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Volume 1, Issue 1: Lent / Easter 2012 www.StAngelaBreaChurch.org

TOGETHER

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INSIDE

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ISSUE

Visions & Images

Page 1

Traditions & Culture: Lent & Easter

Page 2

Based upon Psalm 91, Michael Joncas’ On

Eagle’s Wings will be our common Lenten

Psalm this year. It is filled with great im-

agery and visions of comfort, including:

shelter, shadow, refuge, rock, snare, cap-

ture, famine, wings, shield, eagle’s wings,

breath of dawn, sun, palm of his hands.

The scriptures for the Sundays of Lent are

filled with examples of God’s covenants

and mercy, desire to save His people even

though they/we are not often faithful, as

well as the promises He has kept through-

out the ages.

The Gospels relay common Lenten themes

and stories: Jesus spending 40 days in the

desert being tempted by Satan, and then

Jesus says “now is the time of fulfillment ,

the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and

believe,” (1st week, Mark 1:12-15); the

Transfiguration of

Christ (2nd week,

Mark 9:2-10); Jesus

driving out the money

changers and vendors

from the temple (3rd

week, John 2:13-25);

“God so loved the

world that he gave his

only Son, so that eve-

ryone who believes in

him might not perish

but might have eternal

life” thereby keeping His promise of salva-

tion to Adam and Eve after He drove them

from the Garden, (4th week, John 3:14-21);

and finally Jesus says that “unless a grain

of wheat falls to the ground and die, it re-

mains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it

will yield a rich harvest”, (5th week, John

12:20-33). A study of the first and second

readings this year will reveal a few of the

covenants between God and His people

and further illustrate how God has kept his

promises, been merciful to the Israelites

and Gentiles (including us), and how He

wanted His people in the Old Testament

and us now to reconcile ourselves to Him

whenever we are at odds with Him.

While most of the covenants we’ll hear in

the 1st readings are between God and the

Israelites, it’s interesting to note that God’s

covenant after the flood is

not just with Noah and

his family, but with

the whole of creation

for all time. “I set

my bow in the clouds

to serve as a sign of the

covenant between me

and the earth. When I

bring clouds over the

earth and the bow ap-

pears in the clouds, I

You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord,

who abide in his shadow for life,

say to the Lord, “My refuge, my rock in whom I trust.”

The snare of the fowler will never capture you,

and famine will bring you no fear,

under his wings your refuge, his faithfulness your shield.

And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings

and bear you on the breath of dawn

make you to shine like the sun

and hold you in the palm of his hands. ♪

P a g e 2

We all know that when the Church found it difficult to keep the flock from participating in deeply en-grained, usually pagan customs, She Christianized them. And then She created experiential exercises to bring meaning to doctrine, teach-ings, and holy days. Here are a few for Lent and Easter. For centuries, many Catholics ab-stained from most or all animal products for the entire 40 days of Lent, not just Fridays. The depriva-tion of Lent is a symbolic way to visit the desert for 40 days to fast, pray and be tempted, just as Jesus did so many years ago. In fact, throughout the scriptures, prophets and other biblical figures spent time in the desert to center themselves, find clarity and/or prepare for minis-try. Fasting from the regulars of our busy lives helps us put things into perspective and find that which keep us from nurturing our relation-ship with Christ. However, sometimes our traditional practices are lost in translation and doing them just because our family does them generally have no mean-ing. As M. Scott Peck of The Road Less Traveled says, “there’s no such thing as a good hand-me-down [spirituality]”. Sometimes this means we need to cease and desist and create our own rituals or exer-cises individually, within the family or the parish community that do have meaning and effectively point us towards conversion. Now, for an intriguing question: Is the Easter Bunny a rabbit or a hare? Ask the Germans. No, really. German immigrants brought their tradition of the Osterhas or Oschter Haws to the U.S. “Hase” means hare. The Easter Hare from North-west European folklore brought gifts of colored eggs, candy, and toys to good children the night before Easter. These items would be laid into nests that children made in their Easter caps or bonnets. Some lore says the Easter Hare hatched from an egg. Prolific breeders, “hares can conceive a second litter of off-

A great way to celebrate the Easter Season with children is to make Res-urrection Eggs to share the Easter Story. All you need are 12 plastic eggs, strips of paper and pen, and some miscellaneous items as de-scribed below. One idea is to send you children or grandchildren on a scavenger hunt to find the required items.

