+JMJ+ Happy Easter Monday in the Octave of Easter! (I love that, as a Catholic, I get to say Happy Easter all week long and maybe even longer cuz it’s a season, not a day or even a week, ya know.) This post includes a repost from a few Easters ago the week of my 13th year anniversary. It’s been 27, not 13, years since I was received into Holy Church. It’s been a sometimes wild and bumpy ride but I wouldn’t trade it for all the money and power in the world, two things which I rather conspicuously lack. Ah, but I’m not complaining. Those things come with their own set of miseries and I’m perfectly happy not to have to deal with either of them, thank you very much. Repost begins below the fold.
Note: This Rejoice, O Queen of Heaven, is a re-post from last Easter, 2022. I hope we’re in a much better place this time, well, we are at least in some ways. Happy Easter to you!
+JMJ+ A traditional prayer of the Church is the Angelus, prayed three times a day: 6:00 am, 12:00 noon, and 6:00 pm. During the Easter season this prayer is replaced by the Regina Caeli, below.
+JMJ+ This Easter Vigil marked my twenty seventh anniversary as a Catholic. Still in love with the Lord and His Holy Church. Still the best thing that ever happened to me and that I’ve ever done.
She thought He was the gardener. Indeed, He created the Garden of the Universe, and willed to live in the garden of our souls.
O Divine Gardener, cultivate in us a heart like Yours.
— Easter Sunday 2020
@disciple96
Have a blessed and happy Easter Sunday and season, y’all! Peace be to you!
Image: Noli Me Tangere by Correggio, public domain.
Join me on Fridays Live on Twitter at 8pm ET, 7pm CT to pray for all those affected by the Coronavirus, to cultivate a culture of Life and Love, and to end the culture of death. “The Rosary is the ‘weapon’ for these times.” — Padre Pio
Join me to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for everyone affected by the #Coronavirus, live on Twitter @ 3pm EDT, 2pm CDT, daily until Divine Mercy Sunday. Possibly beyond that, too. TBA. Jesus, King of Mercy, we trust in You.
Christ in Glory, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Il-Baciccio). Adapted from a copy found at rev-artistry.
Happy Easter, friends! I hope your Lenten season was fruitful and that your Easter season will be richly blessed. My own recovery continues and I’m feeling more and more like myself again. And happy to be back here and active on the site, too.
I’m logged in tonight, building the pages for the Rosary Project. So if you see anything going all wonky, it’s probably not you, it’s probably me, trying something out and discovering that it doesn’t work. ;) I’m going to build the pages, text first, then add the images. Still debating on whether to put several large images on one page or smaller ones linked to larger ones, or just use a gallery for them instead. I dunno. We’ll see what happens. Say a prayer for me that I don’t mess up the entire site somehow and have to start over. I think I’d close it down and go hide in a corner if that happened. Or not. Twitter has made me bolder and more thick-skinned. (That place can be brutal!)
Have a great Easter weekend, y’all. God bless you. May His peace be always with you.
The Holy Rosary has been called “the Bible on a string.” In the Rosary we pray and meditate on the Life of Christ, coming face to face with the True God and True Man, Jesus. Image: Bible and Rosary from user jclk8888 at Morguefile.
*Translation: The Lord is risen indeed. Praise the Lord!
I’ve been a Catholic for nearly sixteen years now and I still remember that first Lenten season as a very special and wonderful time in my life. I was received into Holy Mother Church at the Easter Vigil of 1996 and I still get tears in my eyes when I remember it. I loved the Church then. I love her more now. And I love Christ. There was a time when I thought I’d never be able to say that, and that I would never want to say that. But I fell in love with the Church and the Church led me to the Lord. I can truly say now what I said wanting to mean it all those years ago: I want Christ to draw me closer, ever closer to Him. I want to sit at the foot of the Cross and gaze upon Him, upon His beauty, in the sanctuary.
My heart is full of joy and consolations tonight. Ever since I made the commitment to return to Daily Mass, God has been pouring such grace and so many graces into my soul that I can hardly bear it. Grace upon grace upon grace, many consolations. He has deepened my ongoing conversion, He has shown me so many things, taught me so much. At every turn He has shown me something new or has revealed a depth I had not suspected was there. He has led me to places, I’ve been there at exactly the right moment and I know His hand guided me. Oh, when I listen to Him, when I let Him lead me, it is truly marvelous what He will do. He is teaching me, showing me how to become, how to be, a true disciple.
I have so much to learn. Such a long way to go. So many obstacles to remove, barriers to loving Him the way He wants me to love. So far to go…
I know it’s Lent, a time of penance and entering into the sorrowful mysteries of Christ’s Passion. I know I’m supposed to be making a retreat with the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, and we’re supposed to be meditating upon those sorrowful mysteries and focusing on them, trying to really enter into them and not feel too much joy right now so that we can feel that joy at Easter with all the more intensity. But at this moment my heart is so full of joy that I cannot keep it from welling up within me and overflowing and bubbling out all over the place.
"Were not our hearts burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"
And yet at the same time I am aware of so much suffering around me. I’ve been praying at two different abortion mills during Lent (during the 40 Days for Life Spring campaign and at another mill in town that is a year-round vigil site) and so far I’ve only missed three days. I’ve talked with so many people and they’ve shared their stories with me. Stories of opportunities lost and lives lost and dreams turned into nightmares… My heart suffers and breaks along with theirs. And when I hear their stories of turning around, of changed hearts and minds, love wells up within me and I know this must sound sentimental or “emo” or silly to some, but it’s much more than that.
I feel this same love when people don’t agree with me and even look down on me for being religious, being Catholic, being any sort of Christian at all. For being pro-life. For leaving Buddhism to become Catholic. “How could you?!” They think I’ve taken a giant step backward. I know I’ve made a quantum leap forward. If Buddhism helped me grow more compassionate than I already was and gave me insight into myself and others, Catholicism has expanded my heart and mind to such a degree that the world now seems a completely different place than the one I knew before. And every day when I hear the readings at Mass it is as if the Lord were speaking directly to me and every word seems to come straight from the mouth of God. It has all come alive for me. The studying has become living, living has become studying, and I don’t even know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight because the Lord has shown me so much that I feel like I’m on fire.
I hope you’re having a good and fruitful Lent as you prepare for the celebration of Easter. May the Lord richly bless your Lenten efforts and pour out upon you the riches of His grace and give you peace. Amen.
And, Joe, if you’re out there, I haven’t forgotten our conversation or what I said I’d do. I will post what I can as soon as I can. And even though you told me you don’t pray, know that I do and I’m asking for blessings and graces for you, too. Peace be with you.
Tonight the Triduum began. I almost didn’t go to Holy Thursday Mass. But at the last minute I jumped up, got dressed and drove on over to join my fellow parishioners as we celebrated the Institution of the Eucharist. The Lord blessed me tonight. I’m so glad I decided to go. Or, rather, that He started whispering in my ear that I’d wish I’d gone if I stayed at home.
I stayed for adoration afterward. The altar is stripped tonight and the Blessed Sacrament is moved from the main altar to the “altar of repose”. The tabernacle door is left open, exposing the emptiness within. On this night Judas has betrayed his Savior and the guards have come with clubs and swords and spears, rope and chains to bind and drag good, gentle Jesus away. Mass ends, His Passion begins. Continue reading “An hour in the garden as the Passion begins”→
Catholic Heart and Mind 