The Third Day of Easter
It is Earth Day. And the third of the Great Fifty Days of Easter. The first day, of course, was the wonderful celebration of the Resurrection -- after a moving walk through Holy Week with its Stations of the Cross, its Maundy Thursday foot washing and stripping of the altar leaving a church bared of its sparkling brass and seasonal color, leaving the yawning, empty tabernacle. At the same time, a flower and light-filled altar in our chapel where the relocated bread and wine rest--the garden of vigil with Jesus. And the promise of His continuing presence. Then, Good Friday, its story of the Passion and veneration of the cross. The cross enters the stripped church and is laid at the foot of the chancel where it is approached by the people, anointed with oil and holy water, and sprinkled with red rose petals, reminiscent, perhaps of the women at the cross ministering to Jesus' body. Holy Saturday--a time of silence and waiting. But in reality, it is the final preparation for