Let us rejoice! Easter has dawned! Christ has risen!
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Let us rejoice! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Let us take into our Easter world all the joy of the season!
Let us not forget the words of scripture leading up to
this alleluia moment!

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark....
Hopefully our Lenten journey has brought us to "the first day" of a new week in our lives! Having been absorbed in the considerations of the passion and death...we emerge... humbled and grateful. Let us not be daunted by the darkness of our materialistic world! Let us continue on through the many hindrances that would keep us from reaching our own personal resurrection! Let us allow Jesus to rise fully within us!

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, and saw that the stone had been moved...
Suppose somehow "the stone" in our lives suddenly was rolled away! We claim that we want to rise with Jesus! We want to live fully in Him and He in us, but what if...!!! What if we really did allow Jesus to take over completely ??? What if we were no longer Holy Saturday children...always waiting and hoping but afraid of letting go of all that imprisons us here in our personal comfort zone?

Woman, why are you weeping? They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him
Let us consider the times when we get so busy that suddenly we wonder where Jesus has been in this day He gave us??? To whom or to what do we give the power to "take Jesus away" from us?

Why do you look for the living among the dead?
Why do we look for the living among the dead??? We want Jesus to rise fully within us, but do we clear ourselves of all that is spiritually lifeless or spiritually life-draining around us? Do we silence or ignore our inner GPS when it recalculates periodically, redirecting our spiritual journey? Do we continue to walk among the dead but claim to be and even really want to be resurrected?

Mary!...Rabboni!
You call my name, Jesus! May I respond with my life! May this Easter resound with my own personal triumph! May my inner peace and my outward joy proclaim to all the world,

Alleluia! Alleluia! HE IS RISEN!!

--Carol Bennett
   SSJ Associate

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