Wishing You Easter Joy!

And for a much deeper message, please read my blogging friend Terri's post "Easter: Revealing Our Truest Self."

Friday Five: Lazy Lay Version

Rev. Pat Raube brings us this Friday Five for RevGalBlogPals.

This Friday Five is pretty simple--for ministers! In contrast, I was a much lazier lay person and so my perspective is different.

1. What, if anything, are you doing to take your Easter season sabbath? Family? Vacation? Study Leave? Some combination of all three?

I am appreciating the probable LAST cold front that will reach Corpus Christi, TX. It is heavenly to wake up to the 50 degrees F. and have the sun shining us into the 70s. This is like a Bellingham summer, where Chuck and I grew up in WA State. Unfortunately, soon TX SUMMER will be here--next week!

2. What is your favorite Easter season sabbath of all time?
Probably having my family with me for Easter, but it will still be the Easter season next weekend when we visit Houston for one night to see third son BJ and his girls friend and also go to Austin to see oldest son DC, wife AA and adorable Avery!

3. If you're not taking an Easter season sabbath, what is drawing your attention as the Revised Common Lectionary bids us bide awhile with Thomas and gang? Is there a Holy Hilarity service in your future?
Our lectio divina meditation this week was John 20:19-20 and I was struck by the image of the frightened and overwhelmed disciples huddling in a locked room. Despite the locks, Jesus appears, which reminds me that God cannot be locked out, no matter how the situation appears.

4. What would be your ideal Easter season sabbath? If you could go anywhere, do anything, with anybody?
Staying at the beach.

5. Tell the truth now: Any Easter candy left?
Thankfully, no. The most pronounced remnants after Easter were cookies I made for Easter Sunday, which I shared with the Wisdom Class on Tuesday, so they would be GONE. I posted the recipe for the yummy lemon cookies here.

Jesus and I-phones?

Someone I knew from Oblate School of Theology who has since become a Roman Catholic priest posted this funny cartoon on Facebook. It shows what people would try to do now if they saw Jesus coming out of the tomb!

Happy Easter!

Today Chuck and I will go to two church services, motivated both by him singing with the choir at both services and by the beautiful liturgies we will participate in. At 7 am there is the Great Vigil of Easter with the new fire lighting the Paschal Candle and the traditional 11 o'clock service with exclamations of joy and the return of  Alleluias as the Risen Christ is proclaimed with everyone ringing bells.

In years past, our children have come home for Easter, but not this year. To see a few pictures of those visits, click on 2009 and 2012. The last pictures show Avery a year ago when she seemed more babyish. Avery looks much older here in a new one opening Easter presents from her other grandparents, Mimi and Pop:

Easter Pictures

CB and Avery

Avery

Son DC with Avery

Happy Easter!

Silly Peep

S'more-Fearing Peep

Easter Egg Tree in Germany

Tradition of the Families Kraft and Rumrich of Saalfeld, Germany

Easter Blessings!

Silly though it is, I like Peeps. However, the gelatinous-sugary ones will forever be diminished in my thoughts by some "homemade" ones that daughter AE gave to her dad to bring home to me last week. The sugar was noticeably grainier and the texture and taste of the marshmallows were much more tasty.

Today CB and I will be attending two church services, mostly because he sings in the choir, but also due to longing for the liturgy and community of All Saints Episcopal Church. The empty tomb and the assurance that "He is risen" are signs of eternal life for us all and how Love always connects us.

Happy Easter!

Easter Identity Theft!

For more funny Easter pictures, cute photos, go here.

"The Last Days of Judas Iscariot"

Today I went with some friends to see the play "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" presented at the Corpus Christi Texas A & M University Theater. It was a birthday celebration for a friend. I am grateful I was invited or I would never have seen this play.

It is extremely long (2 1/2 hours) and very interesting, with a lot of foul language. Besides the latter, there was obviously much background knowledge of Judaism, saints, Roman Catholicism, and the Roman Empire. It started with a soliloquy by Judas' mother, remembering when he was born and how she loved him. That brought a whole new outlook to start off with, as I had never considered how Judas' family felt about him.

It is a courtroom drama set in Purgatory where the case is argued whether Judas can be released from Hell.

This is what Curtain Up said about the NY production:

"While Stephen Adly Guirgis' dialogue is often poetic, it is a poetry couched in contemporary hip-hop street talk, spiced with the flavor of the barrio and with the the deeper thematic concerns often presented as laughter-inducing monologues -- for example, the first and funniest testimony from Saint Monica, " heaven's nag " with a decidedly hip and down-to-earth vocabulary. She relates how she descended from her saintly perch to "check out " Judas for herself and, after convincing herself of his remorse, "went back home and got on the horn with God."

So that gives you just a taste of the language used and the different characters, such as Sigmund Freud and Pontius Pilate, called to the witness stand.

I'm still thinking about this and wish I could see it again. Perhaps I'll have to read the play.

After looking at various sites where this play was produced, I can see that I was shaped by seeing it here. This is a video made about the play I saw today, though you'll only see the various characters and probably won't be able to tell who is whom.

Easter Pictures, mostly with dogs!

DC's wife AA with their dog Sampson

MJ with Baillie, Troy (BJ's dog), and Cisco

MJ with Troy

DC and CB with Sampson and Baillie

DC and AA after church on Easter

DC and Sampson

BJ and Troy

BJ and squinting Jan

Easter 1955

Thinking of the little boys and little girls all dressed up at church this morning, I am remembering how I always had a new dress for Easter, plus an Easter hat. Even though I always had the Easter ensemble, we rarely went to church on Easter or any other Sunday. White gloves were an essential element.

Here I am at the age of 4 1/2, wearing a dress my grandmother made for me, which I remember because my favorite doll Sue was given the same dress by my grandmother. They were both pink.

This was at the front door of the little house that was behind my grandparents' larger house in Lynden, WA. My father, who was a Marine, was stationed in Japan, so my mother and I were living in a house that her father had built before he'd built the larger one.

Happy Easter!

and

Women at the Tomb

Women Arriving at the Tomb

by He Qui