THE JOYFUL NEWS OF EASTER 
    AND YOUR ETERNAL LIFE

ALLELUIA!  CHRIST IS RISEN.
              THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED.  ALLELUIA!

  . . . A very blessed and happy Easter to you, one and all.  May you know the joy, the power, and the peace found in the risen Lord of Life, who has conquered any claim death would have on us, and who prepares a place for us so that we will live with Him forever.

        And know this:  “eternal life” isn’t something that will be for us “someday;” it doesn’t begin at our death.  Your eternal life has already begun—NOW!  As Christians who live faithfully in Jesus Christ, we have in fact begun that new life.  It is our joy and privilege to come to know this new life more and more in this mortal life.  Then, passing through death, life is changed and perfected for us.  Discovering and living into eternal life is a journey—ever deepening, until coming to all fulfillment in God.

       Something of this is shown in the GREAT FIFTY DAYS OF EASTER.  Easter is a season, not just a day.  The message of Easter is a journey made over seven weeks (“a week of Sundays”); this mirrors your life’s journey in eternal life here and now.  The absolute primacy of Easter’s message is shown in the fact that this is the longest season of the Church Year.  [What is often erroneously called “the season of Pentecost”—the long succession of green Sundays over Summer and Fall—is not actually a Church “season” in the way that Easter, Lent, etc. are.]  During the Great Fifty Days, various aspects of our Easter worship, unique to that time, keep us connected to the Resurrection proclamation of Easter Day, so as to deepen our mindfulness of that new life given to us in Christ.

        I pray that each one of you will know this joy anew at this holiest of times, and that this community which is ALL SAINTS’ parish be thus empowered to give—and receive—ever deepening eternal life.

Faithfully,
Shannon⁺