn't angry because of what they said but rather because they actually believed that. So I spent a good portion of the class talking to them about ability and how we all have talents and abilities but these talents and abilities are different. We all have limitations and these limitations are different. I told them that they COULD learn the material but we had to find the WAY for me to teach it and for them to learn it. They never again said that they were "dumb"--at least not in my presence. So play the music in your soul! Try something that you might think deep down inside you can't do but don't listen to that little voice. There's a bigger voice inside of you that is talking or you wouldn't have thought about trying in the first place. LISTEN TO THE BIG VOICE--and play your music! I can already hear the melody! |
