Lent is completely over at this point – 40 days of penitential prayer and fasting and waiting for that glorious third day. Some of us had given up coffee, taken on more prayer time, and all of us had waited for Easter morning. Forty days is a long time, and we’ve put energy into being penitential and spiritual for these 40 days of Lent. And then we celebrate Easter on ONE Sunday, and then that’s it? Really? That's all we get?
But why? It’s like taking hours upon hours to get ready for the big party and then staying at the party of the century for 10 minutes. Really? Why not celebrate? Why not stay at the party? Why not see what joy and life lessons this season can bring?
The early Christians did not believe that Easter was just ONE day, and neither do we! Easter was on SUNDAY, but it is also an entire season of feasting, a season of celebrating that lasts for 50 days, all the way up to Pentecost. So why don’t we observe these Great Fifty Days of celebration?
Kate Moorehead says in her book Resurrecting Easter, “I don’t think it’s because we don’t like parties, or we refuse to celebrate. I think we can’t celebrate for that long because we have forgotten how to sustain joy. We simply don’t know how.” These next several weeks will be an invitation to celebrate the resurrection – for the entire 50 days – and sustain the joy of a resurrected Christ!
Beginning Easter Sunday, and these next 50 days that follow we will take a peek at the appearances that Jesus made to specific disciples. Each Sunday we will focus on a particular appearance, to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, James, Paul and Thomas; we will continue Sundays by glimpsing the visions of the book of Revelation and finally the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In addition we will also be posting blogs here to go along with that theme of the resurrection appearance. We will keep focusing on the resurrection appearance of which we heard on the previous Sunday. Different writers from our faith community will over reflections and thoughts on what it means to "Resurrect Easter."
Join us over these next 8 Sundays, and with the blogs in between (join in the conversation by leaving comments), as we RESURRECT EASTER and focus on what it means to experience the Resurrected Christ in our lives!
Check out what Kate Moorehead has to say about one of the resurrection appearances to Mary!
- Blessings, Laura