Egg #1 Message: Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people waived palm branches. Passage: Matthew 21:1-11 Item: A small plastic or silk leaf or piece of palm or blade of grass

Egg #2 Message: Mary poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet. Passage: John 12:2-8 Item: Cotton ball with perfume on it.

Egg #3 Message: Jesus ate the Last Supper with His disciples. Passage: Matthew 26:17-19 Item: A small piece of cracker or Matzah to represent the Passover bread.

Egg #4 Message: Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Passage: Matthew 27:3 Item: Three dimes

Egg #5 Message: Jesus carried His cross. Passage: John 19:17 Item: A cross made from a toothpicks or twigs.

Egg #6 Message: Solders placed a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head. Passage: John 19:2 Item: A small thorny branch or a sin-gle thorn from a plant. A toothpick would work fine as well.

Egg #7 Message: Soldiers parted Jesus’ gar-ments and cast lots for His coat. Passage: John 19:23 Item: Miniature dice.

Continued to page 4

spring while still pregnant with the first”

1. And therefore, bunnies, not

surprisingly, have been symbols of fertility and spring for centuries. So, that brings us to the next ques-tion. What came first, the bunny or the egg? Science says the egg, since the dinosaurs that preceded Easter bunnies, and chickens for that matter, hatched from eggs. Is there any wonder why eggs would be considered symbols of spring, new life, rebirth, and yes, fertility for many cultures? They even grace the Seder dish at the Jewish Pass-over as such. And they were part of the list of foods forbidden during the season of Lent. The Christianization of the egg as a symbol of Easter likened the egg “to the tomb from which Christ arose.”

2

It’s unknown how coloring eggs came about, but many cultures have had the tradition. Eastern Or-thodox Christians still die their eggs blood red to represent the blood of the Lamb, Christ Jesus shed on the cross for our sins. Egg decorating as a fine art has been popular for quite some time throughout the world. People most commonly use goose, duck and chicken eggs. Art-ist poke a small hole on either end of the egg and blow out the con-tents. The egg can then be carved, dyed, painted, and/or appliquéd. Some eggs are covered with tissue paper, clay, or fabric. Russian jew-eler Peter Carl Fabergé was famous for his elegant eggs of gold and pre-cious stones. Some Persian families decorate eggs to celebrate the spring equinox marking the Persian New Year. “Cascorones” or confetti eggs are festive, hallowed-out chicken eggs filled with confetti or small toys, originating from China. Confetti-filled eggs are thrown or crushed over one’s head during many popu-lar Mexican feasts including Easter and Los Días de Los Muertos. Wed-ding cascorones are often filled with bird seed.

P a g e 3

will recall the covenant I have

made between me and you and all

living beings, so that the waters

shall never again become a flood

to destroy all mortal beings,” (Gen.

9:8-15). While rainbows are not as

common in sunny California, I saw

a great abundance of them on my

Arizona and Maui trips. When I

visited Arizona in November some

years ago, it drizzled every day in

the face of the sun peering out of

the clouds and shining through the

fine mist dappling my windshield,

camera lens or me. And thus, this

created rainbows joined by mirror-

image rainbows practically every-

where I ventured. And there was a

rainbow arching over the hills

every day in Maui. How blessed

are the residents of these places to

see God’s sign of comfort and

promise so often. Rainbows are

also a reminder to us that, as custo-

dians of the earth, we should be

good stewards of its resources

whenever possible.

