Easter is here. I wish I could say that the Triduum liturgies at Our Lady helped me to enter deeper into the joy of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, but that would be a lie. They were abysmally casual and excruciatingly careless.
And I wish I could say the YMCA of the Rockies celebrated this great day with the dignity expected from a Christian organization. That would be a lie, too. We were expected to work the entire day (unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we finished what work absolutely had to be done that day and went home) and the dining room served us employees a festive meal of lunch meat and soup.
Thank God for the St. Malo Retreat Center and Fr. Luis. He prayed a beautiful 5pm Easter Mass Sunday, and we welcomed two people into the Church. I've been going to St. Malo for months now for two reasons: I work on Sundays and can make it on time to the 5pm Mass; and I am spiritually feed there.
And thank God for the Church who knows that the joy of Easter cannot be contained in one day but overflows for eight.
And in this Octave of Easter we have another reason to rejoice: Pope Benedict celebrated his 79th birthday on Sunday and today is the first anniversary of his election to the Chair of Peter.
Viva il Papa! The Lord is Risen!
