Adult Education

Celebrating the Easter Season

By Lorene Hanley Duquin

We all know the song about celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, but most people don’t pay much attention to the 50 days in the Easter Season!

OSV illustration

The Season begins with the Easter Vigil and the Masses on Easter Sunday. Our joy-filled celebration of the Risen Lord includes praising God in the Gloria, singing alleluia, the renewal of baptismal vows, and a sprinkling with Easter Water.

Easter reminds us that we have new life in Christ that can never be overcome by darkness or death. We are renewed, restored and recreated. What seemed to be the end on Good Friday was really a beginning. Easter is the promise of new life, new energy, new possibilities.

But Easter Sunday is just a beginning! Our Easter celebration will last for the next 50 days and will culminate on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples who were gathered in the upper room. These fifty days are an opportunity for us to understand and appreciate the greatness and the goodness of our God.

How will you celebrate the Easter Season this year? Here are some suggestions:

Try to attend daily Mass during the Easter Season and allow your spirit to rejoice.
Read the Acts of the Apostles and feel the zeal of the early Christians as they spread the Good News of the Risen Lord.
Thank God for the gift of a new day each morning.
Cultivate a sense of gratitude for all of the good things in your life.
Visit someone who is sick, suffering, or lonely.
Clear out your closets and give gently used items to the poor.
Buy a bag of groceries and deliver it to your local food pantry.
Invite someone who has been away from the church to come to Mass with you.
Look for ways that the Holy Spirit is working through everyone and everything.

Celebrating the Easter Season will help you to see from a different perspective. Like the early followers of Jesus, you will find yourself spiritually alive with the Good News. You may feel as if you have to go out and share your joy with other people!

This is the real purpose of the Easter Season. This is your chance to celebrate new life in Christ.