Alleluia! He Is Risen Indeed!

Decorating Easter Eggs

Best Easter eggs ever, this year!


We had lots of sports-themed eggs this year. In addition to this Badger egg, we had a GB Packer egg (of course!), a Longhorn egg, a basketball, and a football egg. (Who knew that brown egg dye would come in so handy?!)





JPD opted out--too early in the morning for him, apparently...



We're getting ready for a very blessed Easter! Same to you and yours!

The Last Supper

On Thursday, KLD's 2nd/3rd grade class presented a sweet play about the Last Supper. It was adorable--and, of course, so was she!
How perfect that their play about the Last Supper was just a few hours before we celebrated the Holy Thursday liturgy, commemorating Jesus' institution of the Eucharist at his Passover dinner with his Apostles.

The Catholic Church claims that Christ is really present in the Eucharist, that the sacrifice of calvary is repeated at every Mass, and that he gives Himself to us in Holy Communion as food unto eternal life. ...

Let's turn to John 6 and see the context in which he says that. John 6, verse 4 tells us, "Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand." So everything that transpires within John 6 is within the context of the Passover. Jesus is talking to them now. At the time of the Passover, after multiplying these loaves, ending up filling twelve baskets with the fragments from the five barley loaves, He uses that as his point of departure for one of the most important sermons that He ever preaches and also one of the most disastrous from a human perspective.
...
He goes on talking about this bread and He goes on talking about Moses in context with that bread. For instance, in verse 32, "Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.'" Welfare state! "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall not thirst.'" And He goes on talking about this some more. The Jews would then murmur at him in verse 41 because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven."
...
"He said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,' which Leviticus condemns, the drinking of blood, 'unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.'"

~ From a talk by Scott Hahn / Full text here.

Thanks be to God for His most precious gift of the Holy Eucharist within the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! How beautifully the Easter Triduum begins!

A Very Happy Easter

It was the BEST!
We went to the wonderful Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday night, then woke up to Easter baskets and an egg hunt outside in the yard. This is big, you see--it's not every year that we get to go outside without our coats--much less in pajamas (!) for Easter! Then brunch, then a relaxing day, lots and lots of Easter candy, and a picture-perfect Easter dinner with Grandma.
Wish you were here with us!

Happy Good Friday

"Let us meditate on our Lord, wounded from head to foot out of love for us. Using a phrase which approaches the truth, although it does not express its full reality, we can repeat the words of an ancient writer: "The body of Christ is a portrait in pain." At the sight of Christ bruised and broken--just a lifeless body taken down from the cross and given to his Mother--at the sight of Jesus destroyed in this way, we might have thought he had failed utterly. Where are the crowds that once followed him, where is the kingdom he foretold? But this is victory, not defeat. We are nearer the resurrection than ever before; we are going to see the triumph which he has won with his obedience...

"Take a look now at Calvary. Jesus has died and there is as yet no sign of his glorious triumph. It is a good time to examine how much we really want to live as Christians, to be holy. Here is our chance to react against our weaknesses with an act of faith. We can trust in God and resolve to put love into the things we do each day. The experience of sin should lead us to sorrow. We should make a more mature and deeper decision to be faithful and truly identify ourselves with Christ, persevering, no matter what it costs, in the priestly mission that he has given every single one of his disciples. That mission should spur us on to be the salt and light of the world."

~ St. Josemaria Escriva, 'Christ is Passing By'