Easter in Our Midst

Easter, always a time of joyful celebration for Christians, brought blessings to us who long for spring and new life after a long, cold winter.  Last weekend at St. Michael’s, the Easter-celebrating community found the church, as always, splendidly decorated and filled with song.  Clad in Easter finery on a beautiful spring day, we welcomed a special visitor, the recently-named Coadjutor Archbishop of Newark, Bernard A. Hebda, who presided at the 10:30 AM Mass.

I was fortunate to be seated behind a lovely Easter family, Mom, Dad, three beautiful girls and the grandparents, skillfully juggling their attentiveness to the Mass with holding and engaging the three small children.  While Dad, down at the far end of the pew, cared for the youngest, Mom shared her love for God and the Mass with her oldest.

Observing them was a grace-filled Easter blessing for me.  I not only heard the Gospel, I saw it proclaimed by a mother, holding the red Ritual Song book and showing her attentive daughter the words of the Gospel being read.

And the youngest, much too young to read, sat beside them holding over her heart the blue covered Missalette containing the Gospel.  What a lesson of Easter Proclamation for all of us!

We truly bring grace to each other as we are Alive as the Body of Christ.

Sister Loretta