The Season of Lent is a time for us

to refocus on what really matters in

our walk with the Lord. Psalm 91

sings that if we remain in His

shadow, we will be protected by

His angels. A study of Job, the

lives of the apostles, and I dare say

many saints, canonized or not, will

demonstrate that this protection

isn’t always what we clearly de-

sire. For instance, in return for our

devotion and faith, most of us wish

for God to save us from bills, dis-

asters, embarrassments, layoffs,

persecution and such. Christ never

promised us an easy life just be-

cause we say yes to His invitation.

He does, however, promise that if

we remain in Him we will have

spiritual peace and bare much fruit

as members of His everlasting

vine. But most fruit-bearing plants

need pruning in order to bare abun-

dance. Amy Grant sings in one of

her songs, “In a little while we’ll

be with the Father...we’re just here

to learn to love Him.” This learning

often entails a lot of growing pains,

as we eventually find out that the

love of God isn’t that noun we all

envision in romance or the feeling

of love the world teaches. On the

contrary, God’s love is an action

verb. M. Scott Peck defines love as

“the will to extend oneself for the

purpose of nurturing one’s own or

another’s spiritual growth”.2 While

part of this definition sounds a little

self-centered, learning to love one-

self is an important part of learning

to love others and God, as per His

commandments: “To love your God

with all your heart, all your soul, all

your mind and all your strength and

to love your neighbor as yourself.”

God extends Himself to nurture us

spiritually in many ways, not lim-

ited to becoming one of us, walking

the earth with us, and dying for us.

This extension of God’s love in-

cludes bestowing upon us grace,

mercy and salvation, all of which

we cannot earn on our own by na-

ture of our humanity, as St. Paul

wrote to the Romans (5:1-2, 5-8):

Since we have been justified by

faith, we have peace with God

through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have gained

access by faith to this grace in

which we stand, and we boast

in hope of the glory of God.

And hope does not disappoint,

because the love of God has

been poured out into our

hearts through the Holy Spirit

who has been given to us. For

Christ, while we were still

helpless, died at the appointed

time for the ungodly. Indeed,

only with difficulty does one

die for a just person, though

perhaps for a good person one

might even find courage to die.

But God proves his love for us

in that while we were still sin-

ners Christ died for us. Continued on Page 4

Cont. from Page 1 And to the Ephesians (2:4-10), St.

Paul wrote:

God who is rich in mercy, be-

cause of the great love he had

for us, even when we were dead

in our transgressions, brought

us to life with Christ—by grace

you have been saved—, raised

us up with him...For by grace

you have been saved through

faith, and this is not from you; it

is the gift of God; it is not from

works, so no one may boast. For

we are his handiwork, created in

Christ Jesus for the good works

that God has prepared in ad-

vance, that we should live in

them.

We tend to run around feeling the

need to justify our actions, or non-

actions. Christian author Dallas

Willard says to stop doing and pay

attention, stop talking and listen.

Part of our problem is our vision of

God, which often bares no resem-

blance to Who God really is. Only a

study of the scriptures, and yes,

Catholic doctrine, writings of the

Church Fathers and the saints reveal

to us who God really is. Our experi-

ence of His mercy as He “bares us

on the breath of dawn” of each new

day should show us that if we be-

lieve and trust in Him, we will be

justified by that faith.

Since Christ clearly illustrates in his

meeting with the sheep and goats

that loving and tending to Him

means loving and tending to those

around us, we are reminded of our

Stewardship Prayer we’ve been re-

citing at Mass during the Prayers of

the Faithful. This reminds me of a

plaque I saw at the Catholic Worker

shelter in Santa Ana: “Spread the

Good News, use words only when

necessary.”As the “handiwork of

God created in Christ Jesus for the

good works God has prepared,” we

are as Christ is, the grains of wheat

that must die to our own desires in

order to yield the rich harvest God

managers in your organization

is a good way to give your

newsletter a personal touch. If

your organization is small, you

may want to list the names of

all employees.

