Being at Work During the Easter Octave
We're back at work after a glorious Easter celebration. But wait, that celebration hasn't really ended. Every day this week is celebrated as a "solemnity" according to our Liturgical Calendar. We thus call each day Easter Monday, Easter, Tuesday, and so on. This "Easter Octave" lasts from Easter Sunday to next Sunday.
Of course the world around us likely hasn't considered this. The commute to work probably looked and felt the same was it usually does. If anyone's observing, never mind celebrating, the Easter Octave, you'd hardly know it.
And the work we do likely continues "as is." With the exception of an occasional "Happy Easter" to a member of the family, perhaps a relative or friend, today's tasks sit there waiting. It's time to diligently apply our time and talent to the first task at hand, then the next, and so on - Easter Octave or no.
So working this week presents a special challenge: How exactly do we keep the spirit of these Octave days of Easter while continuing to diligently apply ourselves to our work - especially when just about everyone around us is pretty much oblivious to the profound importance of the Easter Octave? I don't have pat answers, but here's a suggestion: It's a perfect time to turn to Our Blessed Mother for help here. While she's always the appropriate "go-to" person, she herself had a similar experience: The Annunciation.
The moment Our Lady declared her "fiat" - "Be it done unto me according to thy word" - to the angel Gabriel, the Incarnation occurred. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity - God Himself - took on a human nature in Mary's womb, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Has anything more profound and powerful - really earth-shaking - ever happened to any human being? Yet, knowing what had happened to her, Mary had to go about her life surrounded by an oblivious world. Here's a beautiful description of her situation from The Inner Life of the Soul:
"...the tingling silentness of the quiet midnight filled the little room at Nazareth that night in March, and the unconscious stars drifted across the sky, and the lily was closed and sleeping in its vase, and the watch-dogs of the herdmen of Nazareth broke ever and anon the stillness of the night, while the awful mystery was being accomplished. Morning rose on the earth, cold, clear, and vernal; and the long-expected Redeemer of mankind had come, and no one but the Mother knew."
Exquisitely captures the moment, doesn't it? If no one besides us Catholic men at work knows it's the Easter Octave, that's OK. We've got good company: each other and, of course, Our Blessed Mother.
And here's something else to keep tucked away in our hearts and minds as we go about our business today: We celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation this coming Monday, April 9th. Yes, it's normally celebrated on March 25th. But remember that the days in the Easter Octave take precedence over any other feasts or celebrations that may arrive in the liturgical calendar - same as how feasts are treated if they fall during Holy Week. It turns out the Feast of the Annunciation fell on Palm Sunday this year, so it wasn't observed on its normal day. And since it can't be transferred to an Easter Octave day, it's been transferred to April 9th - this coming Monday. Again, will anyone even be aware of this, especially as the Annunciation is not a holy day of obligation in this country? Well, we will. So let's thank Our Lady for her solicitude during Easter Week by making sure we observe this special feast day of the Annunciation on April 9th. Without her assent to the Angel Gabriel's message, there would be no Easter, and no Easter Octave.
With that, it's off to work we go, silently surrounded by the glorious spirit of Easter.
Of course the world around us likely hasn't considered this. The commute to work probably looked and felt the same was it usually does. If anyone's observing, never mind celebrating, the Easter Octave, you'd hardly know it.
And the work we do likely continues "as is." With the exception of an occasional "Happy Easter" to a member of the family, perhaps a relative or friend, today's tasks sit there waiting. It's time to diligently apply our time and talent to the first task at hand, then the next, and so on - Easter Octave or no.
So working this week presents a special challenge: How exactly do we keep the spirit of these Octave days of Easter while continuing to diligently apply ourselves to our work - especially when just about everyone around us is pretty much oblivious to the profound importance of the Easter Octave? I don't have pat answers, but here's a suggestion: It's a perfect time to turn to Our Blessed Mother for help here. While she's always the appropriate "go-to" person, she herself had a similar experience: The Annunciation.
The moment Our Lady declared her "fiat" - "Be it done unto me according to thy word" - to the angel Gabriel, the Incarnation occurred. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity - God Himself - took on a human nature in Mary's womb, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Has anything more profound and powerful - really earth-shaking - ever happened to any human being? Yet, knowing what had happened to her, Mary had to go about her life surrounded by an oblivious world. Here's a beautiful description of her situation from The Inner Life of the Soul:
"...the tingling silentness of the quiet midnight filled the little room at Nazareth that night in March, and the unconscious stars drifted across the sky, and the lily was closed and sleeping in its vase, and the watch-dogs of the herdmen of Nazareth broke ever and anon the stillness of the night, while the awful mystery was being accomplished. Morning rose on the earth, cold, clear, and vernal; and the long-expected Redeemer of mankind had come, and no one but the Mother knew."
Exquisitely captures the moment, doesn't it? If no one besides us Catholic men at work knows it's the Easter Octave, that's OK. We've got good company: each other and, of course, Our Blessed Mother.
And here's something else to keep tucked away in our hearts and minds as we go about our business today: We celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation this coming Monday, April 9th. Yes, it's normally celebrated on March 25th. But remember that the days in the Easter Octave take precedence over any other feasts or celebrations that may arrive in the liturgical calendar - same as how feasts are treated if they fall during Holy Week. It turns out the Feast of the Annunciation fell on Palm Sunday this year, so it wasn't observed on its normal day. And since it can't be transferred to an Easter Octave day, it's been transferred to April 9th - this coming Monday. Again, will anyone even be aware of this, especially as the Annunciation is not a holy day of obligation in this country? Well, we will. So let's thank Our Lady for her solicitude during Easter Week by making sure we observe this special feast day of the Annunciation on April 9th. Without her assent to the Angel Gabriel's message, there would be no Easter, and no Easter Octave.
With that, it's off to work we go, silently surrounded by the glorious spirit of Easter.
Happy Easter!
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