Remember that time I went to prison? In October, I had the opportunity to attend a concert at Lebanon Correctional Institution by world-renowned composer and pianist Eric Genuis. The concert was amazing, and I wrote about it in the December issue of The Catholic Telegraph. Now, you can experience Genuis’ music yourself, and you don’t even have to go to prison to do it.

Unfortunately due to the Cornavirus on April 18, Genuis was to perform at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center. His music is incredible. It’s beautiful and moving and inspires a love and longing for the higher things in life. Here’s a Youtube video entitled “The Butterly” perfect for spring:

We call Christians from other denominations our brothers and sisters for a reason.

A video popped up of an evangelical author and preacher named Francis Chan preaching about the centrality and power of the Eucharist.

Lumen Gentium 11 teaches us the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life,” but the teaching has been a cause of division pretty much since the Bread of Life discourse in John 6 (“As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” John 6:66).

But here you have a video of an evangelical preacher speaking about the Body and Blood of Christ. He acknowledges that for the first 1,500 years of Church history, everyone believed it was literally Jesus’ Body and Blood, and the idea of it being symbolic was only popularized about 500 years ago. He also acknowledges that it was at that time that the Church splintered into tens of thousands of denominations. He also recognizes that for the first 1,000 years of Church history, there was only one Church, and it was centered on the Eucharist. That’s some serious Catholic stuff there!

We have a lot of differences with our Christian brothers and sisters, but it’s a beautiful thing when we can come together. How awesome to see an evangelical preacher sharing our most intimately-held beliefs.

A lot can happen in 50 days.
I am, of course, referring to the upcoming season of Easter. You already know that Easter is a 50-day liturgical season from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. But how do you celebrate those 50 days?

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has this amazing quote at the start of its Easter page on its website, usccb.org:

“The Easter Vigil is the ‘Mother of all Vigils.’ Easter Sunday, then, is the greatest of all Sundays, and Easter Time is the most important of all liturgical times.” The “Mother of all Vigils.” If that doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will.

“The most important of all liturgical times,” they call it. Christmas is, of course, the most popular. We probably do the most for Lent. Advent gets the most secular attention (although they really think of Advent as Christmas and Christmas as ending on Dec. 26). But what about the Easter season? How do you celebrate “the most important of all liturgical times”?

Here are some suggestions from the USCCB:
• Decorate your home with fresh flowers on your table or mantle
• Put flowers on crucifixes in your home
• Write out a quote from a saint or one of the gospels and display it around your home
• Continue with spiritual resolutions like reading the scriptures together as a family
• Plant a garden to commemorate Easter morning
• Consider reading the Acts of the Apostles as a family
• Pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

These are just a few ideas, but consider coming up with a game plan to make the most of your Easter season.