Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Saturday, Easter Sunday.

Even before caring what any of this was about, I wondered about the Saturday before Easter. It has no special name in most calendars that I know, although some people call it “Holy Saturday”. Since the Wednesday previously is sometimes called “Holy Wednesday”, that’s not much of a distinction.

What about this day between death and life?

Tony Woodlief proposes Saudade Saturday, the day when absence is present. Read his observations about the day, and about ourselves living between death and life.

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
Text: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788
Music: Lyra Davidica, 1708
Tune: EASTER HYMN, Meter: 77.77 D

1. Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

2. Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

3. Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where’s thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

4. Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

5. Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail the Resurrection, thou, Alleluia!

6. King of glory, soul of bliss, Alleluia!
Everlasting life is this, Alleluia!
Thee to know, thy power to prove, Alleluia!
Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!

Tomorrow is Good Friday, an important holiday in the Western Christian calendar. It isn’t as important as Easter, to be sure, but it is part of the observance of Jesus’ death, burial, and Resurrection as payment for our sins.

As a young boy, I wondered what the “good” part was of “Good Friday”. How could death be good? I didn’t understand at the time, didn’t ask, and didn’t try to find out. My mistake.

The good is that the Son of God died as punishment for our sins, so that we could accept His Gift of grace and have eternal life with God in Heaven. It isn’t automatic. It is a deliberate and personal choice for us to make.

Some verses to consider are:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6 (NASB)

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (NASB)

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36

A fuller presentation of the Gospel may be found here as well as many other web sites. There are many books, too. And of course, you could always read the Bible!

Today isn’t a holiday, but lots of folks are celebrating.  Spring is here!  Enjoy the warmer weather (at least until tomorrow’s snowfall)!

The following came from my wife via a friend via who-knows. I’ve added some material and changed an incorrect date.

Easter this year is on Sunday March 23, 2008.

* As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox.
* (The date of the Easter full moon is determined by the motions of a mathematical “moon”; these motions approximate the movements of the real moon, but discrepancies occur for the sake of simplicity in the rules. Any such discrepancies are viewed as unimportant. For clarity, the calculated date is called the Paschal full moon.)
* This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
* Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!

Here are the facts:
* The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2160 (152 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you’re 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
* The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.
* So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

The odds are considerably better for witnessing a late Easter. Many people are still around from the last time Easter fell on April 25, an event which took place in 1943, and a good many people here today will likely still be around when Easter next falls on April 25, which will occur in 2038.

This ignores the Eastern Orthodox calendar, which is still based on the Julian calendar.

See also http://www.snopes.com/holidays/easter/earlyeaster.asp for more info.

This post is way overdue. Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but here’s my story, anyway.

After work on February 14, I was in a grocery store (not Wal-Mart!) looking for Valentine’s Day cards (not for my wife, I already had hers!) and candy (not for my wife, I already had hers!).

What fortune! Holiday cards were already discounted! What a deal! And, so was some of the candy! Double-deal!

And, what do you know? St. Patrick’s Day stuff was already on the shelves. Boy, do these folks move fast!

I’m not the only one a little disgruntled about the quick movement of holidays through our stores.

Next time you’re shopping, you can start looking for Memorial Day and July 4th stuff. I’m sure.

Should be a national holiday!

Enjoy Pi Day.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s view of Christmas, and some thoughts by Tony Woodlief.

Now that Christmas for this season is over, but not that far behind, perhaps it’s worth taking a second look at what a lot of us do. At least Tony Woodlief did that for his family as recorded in his Wall Street Journal essay, “Free Christmas!“

“Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” – Jaroslav Pelikan

I hope you have a great new year. May God bless each one of you!

There is a Happy Land

Lyrics: Andrew Young, 1838
Tune: Leonard P. Breedlove, 1850

There is a happy land, far, far away,
Where saints in glory stand, bright, bright as the day.
Oh how they sweetly sing,
Worthy is our Savior, King,
Loud let His praises ring,
Praise, praise for aye.

Come to that happy land, come, come away,
Why will ye doubting stand, why yet delay?
Oh we shall happy be
When from sin and sorry free,
Lord, we shall live with Thee,
Blest, blest for aye.

Bright in that happy land beams ev’ry eye,
Kept by a Father’s hand, love cannot die;
Then shall His kingdom come,
Saints shall share a glorious home,
And bright above the sun
We’ll reign for aye.