Beauty 365 … Stories of Love and Life for Everyday

In the past, our family has participated in some pretty mega Easters.

I have memories of incredible experiences of being on family retreats with hundreds of others, taking on more than we could handle, serving on music ministries, in the kitchen feeding the masses, running workshops - crazy but rich and beautiful days.

Memories of Holy Weeks in Rome, the city pausing to majestically worship with crowds gathered from every part of the globe…

Memories of when our family lived in the seminary in Sydney (a story for another day) and witnessing up close the young seminarians aglow in anticipation of their liturgical highlight of the year…

Memories of when the kids were little… Then, every Easter seemed mega. Actually, one Mass could seem mega. Arms juggling babies, each ceremony seemed like a marathon, relief and exhaustion at its end.

And memories of mega cooking and hosting, opening the doors of our home to family friends, mega cleaning, mega shopping and mega doses of chocolate.

Day 23, and Holy Saturday, and nothing seemed very mega. In fact, things felt depleted. So strange at Easter to be just us, so strange not to be attending church, so strange not to be going visiting our families. I had to resist the urge to want all I couldn’t have, and instead, embrace the small.

We spent the day doing small scale preparations. The usual mega last-minute spring clean was scaled down to a quick vacuum, simple gifts were made for our Easter Angel, (our Easter version of the Christmas KK). A special Easter lunch was in train. Wood was chopped for the fire. A simple liturgy for the evening was prepared. All small scale.

In the evening, our lock-down home liturgy was humble: a makeshift altar, makeshift music (we each attempted singing a psalm, giggles added to the joy!) makeshift candles in hand, but somehow it made the celebration less about us and more about Him. Like the small pillows of gnocchi the girls had rolled in the morning, it was exquisite with flavour, and rich in love. I heard the old words in a new way; words about waiting, words about hoping, words about healing, words about new life.

Yes, I am certain that one day, this small lock-down Easter will join the ranks of my mega Easter memories. He is risen. Alleluia!