Dear Friends,
ON OUR UNUSUAL EASTER
• The way and how of making a spiritual communion
https://osvnews.com/2020/03/14/the-why-and-how-of-making-a-spiritual-communion/
• A fellow member of the Serra Club sent me a poem – How the Virus Stole Easter. I put it at the end of today’s blog.
• About our homes becoming domestic monasteries, plus comments on plenary indulgences – https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/restoring-rhythm-domestic-monastery/
• Scriptures but no Eucharist –
https://spiritualdirection.com/2020/03/21/redemption-happens-in-the-dark
• Watch a live streaming of the Shroud of Turin, from northern Italy – 10:30 EST this evening.
https://aleteia.org/2020/04/11/watch-the-live-streaming-of-the-holy-shroud-of-turin-here/
• Pope St. John Paul II and Holy Week
https://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-strongest-argument-what-pope-john-paul-ii-teaches-us-this-holy-week
ON THE CORONAVIRUS
• How NOT to Wear a Mask – https://nyti.ms/2JUP6J7
ON GRATITUDE
• I’m thankful for Archbishop Kurtz and all those who made possible the Holy Week services on WAVE TV and on the Cathedreal website – https://www.cathedraloftheassumption.org/.
• I’m thankful for our pastor Fr. Peter Do, and our deacons, and all the others who made it possible to watch Sunday Mass and other Holy Week services online. The most recent video can be found at https://stjpiiparish.com/.
• Someone suggested that as we say a prayer of gratitude for the healthcare workers who have died while fighting this battle, we also think of the Scripture verse – “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
• “If you can’t be thankful for what you achieve, be thankful for what you escape.” – author unknown
• “Thank God for what doesn’t need healing.” – Joan Borysenko (author and speaker)
• “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and never giving it.” – William Arthur Ward (1921 – 1994, writier)
• “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” – St. Ambrose (340-397 AD)
SOME GOOD SCRIPTURE VERSES
• “He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” – Matthew 28:6
• “By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet and in trust your strength lies.” – Isaiah 30:15
Dear Lord, please help the world defeat this coronavirus!
Be calm! Stay well! God bless us all!
Happy Easter! Christ is risen!
Chuck
ChuckLynch4782@gmail.com
How the Virus Stole Easter
By Kristi Bothur
With a nod to Dr. Seuss 😊
Twas late in ‘19 when the virus began
Bringing chaos and fear to all people, each land.
People were sick, hospitals full,
Doctors overwhelmed, no one in school.
As winter gave way to the promise of spring,
The virus raged on, touching peasant and king.
People hid in their homes from the enemy unseen.
They YouTubed and Zoomed, social-distanced, and cleaned.
April approached and churches were closed.
“There won’t be an Easter,” the world supposed.
“There won’t be church services, and egg hunts are out.
No reason for new dresses when we can’t go about.”
Holy Week started, as bleak as the rest.
The world was focused on masks and on tests.
“Easter can’t happen this year,” it proclaimed.
“Online and at home, it just won’t be the same.”
Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the days came and went.
The virus pressed on; it just would not relent.
The world woke Sunday and nothing had changed.
The virus still menaced, the people, estranged.
“Pooh pooh to the saints,” the world was grumbling.
“They’re finding out now that no Easter is coming.
“They’re just waking up! We know just what they’ll do!
Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
And then all the saints will all cry boo-hoo.
“That noise,” said the world, “will be something to hear.”
So it paused and the world put a hand to its ear.
And it did hear a sound coming through all the skies.
It started down low, then it started to rise.
But the sound wasn’t depressed. Why, this sound was triumphant!
It couldn’t be so! But it grew with abundance!
The world stared around, popping its eyes.
Then it shook! What it saw was a shocking surprise!
Every saint in every nation, the tall and the small,
Was celebrating Jesus in spite of it all!
It hadn’t stopped Easter from coming! It came!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the world with its life quite stuck in quarantine
Stood puzzling and puzzling. “Just how can it be?”
“It came without bonnets, it came without bunnies,
It came without egg hunts, cantatas, or money.”
Then the world thought of something it hadn’t before.
“Maybe Easter,” it thought, “doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Easter, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
And what happened then? Well….the story’s not done.
What will YOU do? Will you share with that one
Or two or more people needing hope in this night?
Will you share the source of your life in this fight?
The churches are empty – but so is the tomb,
And Jesus is victor over death, doom, and gloom.
So this year at Easter, let this be our prayer,
As the virus still rages all around, everywhere.
May the world see hope when it looks at God’s people.
May the world see the church is not a building or steeple.
May the world find Faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection,
May the world find Joy in a time of dejection.
May 2020 be known as the year of survival,
But not only that – Let it start a revival.