This Easter was my son and his wife’s wedding anniversary.
Understandably they had other plans besides spending the day with us!
Our other children did too, none as compelling, but you know, now they are independent they are allowed to make their own social choices!
The season of Lent and Holy Week leading to Easter Sunday is without a doubt my favorite time of the year. For some reason the secular world is easier to keep at bay and the sacred shines even in the media with films such as Jesus of Nazareth, The Passion of the Christ, Ben Hur, The Robe and many others.
The fact that The Resurrection is the lynchpin that holds our faith together makes it THE event of Christianity!
As a family we wrote out a rule to keep during the 40 days leading to resurrection.
We gave up: chocolate, wine, cake and meat.
We added: notes to secret prayer partners, Stations of the Cross, treasure in heaven and weekday masses.
We participated in: meatless suppers, nursing home visits and a witness walk.
We kept the Triduum: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
We spring cleaned the church and our house inside and out.
To cap it all we threw a huge party on Sunday afternoon and talked about Christ being Risen and how we are called to live as Easter People.
The youngsters searched for eggs among the shrubs and we exchanged family news.
For the last three years our devotions and spiritual preparations have continued only at different churches in different countries.
Sadly our celebratory party has been put on hold and we all miss it!
This year as I shopped and baked for Easter Sunday I remembered my resolve that whatever hubs and I decided to do would work perfectly well whether children joined in or not.
As it happened we had a most glorious Holy Week and attended to each child individually allowing us uninterrupted one on one time with our precious ones.
Wednesday morning was spent moving our teacher Daughter into her new house. Breakfast was thrown in as an added bonus.
Her Early learning Centre was struggling with lack of staff so original plans to come to Maundy Thursday Service with us the following evening was thwarted. We washed feet figuratively and broke bread McNeny style.
Hubs and I joined the congregation at The Church of the Incarnation for the mass of the Last Supper which was beautiful and ended in darkness as the reserved sacrament was processed to the chapel of repose and the altar was stripped while the choir chanted the haunting lines of psalm 22.
On Friday Daughts joined me in the kitchen to make coconut macaroons and my signature Italian Wedding Cake. Her boyfriend arrived and we took him to noonday mass where we remembered Christ’s brutal death to atone for our sins.
We ate fish and chips at a nearby pub and I again vowed to learn how to batter my own cod to better resemble the traditional fare we all prefer.
On Saturday my youngest son and his wife gave educational talks and did two free-flight shows at the Audubon Centre here in town,
Window to the Wild with Pigwidgeon (Screech Owl) and Smaug (Kestrel)
So we packed up a basket with half an Italian Wedding Cake,
and a bottle of sparkling Rose for their wedding anniversary and went in search of them!
Later we managed to spend a quality hour or two together in their Tiny House home and since they were working the next day they celebrated two years of married bliss early and went out to dinner and on to see, The King and I…
While we listened to the history of our salvation, baptized and confirmed new church members and finally shouted,
“He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!” and rejoiced in our gift of salvation that enables us to fully enjoy our earthly life safe in the promise of Eternity.
On Easter Sunday we went to see the hats and bonnets at St. Joseph’s. Not really but they were an added bonus!
After a home made brunch we spent the afternoon with friends and family, progressing from house to house. We caught up on news and with no pressure of food or entertaining quantities of people we found our time and conversation uninterrupted and rich over cups of cold water and a glass of red wine for me!
And not to be left out our first born son in L.A. requested ideas for food to take to a luncheon and he carried my hot and tangy dressing with him to wilt a spinach salad. I touched their taste buds from across the continent.
In the evening hubs and I roasted lamb with bitter herbs and ate it seated (although I am a stand up eater!) with hot roasted vegetables on a salad and a sprinkling of couscous on the side.
It was a New Easter for our family.
One that stretched for days and reached across the miles and touched our hearts.
One that reflected the spread of Christianity through the centuries by the witness of a small band of men who were willing to die for their belief in what they had seen first hand:
The wondrous miracle of the Resurrection.
Are you an Easter person?
Make every day a special day and enjoy your children just as they come to you.
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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