2nd Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday 2015

What a glorious day!  The signs of spring are out, the earth is waking up, and life is beautiful.  Yet, there is something even more perfect than these lovely gifts of nature.  God's mercy.  Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, which highlights this amazing gift.  What a fitting complement to Easter and this octave of Easter.




What is mercy?  Dictionary.com gives the following definitions:

Thankful Thursday - 4/9/15

Happy Easter!

No, I'm not confused on my days; we are celebrating the octave of Easter.  This means that we celebrate Easter for 8 days - Sunday to Sunday.  Then, we continue celebrating the Easter season for a total of 50 days.  As the most important Feast of our liturgical year, it makes sense to pull out all of the stops to celebrate :)  I was actually just reading about the octave of Easter in my Living Liturgy 2015 book:

"Eight is an important symbolic number.  The early Christians called Sunday the "eighth day."  Since our week has seven days, "eighth day" referred to a day beyond the human reckoning of time - beyond time, belonging to the end times.  Theologically, this refers to "eschatological" time when Jesus Christ will return in all his glory to gather everything back to God at the end and fullness of time.  Thus, the Easter octave means more than simply going from one Sunday to the next; it heightens our expectation that the risen Life we celebrate is the same Life that we will one day share with the Trinity in everlasting glory."

How cool is that?!?!?!

A new view of Palm Sunday - Part 5 - Easter!

Continued from Part 4.  I know that the reading of the Passion ends with Jesus being laid in the tomb.  Thankfully, that is not where our salvation story ends.  Indeed, it is because of the suffering and death of Jesus that we can celebrate in Our Savior's Resurrection.  Yesterday, we experienced the silence of the tomb.  Today, we are called to celebrate in the Eternal Life of God.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Divine Mercy Sunday

Today is such a great day, one post couldn't contain it all.  On this Sunday of Divine Mercy, we are reminded of the goodness of our God.  We, the church, have been gifted with 2 new saints this day:  Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II.  What a beautiful opportunity to celebrate God's love, mercy, and Easter joy!

2nd Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/042714.cfm

Quick recap:

1st Reading - Acts - devoted to the apostles' teaching, living in community, and breaking bread together (Eucharist)

Psalm - Give thanks to the Lord for he is god, his love is everlasting

Epistle - 1 Peter - believing without seeing

Gospel - John - Doubting Thomas

On this Octave of Easter, there is much to celebrate. In our readings, we are reminded of our goals: to follow Jesus' teachings, to live in community with each other, and to celebrate the Eucharist together.

In the reflections from Living Liturgy 2014, I came across a great reminder. In the Gospel, we hear of Thomas, who wasn't present when Jesus appeared to the disciples, voicing his skepticism. Thomas wanted proof. He wanted the physical, tangible, touch and see proof that Jesus' appeared.