Easter 2009: Resurrection & Renewal

This Easter finds us far from family and friends yet we stick to established patterns, one of which is attending Easter mass. I attend with my husband for, though I am not Catholic nor of any particularly strong faith, I find this particular mass rekindles in me that sense of renewal inherent to Spring and the many ways resurrection and renewal can occur.



Of course, the church we went to was new to me; on the surface, rich-looking!) (I wondered what Jesus would think!) but filled with regular joes and josephines faithfully attending to the priest's words. He spoke with a heavy Spanish accent but most of what he said was understandable. I particularly liked his analogy of rolling back the heavy stones in our hearts (as was done at Jesus's tomb), and gave that idea some thought.



I, like my mother, love to sing hymns so I much enjoyed following the lead of the disembodied singer/organist who couldn't be seen (at least from my vantage point) behind the organ but whose voice was lovely and light. I could have been at a service anywhere in the world which is what I guess is nice about catholism: its uniformity. No surprises. Well, ok. One surprise. As the theme is resurrection, we recited the words of baptism (me following in a book) and the priest walked throughout the church, annointing us with a sprinkling mace-like thing from the aisle. As it's a big church, he had to hurry. No one put up an umbrella.



Back home, I stopped to put away some library books (my new job) and came across this book which I read just this afternoon: The Shack by Wm Paul Young. If you believe in God, you know He works in mysterious ways still, I thought it odd that I should stumble across a book on a day when I was consciously thinking of rolling back the hard places in my heart, and this book addresses this very idea and more.



Whether your struggles be with faith, acceptance, forgiveness, hatred, fear, or trust, I suggest you try reading this book. Take from it what you will but trust me: you're sure to take something. And...it might help roll away that stone in your heart.