Sunday Sermon and Some Other Stuff:) Happy Easter

“Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life.”

~Janine di Giovanni

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A beautiful sunny Easter morning here in North Texas. Our regular 9 am Mass started at 8:30 in the new sanctuary and an 8:40 in the old sanctuary. I was greeting this morning, so I arrived at 7:30 and the parking lot was already getting full. By 8:15, we were told to steer people over to the old church for the next Mass at 8:40. It was wonderful to see all the bright happy faces and the children all smiling in their new outfits. There were many hugs with old friends and greetings with new faces.

Today’s Gospel and Sermon, of course, was about the resurrection. It was discovered that the tomb where Jesus was buried was empty…

“Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, 7and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

I hadn’t heard, or maybe had forgotten the symbolism of the napkin not lying with the scattered clothing. The napkin was rolled up or neatly folded by itself, symbolizing the tradition of the master folding his napkin neatly if he left during a meal to let his servants know that he would return and not to take away his dishes. If the napkin was just tossed or crumpled on the table, then he was finished and not returning. The place could be cleared. When the tomb was opened and Jesus was gone, the napkin that was on his head was rolled up neatly, signifying He would return. And…He did!

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My take on it, well, there are other views and thoughts about the resurrection and heaven and life after death. Some people believe in a life after this one, and others don’t. Personally, I believe, and I believe in heaven. I believe in symbolism and signs.

When my sweet angel mother was in her final hours, I whispered in her ear, “WHEN you get up to heaven, send us a sign. If anyone can do it, you can.” She did. Some of you know the story of the two lucky pennies my sister and I found found on the bench beneath her mural at the library. She knew that lucky pennies were my sign. When we went up to see the mural she had painted and donated to the Elgin library many years ago, two pennies were sitting there. I know there is a heaven and she’s in heaven. Mom said so.

Easter is a time for renewal, rebirth, and second chances. Happy Easter my friends.

Sunday:) Happy Easter:) Resurrection, Renewal, Revival

“The symbolic language of the crucifixion is the death of the old paradigm; resurrection is a leap into a whole new way of thinking.”

~Deepak Chopra

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Christianity is not rationalism, but faith in God’s revelation. A conspicuous, all-important item in that revelation is the resurrection of the body. Edward McKendree Bounds

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/resurrection

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Happy Easter everyone. I hope you had a good day. I certainly did. I started out very early, greeting at Mass, smiling, hugging, and shaking hands with friends and strangers at church.

Easter Sunday, for us Catholics and Christians, is the most important day of all. The resurrection of Our Lord after being crucified, suffering death, buried, then the miraculous resurrection. Easter always makes me think about the sacrifice, the love, and the gift we humans have been given by our creator. I also tend to analyze the definition of the words we use.

There are many meanings and definitions for the word resurrection…

res·ur·rec·tion  (rĕz′ə-rĕk′shən)

n.1.a. The act of restoring a dead person, for example, to life.

b. The condition of having been restored to life.

2. ResurrectionChristianity

a. The return of Jesus to life on the third day after the Crucifixion.

b. The restoration of the dead to life at the Last Judgment.

3. The act of bringing back to practice, notice, use, or vibrancy; revival: the resurrection of an old custom; the resurrection of a decrepit neighborhood.

This made me think about my own life. Today is the perfect time for my own personal resurrection. Not dying and coming back to life in the literal sense, but a REVIVAL, bringing back a VIBRANCY or LIFE back into my world. Time for a change, starting fresh. Easter and Spring and renewal go hand-in-hand.

After church, I stopped at Sprouts for my weekly fix of fruits and vegetables. They have the best sales. Walnuts on sale $3.99 a pound. Wow! I bought three pounds.

While I was leaving the store, I noticed a Fantastic Sam’s Hair Salon right next door. They were open. A sign… Hmm???

What better way to start anew, a change, a renewal and resurrection? Time for a haircut. I’ve had long frizzy curly bothersome hair for over 50 years. Time for an extreme change. Just Do It, as Mr. Nike would say. So, I did it. Chopped it all off.

What do you think?????

It’s short and sassy and makes me look ten years younger. I love it!

So, not to have missed my special day, I hope you enjoyed my little story and joke. NO! I didn’t cut my hair that short. Actually, my hair is so goofy and curly, it would never look that good short. I took this picture at Mom’s house last year. I was fooling around with her and put on one of her many red wigs that she had in her closet. I said, “Look, my name is Grandma.” We both laughed. But, I did look a little like my sweet mother. I’m sure she’s smiling down from heaven now.

This is how I looked today and will look tomorrow. You decide. Should I go for the haircut for real???

HOPPY EASTER

Did you ever wonder what Easter has to do with a bunny, colored eggs, candy and baskets? There are a lot of theories and explanations. It really doesn’t matter much to me because, I’ll use any excuse to make cute cupcakes, dress up the dogs, and eat massive quantities of little foil wrapped chocolate eggs. And don’t forget that sadistic ritual of biting the heads off the poor little chocolate bunny. It’s all good.

I decided to do a bit of research on the Easter Bunny and share my findings. The most difficult part of this post was wrestling the squirmy 80 lb puppy in order to put the bunny ears on him for a quick photo op. Every time I managed to get the ears on, the two seconds it took to grab the camera, afforded him enough time to swipe at the fuzzy sequenced headdress and chew on it. This went on for fifteen minutes and about twenty failed blurry attempts. Old Prince was more cooperative, but his younger counterpart still wanted to rip up those ears.

“I’m not a bunny, Lady! Gimme those ears.”

“The things I’ll do for a little doggie treat!”