Alleluia!

-
Easter was on April 16th. Today is May 11th. 

We just got around to digging up the Alleluia ribbons that we had buried on Ash Wednesday.  In some traditions, the word "alleluia" is not used during Lent, but then the word is brought back on Easter with great celebration throughout the service with shouts of praise and with songs.   
These ribbons that we stick in a bag and bury underground during Lent serve as a tangible picture of that.  

The thing is that this year, we just forgot to get them on Easter and then we kept putting it off. On one day that I remembered, it was raining hard and we did not want to make a mess with the mud. Another time I remembered, but it was getting too dark. 
So, finally today, we got out the shovel and freed them from their time underground. 

According to the church calendar, Easter is a season (like Advent or Lent) that lasts 50 days. So, it's still Easter and we can keep on celebrating the resurrection. 
That's definitely worth shouting "Alleluia!" 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

St. Nicholas' Day 2015

-
Image
St. Nicholas' Feast Day is December 6th, but it seems that as with holiday busyness and with a lot going on, some celebrations have to get extended or postponed.  Grace abounds this season. :)  So, we celebrated a couple days late with our annual secret St. Nicholas candy delivery. We covered little candy bars with these St. Nicholas' papers (instead of the traditional practice of baking St. Nicholas cookies) and delivered them to neighbor's doorsteps under the cover of the night.   (It's like "booing" around Halloween and dropping off May Day flowers in the spring.  We practically have one time each season to try to knock on neighbor's doors, leave a treat, and run like the wind trying not to get caught!)  There is a wonderful reflection on St. Nicholas  here  from a weekly blog that shares on art and faith.  I loved the benediction in the reflection:   "May God give us all a heart of mercy like St. Nicholas; eyes that see the needs
Read more

College Care Packages (for the Parents!)

-
Image
  Last year when we took Anna to college, I wrote this: " If we didn't love Anna so fiercely, we wouldn't have had to brace ourselves for the terrible ache of saying goodbye today—but then we also wouldn't have felt the keen joy of watching her launch.  We are grateful for a day filled with final errands, unpacking, and tearful goodbyes, and we are excited and hopeful about what God has in store for Anna in the next four years at Scripps. "  Emotions were all over the map last summer with how bittersweet it all was, so I wanted to make care packages for friends who were launching their own kids off to college this summer.  Here's what I came up with: 
Read more

Taylor's Crossing

-
Image
Our boy is turning 13 this month so we've been intentional about trying to create something that would fit his personality and that would speak to his heart to help mark this "crossing" year.  We did a more elaborate version of this for his sister, Anna, but he made it very clear that he did not want the same kind of  pageantry.   As we thought about how to tweak some of our ideas that we'd put in place before, we still had some of the same goals that we'd had for Anna.  The ultimate message that we wanted him to hear and remember was that he is loved. One small thing we did in preparation to drive this home was that we had him memorize Psalm 139 over a period of a few months as this passage is a beautiful reminder of God's love for us and His presence with us.   We also wanted Taylor to know that as he turned from 12 to 13 into the realm of being a teenager that he was not doing this alone. We wanted him to know that he has a team of people
Read more