catholic family faith

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

While the Easter baskets and decorations have been put away and the chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and peeps are all eaten up and the stores have pulled out all of their summer merchandise, we Catholic Christians are still in the midst of Easter joy.  Our churches are still decorated with Easter lilies and colorful spring flowers.  We continue the sprinkling rite, remembering our baptism, at the beginning of the Lord's Day Eucharistic liturgies.  We listen to the stories of the apostles and the early Church as they began to live their new reality in Christ's resurrection.

For Catholic Christians around the world, Easter is not a one weekend event.  We continue to celebrate the season of Easter for 50 days, until the feast of Pentecost (this year on June 12, 2011.)  Next to the season of summer-autumn Ordinary Time, the Easter season is the longest season of our Church.  Easter is the biggest, most festive season of our faith.  We are People of the Resurection.

How is your household continuing to live the joy of Easter?  How are you embracing the reality of life in Christ's resurrection?

There are a number of ways you can keep Easter alive in your home.  Here are just a few suggestions:

• Place a white candle in the middle of your meal table.  At each meal, light the candle and have someone say "Christ is risen!" with everyone shouting out "Alleluia!"
• Read the stories from Acts of the Apostles.  As a family, talk about what life might have been like for those early Christians.  Talk, too, about how your family can mirror the life of those early Christians.
• Take lots of springtime walks together.  Every day more buds are on the trees and more flowers are blooming.  Notice the new life all around you.
• Throughout May, we traditionally remember Mary, Jesus' mother, who gave life to our Savior and was with him throughout his  passion, death, and resurrection.  Pray the Rosary together, reflecting on the Glorious Mysteries of the events of Jesus' and Mary's lives after the resurrection. 
• Keep eating egg salad.  Eggs are a symbol of new life, so eating eggs throughout the season of Easter can remind us of the new life we have in Christ through our baptism.
• Participate in the Lord's Day Eucharistic liturgies, celebrating the season with your faith family, singing the Easter songs, listening to the stories of the early Christians, and sharing the joy of the resurrection.

Enjoy this Easter season of new life - both the physical life of spring and the spiritual rebirth through Christ's resurrection and reflection on your baptism.

 

Lord's Day Faith Chat - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - April 11, 2010

Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe."  (John 21:26b-27)

I love the readings of the Easter season. I am encouraged by the Acts of the Apostles and how they spread the Good News of Jesus' teachings. I am also reminded that even though I haven't seen Jesus in the flesh, he is truly risen.  I know that Jesus is risen because of the stories that have been passed down through the generations about his resurrection.  I know that Jesus is risen because of the stories of how people through the centuries have experienced his love and mercy, even if they didn't see Jesus in the flesh.  I know that Jesus is risen because I have felt his love and mercy, his power and glory in my own life.

It is not easy to believe that Jesus is risen, that Jesus is God.  Yet every time we gather for the Eucharistic liturgy, we proclaim our belief and act on our faith by receiving Jesus' Body and Blood in Holy Communion.

Faith Chat Question:  What helps you to believe that Jesus is truly risen?  How do you recognize Jesus in your midst?

Household Activity:  Jesus becomes present in our world when people live his command to love and serve others.  On this Divine Mercy Sunday, discuss what your household could do this week to help others.  You might rake a neighbor's yard, take a meal to a neighbor or relative, visit a nursing home, or do anything else that you feel Jesus is calling you to do.  Make a plan and follow through on your planned action.

Pray:  Risen Jesus, help us to recognize your presence in our lives and in our world.  Amen. 

Divine Mercy Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter

Sister Faustina Kowalska was a Polish nun, visionary, and mystic.  She was born in 1905 and died in 1938. 

Throughout the 1930's, Sister Faustina reported seeing Christ in purgatory and having spoken to Jesus and Mary several times.  She said that Jesus appeared as the "King of Divine Mercy" and encouraged her to spread his message of Divine Mercy, including painting a picture of Divine Mercy and praying a Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

In the year 2000, at the canonization of Sister Faustina, Pope John Paul II proclaimed that the second Sunday of Easter would be designated as Divine Mercy Sunday.  In a homily he had prepared for Divine Mercy Sunday, that was presented posthumously, the Pope said, "To humanity, which at times seems to be lost and dominated by the power of evil, selfishness, and fear, the risen Lord offers the gift of his love that pardons, reconciles and opens the soul to hope.  It is love that converts hearts and brings peace...How much the world needs to understand and accept Divine Mercy!"

As Catholics and followers of the "King of Divine Mercy," we are called to live in the spirit of mercy, sharing love and forgiveness with our family, friends, and neighbors, as well as our enemies.  We share Christ's mercy through our prayers, words, and deed.

