Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia!

I usually take my annual retreat during Lent. The forty days of prayer, self-denial, and works of mercy offer a good backdrop for a time of spiritual refreshment and renewal. The readings from the Holy Scriptures that the church assigns to the days of Lent are rich food for the soul and provide an opportunity to look deep within. The church's baptismal emphasis during Lent is another sort of gift. It calls me to consider again what it means to live soaking wet in the spirit-filled waters of Holy Baptism. 

This year, however, will be different. For reasons largely having to do with the calendar, my annual retreat will fall during the Great Fifty Days of Easter, the church's Pentecost.  It will be interesting to see how this time of prayer, reflection and spiritual rejuvenation will turn out differently. 

To take a hard look at life in Christ, not in the context of the disciplines of Lent but in the full blush of the Resurrection of Jesus, will certainly reshape the experience into something wholly different. To live more deeply into one's relationship with Jesus--apart from the season of fasting and self-denial and immersed instead in the season of "unbridled rejoicing" in celebration of the Resurrection--will no doubt reform the shape of my prayer in ways I can only begin to imagine. I believe the questions will be different, and almost surely the answers, too.

Let me invite you to take a similar journey. I am always impressed (and humbled) by the faithfulness of our parishes and our people to the keeping of a Holy Lent. The prayer, the disciplines, the courses of study, the sacrifices, the works of charity, the endless liturgies of Holy Week, and all the rest, surely form and shape us in to being more like Jesus, more loving, more generous, and more welcoming of all. 

Let's imagine, then, that we devoted as much attention to the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Imagine what might happen if we spent as much time praying that Christ rise from the dead in us. Imagine what might happen if we approached the fifty days of resurrection rejoicing with as much intentionality, discipline and faithfulness as we did the forty days of Holy Lent.  Imagine what might happen if we were able to let go of our attachments and truly live in the power of the Resurrection. Imagine living life in imitation of Jesus on Resurrection morning--unbounded!

The very thought of such a thing causes me to tremble. Tremble. Tremble. 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!