EASTER – the Season of new life (April 4 - May 23)

We continue to celebrate the Church season of Easter for the next four weeks. We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection – and the NEW LIFE in heaven Jesus won for us by dying on the cross. To say "I believe in Jesus Christ . . . who rose from the dead," is to say I believe that the Resurrection goes on and on and on forever. Just as death could not hold Jesus, we now too can live in hope that death will not be the end for us.

During this Easter season we also remember who Jesus was. He lived among us as one of us – fully human – and he came to show us a better way to live… to strive to be people of love, hope, mercy, compassion, peace and justice - even in the midst of pain and sorrow.

This term our focus will be on our school value EXCELLENCE

we are Jesus’ mind – persevering and striving for excellence!

Let us be Easter people striving to open our hearts and minds to follow Jesus in:

• Listening attentively to others’ problems
• Reaching out to help the sick
• Acknowledging and helping the poor
• Showing patience (Jesus’ friends didn’t always ‘get it’)
• Showing tolerance (many didn’t agree with him)
• Standing up for what was right (even when others disagree)
• Having courage to do what is right (even when condemned)
• Praying often and seeking guidance from his Father
• Forgiving (no matter how difficult)
• Having mercy on all those who have lost their way

Every time Jesus rises in our own hearts in new ways, the Resurrection happens again.

Every time we see Jesus where we did not recognise him before—in the faces of the poor, in the love of the unloved, in the revelatory moments of life, Jesus rises anew. The real proof of the Resurrection lies not in the transformation of Jesus alone but in the transformation awaiting us who accept it.

An Easter Prayer

Jesus, who suffered and died for me,

help me to understand that in every life,

something good fails, something great ends,

something looms like an abandonment by God.

Give me the wisdom to know that your rising from the dead is a sign to us

that every one of these “little deaths” is life becoming new all over again.

Be with me in living Your Resurrection over and over again.

Help me to be attentive to Your presence in the signs of my everyday life

Praise to you, risen Lord, who keeps on meeting me in the garden of my life,

who keeps on calling my name.

May I be open to hear your voice, allowing me to feel loved, blessed and cherished.

Praise to you, risen Jesus, who walks with me on my life’s journey,

coaxing the ache out of me.

Comfort and strengthen me with Your holy, peaceful presence

And help me to carry your risen presence with me, wherever I go and to whomever I meet.

Praise to You, our risen Jesus