Easter Sunday

We had a lovely Easter Sunday yesterday. The Easter Bunny doesn't come to our house until after we have gone to Mass, because he wants to be sure that we understand that the real meaning of the day isn't about him, so that's why he waits until he knows we've gone to church already before he leaves gifts. The Easter Bunny also knows that it is a struggle for us to get out the door on time for 7:30 mass anyway and especially so when we need to get there extra early because it will be more crowded than usual and doesn't want little children to be waylaid by stopping to check out the Easter baskets of goodies!

Speaking of the actual reason for Easter, Pope Benedict's Urbi et Orbi message was very beautiful. I thought this quote from it was particularly inspiring:

Indeed, one of the questions that most preoccupies men and women is this: what is there after death? To this mystery today’s solemnity allows us to respond that death does not have the last word, because Life will be victorious at the end. This certainty of ours is based not on simple human reasoning, but on a historical fact of faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, is risen with his glorified body. Jesus is risen so that we too, believing in him, may have eternal life. This proclamation is at the heart of the Gospel message. As Saint Paul vigorously declares: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” He goes on to say: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:14,19). Ever since the dawn of Easter a new Spring of hope has filled the world; from that day forward our resurrection has begun, because Easter does not simply signal a moment in history, but the beginning of a new condition: Jesus is risen not because his memory remains alive in the hearts of his disciples, but because he himself lives in us, and in him we can already savour the joy of eternal life.

Our church adds a second concurrent mass at each of the mass times on Easter, because there are just so many people, plus they add a sunrise mass outside at 6:00 a.m. Even at the 7:30 mass, the areas at the back of the church were filled with people standing, more people were standing out in the narthex, and of course there were a couple thousand in the sanctuary itself. This was just at the 7:30 a.m. mass, so I can only imagine how crowded and hectic things were at the later morning masses. Somehow, we made it! Rebecca was thoroughly uninterested in letting me take pictures of her before church, but she did consent to a few pics as we were leaving mass. She would not, however, take off her sweater for me to get pics without the sweater, but you can see those from her Portrait Innovations pics. She looked beautiful!



We quickly changed out of her dupioni silk dress before Easter brunch! She loves this little ruffled skirt and the bunny top Grammy made her. She particularly likes spinning around in the skirt so it flares out a little.



After brunch, it was finally time to see what the Easter Bunny brought her. Of all the things she got (a couple of which were replacements of things she'd used up, broken or lost), she was most taken with a 99 cent M&M dispenser. What can you do? After eating all the M&Ms from him, she was finally able to look at some of the other things, including her yellow chickie, church rabbits, some art supplies, some outdoors stuff, and some Dora things. Nonetheless, she still walked around holding onto the M&M dispenser most of the afternoon and took a nap with him. That was her Easter present to us actually - a family nap!