Easter Thoughts

(Photo by Ron McGuire - Lourdes, France)

Blessed Easter, everyone! When I was a child, Christmas was always way more important to me than Easter, because of, er, well, the presents. As I get older and hopefully mature, I appreciate the beauty of this day. St. Paul tells us that if it were not for His Resurrection, our Faith would be in vain.

Twenty years ago this month, three friends and I visited John Bevan's Bookshop on the border between England and Wales. What a discovery! I wandered up and down the aisles, gasping at each new discovery. Sadly, I couldn't fit all the books in a box to take home, but one of my treasured finds from that day was a little 1921 prayerbook called, "Sundays in the Garden of Easter" by E. Seton. I offer you an excerpt from it on this special day, a reflection on the disciples who met the Risen Lord on the road to Emmaus:

"'And they constrained Him, saying, Stay with us, because...the day is now far spent.' Our Lord can never resist the constraints of love. He is an easily taken Captive, that omnipotent God. 

"In a most beautiful and touching revelation made to St. Mechtilde, He made known to her the very great power which the faintest human sigh has over His Divine and glorified Heart -- the sigh of contrition, of sorrow and affliction, of desire for Him, all come in, loud and clear to His tender Ear, more vigilant and listening than the most devoted mother's, and they have power to draw Him to the heart of man. He yielded instantly to the solicitation of the disciples -- 'and He went in with them,' says St. Luke. 

"Our desire delights Him in some mysterious, pathetic manner; He makes it a necessary condition for many blessings that they should be asked for by us....He longs to fill us with blessing, but He cannot open His Hand unless we bring Him the vessel of Petition wherein to receive of that overflowing Fount of benediction...Prayer prepares us for blessing: it opens the door to Jesus: it is the channel wherein the tides of grace and joy may run. 

"Our Risen Lord gave more than the disciples had asked, for that is the way of His Sacred Heart. He 'went in with them,' He sat down to meat with them, He gave them their Easter Communion, He showed Himself...Risen, glorified, and unveiled as He now is in Heaven."