As we celebrate Christ's Divine Mercy this Sunday, pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with your family.  Download the prayer here: 

Download Chaplet_of_DivineMercy.pdf (85.9K)

Easter Eggs & Bunnies

Whenever I ask children what happens on Easter, usually their first response has something to do with the Easter bunny and Easter eggs.  So how did these symbols become associated with Easter, the day we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and God?

The title "Easter" for this holiday has its roots in the Pagan equinox festival.  The ancient Saxons (on the isle now known as Britain) devoted the month of April to celebrating their goddess of fertility, Eastre or Eostre.  Eastre's sacred animal is the hare, rabbit, which is a common symbol of fertility and birth.  The Easter bunny bringing eggs and gifts to children is believed to have its origins in 16th century Germany.  The Germans then brought this tradition to America.

Eggs have long been associated with springtime and life.  The ancient Romans and Greeks used eggs in their rites to their fertility gods.  Even the Jewish ritual of the Passover seder includes eggs.  In the spring, new birds and animals are born, so nests of eggs are a natural part of springtime.  Coloring eggs and giving them to people you love is a tradition that goes back to 16th century Germany.

Life comes from eggs.  All animals - mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians - are born of eggs.  (Parents, there are some really good books to help you help little ones understand how mammals, including humans are born from eggs!)  So it is natural for eggs to be associated with life on Easter, the holiday that we celebrate new life in Christ's Resurrection.

This weekend, have some fun with your family.  Color and decorate Easter eggs.  Have an Easter egg hunt.  For more Easter crafts and games, visit http://www.familyeducation.com/search/results/?keywords=easter

For more information about the history of Easter traditions, visit these websites:  http://holidays.net/easter/ or http://www.easterbunnys.net/traditions.htm or http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm

 

Pentecost Kite-Flying Activity

The Church celebrates Pentecost on May 11, 2008.  One of the symbols of the Holy Spirit is wind.  With your family, check out the Internet links below for directions on how to make a kite.  When you have made your kite, read Acts of the Apostles 2:1-4.  Then go outside and have fun flying your kite!

Make Your Own Kite (Diamond Kite): 

http://www.skratch-pad.com/kites/make.html

20 Kids – 20 Kites – 20 Minutes (a quick way to make a kite):  http://www.aloha.net/~bigwind/20kidskites.html

Make a kite like Benjamin Franklin:  http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/exp_kite.html

How to Make a Kite from eHow:  http://www.ehow.com/how_1288_make-kite.html

Keeping Easter Alive

The Easter bunny has hopped away.  The stores have put all of the remaining chocolates and stuffed bunnies and chicks in storage.  Is Easter over?  NO!  Easter continues for us Catholics for another 37 or so days!  What can your family do to keep Easter alive in your hearts and home?

Click on the attached download to celebrate signs of new life with the canticle from the prophet Daniel. 

Download SignsofNewLife.pdf (156.0K)

Our Baptismal Call Prayer

Gather everyone around your prayer table (or kitchen table) with a bowl of water.  Invite everyone to extend hands over the water to ask God's blessing...

God of all creation, maker of the lakes and the seas, the rains and the rivers, we ask your blessing upon this water.  It is a reminder for us of the water that gives life to your creation and to your children.  It reminds us of the gift of our baptism.  And so we ask your blessing on this water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Invite everyone to come forward and bless themselves and one another with the water and the Sign of the Cross.

Suggestions for continuing the focus on our Baptismal Call through Easter:

• Begin or end each day by blessing one another with holy water and the Sign of the Cross.  (You may get some holy water from your parish church.  Most parishes have a holy water dispenser from which parishioners may fill bottles and take holy water home.)
• Each time you pray the Sign of the Cross, always begin by saying, "Let us pray just as we have been baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
• Reflect on these questions:  What difference does it make that I have been baptized?  How do people recognize that I have been baptized?  What will I do today because I am a baptized child of God?

Easter Litany and Mealtime Prayer

I found these prayers in a file in my desk.  They express our Easter joy.  Pray them with your family when you gather for meals, inviting everyone to join voices to proclaim praise to the Son of God together.

Shout to the Son!

As morning light dawns, we shout our praise to the risen Son.

As the sky begins to glow with orange and yellow hues, we shout our praise to the risen Son.

As darkness is overcome by the break of day, we shout our praise to the risen Son.

As beams of light shine into the empty tomb, we shout our praise to the risen Son.

As ever-increasing glory streams across the landscape of our lives, we shout our praise to the risen Son.

As the world is illuminated and our spirits are restored, we shout our praise to the risen Son, who has given us both light and life forevermore.

Pray to the Son!

- A Mealtime Blessing -

At sunrise, you rose, O Son of God.  For this we are eternally grateful.  Let us live joyfully this day in the splendor of this good news of salvation.  Let our gladness in you arise within us as we share this meal together.  And let us look with excitement at what still lies on the horizon for us all - life in heaven with you.  Amen.