Approaching the Easter Season

I'm not sure who to attribute this to, but I think it is appropriate to share; let me know if you know who the author is:

The first Easter didn't happen at a church.  It happened outside an empty tomb, while all the disciples were sequestered in a home, grief stricken, and wondering what was going on.  So we're all going to be keeping things pretty Biblical this Easter.


Yep, this Lenten season has been different.  It has been challenging.  I relaxed some of my dietary restrictions I was going to give myself because having difficulty getting groceries was real.  Going dairy free and being restrictive when supplies are restrictive just was not what I felt called to do.  Having patience with our families, pets and all those around us, that was what I tried to focus more on.  Telling people who keep the groceries coming, "Thank you and you are essential."  Remembering the difference between needs and wants.  That was not what I had started my pre-Lenten journey wanting to focus on, but that's where I ended up.

Watching Tenebrae and Holy Thursday Mass online is just not the same.  As Catholics, we are "tactile" we need touch, smell, the incorporation of the senses.  Yes, there is a sorrow for what we are longing for, but in that, I can unite myself to the disciples.  The uncertainty, the sorrow, the anxiety.  I can unite myself with them in hope as well.  Without having to book a babysitter and the ability to "pause" services, I'm not spending half of the service trying to get my son to pay attention.  I have access through the internet to a Tenebrae service in Singapore and one in a beautiful cathedral in Chicago.  I can attend virtually a service at St. Patrick's cathedral and expose my son and family to more than I would be able to in normal circumstances with the realization that when the new "normal" returns, my whole family will have a greater appreciation for what we have missed.  While we can't experience the presence of the Eucharist in it's physical form, we may in the biblical- give thanks.

Let us all give thanks.  No matter if there's job loss, illness, financial woes or parental meltdowns that children are not going back to school this year, we all have the best thing to give thanks for- Jesus.

Have a Blessed Easter Season!