Greetings to you all. I hope your weekend went well.

A number of times I have mentioned that though we have celebrated the feast of Easter some three weeks ago we have the Easter season that will last for some four weeks to come.

I came across this quote by St. Augustine of Hippo which explains the reason much better that I could. He says,  “The season before easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing.”

This is the feast that we as Christians should be celebrating every day of the year because it is the very core of our faith. It is in this hope of the resurrection that we live. And we as faithful Christians should be witnesses to this reality in everything we do.

I don’t say that we have to walk around with smiles on our faces, but that smile should be in our hearts, that peace is what we live in that centers us and enables us to whether whatever life throughs our way.

We need to keep that song of Alleluia alive in our hearts and lived out in our everyday lives.

Peace and All Good,

Fr. Vinnie, fcm and the

Bros and Srs of the

Franciscan House of Prayer.