If you have any prices of stan-

dard products or services, you

can include a listing of those

here. You may want to refer

your readers to any other forms

of communication that you’ve

created for your organization.

You can also use this space to

remind readers to mark their

calendars for a regular event,

such as a breakfast meeting for

vendors every third Tuesday of

This story can fit 175-225

words.

If your newsletter is folded and

mailed, this story will appear

on the back. So, it’s a good

idea to make it easy to read at a

glance.

A question and answer session

is a good way to quickly cap-

ture the attention of readers.

You can either compile ques-

tions that you’ve received

since the last edition or you

can summarize some generic

questions that are frequently

asked about your organization.

A listing of names and titles of

Back Page Story Headline

Caption describing picture or

graphic.

S p i r i t u a l R h y t h m s ~ L e n t & E a s t e r 2 0 1 2

Continued. from Page 3

STEWARDSHIP PRAYER

God, my Creator,

you made me all that I am

and gave me all that I have.

Help me to show my gratitude

by using these gifts to serve others

in your name.

Jesus, my Redeemer,

you taught me the way to eternal life

by your example of loving service to others.

Grant me the courage to respond

to your call to Discipleship

by following in your footsteps.

Holy Spirit of God,

be with me as I choose each day

to put you first in my life.

Let me be a model

of Christian Stewardship

so others will come

to know you through my actions.

I pray, dear Lord,

that you open the minds and hearts

of all men and women and

young people in our parish,

that we may joyfully accept

your challenge to be good stewards.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen!

Cont. from Page 2

S T E W A R D S H I P ~ W h a t W e D o A f t e r W e S a y “ I B e l i e v e ”

Egg #8 Message: Jesus was nailed to the cross and pierced in His side. Passage: John 19:18, 37 and John 20:25-29 Item: A nail or push pin

Egg #9 Message: They gave Jesus vinegar mixed with gall on a sponge to drink. Passage: Matthew 27:34 Item: A piece of a sponge or a cotton swab (Q-tip) dipped in vinegar.

Egg #10 Message: Spices to prepare Jesus for burial.

Passage: John 19:40 Item: A few whole cloves or other whole spices.

Egg #11 Message: The stone covering Jesus’ tomb was

rolled away. Passage: John 20:1 Item: A small rock or pebble.

Egg #12 Message: The tomb is empty. Rejoice!

Jesus has risen! Passage: Luke 24:6

Item: Nothing (empty egg).

References & Footnotes: 1-2www.wikipedia.org Resurrection Eggs from www.teachkidsthebible.com

has planned for the world. With-

out death, we remain just single

grains with no life. Our first

death is the symbolic drown-

ing of baptism, followed by each

time we renew our acceptance of

Christ into our lives through sacraments, prayer and

reconciliation. But the Lord knows we’re not good at

dying. We often want to spare those parts of our lives

that are unhealthful and/or have become idols of wor-

ship, separating us from our Lord. We always need to

take time to re-examine the choices we make ~

whether they are ones that lead us to build a solid life

in Christ with Him as the Cornerstone or not. And if

they are not, to die to them and be reborn in Christ

again and again, as many

times as it takes until we

can love as easily and as

fully as He does. There is

a certain peace we come

to know when we are in

Christ. We submit our-

selves to His molding and

pruning, nurture and

growth as He continues to

hold us in the palm of His hands.

~ Marybeth Bergström

References & Footnotes: ♪On Eagle’s Wings. Michael Joncas with text based on Psalm 91 (90).

1979, 2003. OCP. 2The Road Less Traveled. M. Scott Peck, M.D. Simon & Schuster. 1978. Today’s Liturgy, A Quarterly Publication for Liturgy Preparation.

Lent~Easter Triduum~Easter / February 22 to June 2, 2012 / Year B.

OCP.