Easter is such a wonderful part of the Church year! It is interesting
that the Church gives us 40 days of Lent, a time for repentance and sorrow for our sins, but gives us 50
days for rejoicing in the Easter Season.
You know, that Easter is not just Easter Sunday. It IS Easter Sunday,
but it is a whole SEASON
of rejoicing that the Lord has risen from the dead. Easter is the greatest
Feast of the Church Year, for if
the Lord had not risen from the dead, our Faith would be in vain. We might
as well look for another
religion, for the follower of Christ would be following a dishonest man. But
as it is, the Lord, Our
Savior and Master, is true to His Word. “He has risen as He said.”
Alleluia, alleluia!
To me, everything about Easter is wonderful. Spring has sprung, flowers
are beginning to
bloom, the weather is warmer, the Easter music is joyful! “O Happy Fault”
which brought us Our Jesus!
We have every reason under the sun to be happy and grateful during this
time. The Son of God
has redeemed us. We have a chance now for going to Heaven. We cannot, nor
could not get there on our
own. Our God has loved us so much that He paid the price for us - purchased
our souls from the brink
of eternal death.
Did you know that grateful people are happy people? I think that the
first way to be happy
people is to make others happy, but a second way is to be genuinely grateful
for all we have and for all
that God has done for us. Once in Medjugorje, Our Blessed Mother said that
everything we have is a
gift from God.
I know that many people have very tough lives. They may live
in an abusive relationship. They may have ill health or work in most unpleasant
circumstances. Homeless people
don’t know from where their next meal will come or if they will have shelter
from the rain. Everyone
has sufferings of some sort in their lives. Yet all of us have many reasons
to be grateful. We are alive.
We have been redeemed. We have a chance for Heaven.
Most of us have someone
who loves us. To be
loved by even one person is a gift.
There is a saying - from where it came, I do not know. It goes:
“Two
men looked out of prison
bars;
one saw mud and the other saw stars.”
In that one sentence we receive
a lesson on attitude and
outlook on life. Mud and stars both exist, but what a person concentrates on
can determine his happiness or misery. We can dwell on misery, or we can count our blessings.
On what do you concentrate? Do you have an attitude of gratitude or are
you always
complaining about something?
Let us pray! Lord, help me always to be grateful for all the good You
have given me. Help me
to be grateful for my sufferings, also, because they are opportunities to
come closer to You. I love You,
Lord. Please make me a saint.
God bless you, dear reader.