The 5th Sunday of Easter - Ascension Thursday Coming This Week

A reminder on this 5th Sunday of Easter: Ascension Thursday is upon us. Yes, that quickly, the Easter Season enters its final days!

Did Easter Season bring its special graces? Were we aware of its presence, or did we just go about life as if Easter Sunday had passed and there was nothing special going on?

Sure, we live in a secular world that somehow keeps many of us busy as bees with...well, with what? 

If we're so busy that there's no time for God, no awareness of the Liturgical Year, especially our glorious Easter Season, what's up? 

Well, just a few quick thoughts as Easter winds down. There's still time to recollect and throw ourselves into the Liturgical Year and pace ourselves according to its rhythm. 

Remember when we began the Liturgical Year - way back when - with the first Sunday of Advent? Remember how we suggested getting our plan for the year (in this case 2025) coordinated with the Liturgical Year. There were practical benefits to this, if you remember. But most important was the idea of awareness of the seasons that mark the year, that help to keep us recollected with the mind of the Church as it has conducted its business century after century guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

So how has this Liturgical Year been going? If the going has been good, we were already aware of the coming of Ascension Thursday, and the soon-to-be-ending Easter Season. 

With that, let's jump into our recent flow of thoughts about crosses. We've ruminated about how life can get super-busy (frequently because of our work) and sometimes with that we can feel the effects in the form of mental, emotional and physical drain. And our natural take on all this was to connect with the idea that all such come to us a "little crosses" that we can rightly consider little gifts from a loving Father Who uses these to temper us and help us grow closer to Him.

In that spirit, here is something that can help those points sink in:

Splinters from the Cross

Little headaches, little heartaches,
Little griefs of every day,
Little trials and vexations,
How they throng around our way!

One great cross, immense and heavy,
So it seems to our weak will,
Might be borne with resignation,
But these many small ones kill.

Yet all life is formed of small things,
Little leaves make up the trees,
Many tiny drops of water
Blending, make the mighty seas.

Let us not then by impatience
Mar the beauty of the whole.
But for love of Jesus bear all
In the silence of our soul.

Asking Him for grace sufficient
To sustain us through each loss,
And to treasure each small offering
As a splinter from His Cross.
(Author Unknown)
 

Happy Easter!