“We made it!  We made it through for another year!  Doesn’t Lent seem longer to you every year?  It does to me.  But, we’ve done it for another year.  Lent was long but I guess I got something out of it.  Then there was Easter Sunday.  It was great.  Lots of activities, lots of things going on at church the week before Easter and that weekend was really busy.  Sometimes I think they try to crowd too much on the weekend, you know, things for kids, extra choir rehearsals but I guess that’s just the way it is.  But, like I said, we make it though another year of Lent and Easter.  It’s over now and we can get back to our normal schedules.  It will be a relief!”

Have you every heard those remarks before?  Ever had a conversation that went something like that?

Is it over?  Sometimes it seems we act that way and feel that way.  After all, the Sunday after Easter is called “Low Sunday” by many and many experience a post-Easter “let-down.”  But if you look at the church calendar and the lectionary you see something different.  The week after Easter Sunday is called by some the “Octave of Easter” and the readings help us focus on life and Resurrection.  In fact, the church calendar refers to the weeks from Easter Sunday to Pentecost as Easter.  Not one day, but eight weeks (50 days) when we hear what Resurrection life is.

We sometimes give thought to what our Lenten practice will be for the 40 days of Lent, but do we give much thought to what our practice(s) will be for the 50 Days of Easter?  What will help us to live more and more as a community of the Resurrection?  What will form us more and more to be a people embracing the hope and promise of Resurrection.

What will the 50 days of Easter be for you?