CELEBRATING EASTER - 2009

For I remember it is Easter morn,

And life and love and peace are all new born

Alice Freeman Palmer

Easter – A Time of Hope
The story of Easter in the Bible is about Jesus Christ and the miracle of his rising from death itself.
Easter is the most important celebration in the Christian year (it’s even bigger than Christmas). It is a time when you let go of the old and step into the new
The ability to find hope, to see a shaft of sunlight even on the darkest days comes, for Christians, from the certainty that Christ is risen
Hoping means believing, having faith in a better future, and being willing to work to achieve it

Easter is actually a seven-week season called Eastertide. It is a period of fifty days beginning at sundown on the eve of Easter Sunday and lasting for six more Sundays until Pentecost. Thus Easter includes fifty days and a week of Sundays. The season of Easter is framed around a sequence of events in the life of Jesus. In this case, it commemorates the time that Jesus spent with his disciples following the resurrection, prior to his ascension. Tradition holds that Jesus "ascended" to God on the 40th day after the resurrection. On the church calendar this day, always a Thursday, is referred to as Ascension Day.The season officially ends on Pentecost Sunday. This holiday celebrates the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and indeed, the world
Jesus told his listeners to look, really look, at the flowers in the fields, to feast on their beauty—and to celebrate life. He taught that life flows from death. A sparrow falls to earth, and God notices. A seed is buried in the earth, and dies, so that a plant may grow strong to nourish life. And, if weeds and wheat grow together, he told us, don’t worry about it

This is a time hope.

Bits and Pieces on Easter
By authors unknown by me but certainly appreciated.

THE EASTER LILY

The Easter Lily

The white lily, the symbol of the resurrection, is the special Easter flower. Rabbits and colored eggs have come from pagan antiquity as symbols of new life. Easter Monday egg rolling, a custom of European origin, has become a tradition on the lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.
The white lily stands for purity. Artists for centuries have pictured the angel Gabriel coming to the Virgin Mary with a spray of lilies in his hand, to announce that she is to be the mother of the Christ child. The lily is also the sign of the Resurrection. The lovely white Madonna lily was used for years as the Easter lily. It often failed to bloom in time for Easter, however, and so Bermuda lilies were substituted.
The legend is told that when the Virgin Mary’s tomb was visited three days after her burial, it was found empty save for bunches of majestic white lilies. Early writers and artists made the lily the emblem of the Annunciation, the Resurrection of the Virgin: the pure white petals signifying her spotless body and the golden anthers her soul glowing with heavenly light.…

THE DOGWOOD TREE

At the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood had reached the size of the mighty oak tree. So strong and firm was the wood that it was chosen as the timber for Jesus' cross.
To be used for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the dogwood. While nailed upon it, Jesus sensed this, and in his compassion said. "Because of your pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used for a cross. Henceforth, it shall be slender, bent, and twisted, and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross–two long and two short petals.
In the center of the outer edge of each petal will be the print of nails. In the center of the flower, stained with blood, will be a crown of thorns so that all who see it will remember