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When Easter Doesn’t Feel like Easter
I have spent far too much of my time lately lamenting many things – no mass, no confession, no perpetual adoration. I feel, like many others, spiritually parched and wishing for some sense of normality again. I wish it would feel like Holy Week. I wish Easter would feel like Easter with celebrating at mass, with family, fun and good food. But this has left me thinking and praying a lot. What do we do when Easter doesn’t feel like Easter? When the holiest week of the year feels anything but the holiest week of the year? Do we “skip” it? Pretend it didn’t happen this year and chalk it…
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O, Death, Where is Thy Sting?
When I was in college, noon mass on Fridays was typically celebrated by Fr. James Albers (now Abbot). At the end of mass, we would always sing The Ultima, a Benedictine prayer asking Mary to intercede for us that we may have a happy death. Fr. James would always remind us to keep death before our eyes, not in a morbid sense, but to remember the hope and glory before us in eternal life with Jesus. Those words have been on my mind a lot lately. Do you keep death before your eyes? Do you keep the end in mind, that you may not forget the goal of this earthly…