Rising

Happy Easter everyone! For 40 days we have tried dying to self, identifying ourselves with the suffering servant of God, ridding ourselves of sin and darkness. We watched him die on Good Friday, and we waited anxiously, nervously, on Holy Saturday. Today, we celebrate His glorious Resurrection, which broke the bonds of sin and death and opened the gates of heaven. Jesus Christ called all of us to crucify ourselves with Him, letting all of our sins be nailed to the Cross. We were called to die with Him. Now, on this Easter Sunday, we are called to rise with Him. And as we approached the tomb and realized that it was empty, one of the greatest truths was revealed to us: death can't hold Him.

You Call This Good?

I was planning on writing something about The Easter Triduum, and in particular something about Good Friday. But Catholic songwriter Matt Maher was one step ahead of the game, and has made a Holy Week video series, posting one video a day, from Passion Sunday to Easter Sunday. I really encourage you to watch the series, especially today's video about the Lord's Passion:

Are You Dying Yet?

Holy Week: The most earth-shattering, patience-testing, mind-straining week in the entire liturgical year. For the past thirty-three days or so, we, as the Body of Christ, have given up chocolate, Facebook, and video games. We’ve given more time to prayer, given more alms, and have given more time to God.

But as we lay down our palm branches and watch our Lord enter Jerusalem on this Passion Sunday, this question needs to be asked of us as Catholics: Are you dying yet?

Walking the Road

When I first came up with the name of this blog, “The Road to Emmaus,” for the most part I just wanted something that sounded cool. Sure, I knew the story of the two disciples who were despairing because Christ had been crucified. I knew that they did not recognize him until he went all Last Supper on them at dinner, and then vanished in front of their eyes. I simply thought to myself, “I’m a disciple of Christ. I’m not in heaven yet, so I still have work to do. I need to keep walking, and hopefully I will notice Jesus, just like those disciples did.” The title sounded catchy, and it was slightly ambiguous unless you knew your scripture. And that was the extent of why I chose it.