It’s a perfect time to really feel the true meaning of the Easter spirit

We are all continuing to live in a strange and challenging time they refer to as “the new normal” as we celebrate this spiritual time of year.

The Easter and Passover seasons have always brought with them a call to give up something, to meditate, and prepare. In Christianity we are called to renew our spirituality with the Passion and loss of Good Friday and the rejoicing of the resurrection and rebirth on Easter Sunday.

For me, the season has never been more poignant or meaningful. The fact that the entire world is being touched by the same trials that we are brings a sense of common humanity that is palpable. Every state, city and town in our union knows the same sense of deprivation, seclusion, fear, illness and grief, balanced by great acts of great strength, heroism and loving kindness and hope.

It is a time for more “we” than “me.” Perhaps that is the silver lining in this dark cloud called COVID-19.

Sheltering in place has created a new picture of the definition of true togetherness. It has made us look at each other as fellow passengers on an unknown voyage. This can be a great time to appreciate what we have, as well as realizing how many things we’ve taken for granted in the past. It is perhaps a perfect time to really feel the true meaning of the Easter spirit, a time perhaps to experience it on a deeper and more personal level.

The true question is double sided. How can we use this cloistered time to dig deep into our own spirituality and well of strength, while at the same time reach out to others for their greater good? Reverend Noah Lawson of Saint Albans Church tells me that Saint Albans, like all churches, is settling into the “new normal” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. He says that the leadership of St Albans has sought to continue pastoral care and Christian education and facilitate congregational worship, even though the congregation is physically separate.

Reverend Noah records the services on church facilities and places them on Facebook, YouTube and the church website. I know that I feel support and joy when I partake of Saint Joseph’s Mass on Facebook, where although separated by physical space, I feel at-one with my congregation and so feel uplifted.

Seeking to find a way to draw people together in celebration of Easter, to reach into our better selves for abiding hope, Lori Lieb suggests that on Easter Sunday we all stand out on our porches Easter morning at 10 a.m. and sing Amazing Grace. What a wondrous sound that would be.

The symbol of the Easter season is the paschal candle which is advised to be lit the 50 days of the Easter season, which begins April 13 this year. We can all light a candle each night while we endure this current crisis. It can be lit in hope for the day when our doors can open and we can all enjoy a big hug. By us all lighting the candle we can imagine them being lit from coast to coast, from neighborhood to neighborhood, and that brings us all closer together while we send out waves of hope.

H’s have a lot to do with the recipe for mentally surviving this strange normal of the day.

H-ealth: Take extra good care of yourself.Taking care of ourselves is not selfish, it helps keep others healthy too.

H-elp: In whatever way you can, when we think of others we worry less about ourselves.

H-umor: Take a break from the news, your worries, and find something that will make you laugh every chance you can. Big hearty laughs are good medicine. If you can make someone else laugh that’s an extra five gold stars.

H-armony: it is a grand time to practice those “getting along” skills so we can all use them for a greater peace in the world when this pandemic is over.

H-ome: we all are learning that we have our own little world and time spent in reflection and relaxation can be a blessing

H-ope: That is the word that makes everything possible. It is the candle lit in all of our souls that has propelled us since our first breath.It was hope that caused us to stand up again after our first fall, that calls us to move forward in belief that better days lay just ahead. And they do.

Have a blessed Easter reflecting on the reality of rebirth and the promise of renewed beginnings.

This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 12:44 PM.