HAPPY EASTER

    (picture is of our chapel with its Easter look)

 

A GLORIOUS EASTER TO YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES

    from the friars at our Franciscan Prayer Fraternity

 

SOME EASTER REFLECTIONS:

 

"It's all about life!   It is Easter!   Easter is about life: life where we least expect to find it, life that overcomes the power of evil and death .... as Christians, we are Easter people -- people who support, uphold, and proclaim life.  Like Mary, Peter, and the other witnesses to the resurrection, we are invited to recognize life in new ways, even where all seems to be darkness, for our God is the God of resurrection, the God of life."  (Sr. Barbara Bozak, CSJ)

 

"Jesus rises whenever power is used well, cargo dispelled, earth shaken at its core by the tremble of a trumpet sounding,  "This is enough."   You sing Alleluia.  You are trumpeted and twinkled into another version of time.  The late author, May Sarton, talks about how she finally became herself.  For too long, she says, she wore other people's faces.  Not everyone is free to wear his or her own face.  When we begin the Easter experience, we wear our own faces, and those whose faces we can barely look into also wear their own.  All are free from death.  Alleluias ring out, even in the world of lies and maybes.  This is resurrection.  This is Easter."  (Rev. Donna Shaper)

 

 

 

              

REFLECTION FOR GOOD FRIDAY

(The crucifix shown above is hanging at Assumption Abbey)

 

THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS

 

"On this, and every Good Friday, we witness our salvation as Jesus died for the sins of humanity.  But the crucifixion, as a major symbol of salvation, has always been an event that defies comprehension.  Even the great St. Paul struggled here as he preached nothing other than Christ crucified, which became a stumbling block for Jews and absurdity to the Greeks.  Indeed, how can death lead to life?   How can sins be forgiven through the mystery of the crucifixion?

 

Many individual in Western culture see no need for "salvation."  They claim to live respectable lives, not guilty of any heinous crime.  They are good to their neighbor, do not steal or lie, refrain from greed and anger.  So, what's the big deal?

 

The big deal is that fullness of life and freedom flow out of grace;  the big deal is that the reality of evil is ever present, both outside us in our culture, and deep within us in our souls. God desires that all people be saved, that they are to be set free from every sort of evil and that they live up to their full potential through the bestowing of grace."

 

   (by  Bishop Robert F. Morneau in NOT FOR BREAD ALONE 2011)

REFLECTIONS FOR HOLY THURSDAY

WE ARE TO BE A PEOPLE OF THE TOWEL AND WASH BASIN

 

"The law of love demands that we become people of the towel and water, that like Christ we wash the feet of our neighbor.  This simply means that we wash the feet of one another when we implement the gospel.  That and that alone is the true revolution that will change the face of the earth.  It is late in the day.  What does it means to be a Christian?  It means to revolutionize the world the way Christ wanted it to be revolutionized.  When shall we begin?"

 

       (from  THE GOSPEL WITHOUT COMPROMISE   by   Catherine de Hueck Doherty)

 

 

 

"Enter into the mystery of being master and servant.  Look at your neighbors and pick up the towel.  With authority grounded in humility, kneel before them and wash off the dirt of daily living.  If you are the neighbor in need of washing, lay aside your pride and, like Peter, accept the service of the one kneeling before you.   Then go, and do likewise.  Be blessed as you wash the feet of others and reveal the face of the Master through the towel in your hands."

 

               (from   MASTER AND SERVANT by Alma L. Maish) 

Prayer Reflection for your 5th Week of Lent

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT REFLECTION:

 

"Today, as the praying assembly listens once again to the words of Paul, Ezekiel and the Johannine evangelist (in the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead), will we also hear the summons to life issued by God in Jesus?  During the life span of any human being, there is, of course, one conclusive and ultimate death.  Everybody dies.  But there are also many little and large experiences of dying along the way.  There are the losses of friends and family whose absences create a dying in our hearts.  There are the losses of oppressed and needy brothers and sisters throughout the world whose deaths continue to assault the consciences of those more fortunate.  There is the dying of a friendship as it is surrendered to an argument that cannot or will not be resolved.  There are the deaths that come as the distances between us grow larger and our times of communion less frequent.  There are the inevitable deaths when memory fails, when bones break and muscles ache with the loss of youthful vigor.  There are also deaths that come with the loss of a job or a home.  In all these experiences of death, believers are assured that these deaths are but a prelude to that final act of surrender to God.  Each helps us prepare for the moment that is not an end but a passage to a new and endless beginning.  In that final moment, and in all the little preludes of dying that lead up to that moment, Jesus will say to us as he said so long ago at the tomb of Lazarus, "Come out! Unbind him and let him go free!"   

 

(this reflection is by Patricia Sanchez in Celebration's  Preaching Resources)

 

 

Prayer Quote from your Prayer Fraternity

April 4th quote from Saint of the Day:  St. Isidore, Bishop and Doctor

 

When we pray, we talk to God;

when we read, God talks to us!