Delight in My Heart

Happy Easter! I pray your family enjoyed a blessed and joyous day! Easter is absolutely my favorite holiday (and not only because of the jellybeans and chocolate bunnies! but they do make me giddy!).

What wisdom the Church has in giving us the silent, suffering preparation of Lent to prepare us for the delightful, glorious celebration of Easter! In fact, Lent is 40 days. The Easter Season is 50 days. To me, there is such poetry in the 50 days of Easter. In our home, we are enjoying the Garden of the Good Shepherd like last year with Jessica and Charlotte and some local friends, as well (more details in a later post). I long to savor every single day as a gift of joy!

The rhythm of our days has taken quite an upbeat turn. It is as if Jesus's Resurrection has infused my soul with a pleasant nature, a positive outlook, and a glow that seems more than just pregnancy hormones! I have come out of Lent seeing that God took my tiny efforts and blessed them. His mercy took my plans that fell apart gradually week by week and mended them, made them more meaningful, more delightful.

In fact, I feel as if I have come out of a cloud or a tunnel and can see things more clearly, with more grateful, sunny eyes. Don't get me wrong. The children's incessant inhalation of candy has certainly affected their behavior and challenged my resolve, but even with that, in the light of Christ's empty tomb, I can see such hope in our lives.

My daughter will soon receive the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion for the first time. God-willing, we will all gaze into the eyes of our little baby boy two months from now. My husband is pursuing potential opportunities to get us back home to Texas. And, the mercy the Lord has shown me has reminded me of the peace I can find in daily prayer (even when I don't feel like it).

I pray that you, too, have come out of the heavy cloud of Lent into a season of great joy! Please join my excitement in sharing this joy with our children for the next 47 days and intently focus our energy on communicating to them (partly without words) the abundant love of the Good Shepherd of us all!