Our Lady's Lamp

Guess what, everone? Jesus is risen! He suffered and subjected himself to a horrible death, He remained with the dead for three days, and now He's risen! And just like He suffered, my Big Brother also rose for me. No more do I have to fear death. Death is not something, as in the Old Testament, to be feared or embraced only reluctantly. I can now look forward to the day I die because it is not, as good Gandalf says, the end but "just the beginning." My time here, in my earthly flesh, will be over, but I will be given a new body, a glorious body, like the one Jesus wore from the grave. What does it mean to, as Paul says, have the hope of the resurrection? Well, if we die to our old selves and become slaves to Christ, then we can join the "Cloud of Witnesses" the author of Hebrews talks about. We will join our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Judah, Simeon, and the other Maccabean Brothers and Martyrs, Simeon and

Recently, Holy Week has become my favorite of all weeks because I finally understood the reason we celebrate Christmas, Easter, and the different events of the Lord's human life. It is so that we might walk through his life with Him and understand our lives in relation to His. When I began to understand this, I began to appreciate holidays a bit more, and I have made it a point to try to actually understand what happened and join myself with the events happening. Last year, the reality of it being my sin that scourged my Lover's precious flesh, crowned my Lord with a thorny mockery, and nailed my God to a horrible cross became very real to me - more real than it had been for years. When I watched The Passion of the Christ , I saw my sins blackening his eyes, riping his skin, pushing him down, and nailing him up. It was my sin that did each of those things. And it was my helping hand that was Simon carrying the cross, it was my serving heart that was Veronica wiping his face, an

Before Jesus walked that painful road to Calvary, Jesus' body was subjected to scourging. This was not what was required by the Jews, yet he suffered it. He allowed his precious body not just to suffer a painful, humiliating death, but he allowed that perfect flesh to be shredded by a cruel whip. That blood which erased our sins, of which one drop was enough to save the whole world, was spilled from gashes torn into his body. Oh, Jesus , how can I ever praise you enough for the sacrifice you made for me. You allowed your precious body to be mutilated. Men who did not believe in you were allowed to take a harsh whip to your back and rip it open. This was not something the Jews called for, but you knew that this was necessary. Your back was already tender from the agony you experienced in the garden. Your ordeal left your whole body as though it was bruised, so each bite of the whip was even more painful. But you never cried out for the Father to take away this pain. You never b