Easter

Easter 

In my mind today, I am grateful for another spring. It brings so much beauty. I try to enjoy all of the rebirth. New nests being built by my window, perennial flowers peeking up through the ground, and buds on trees bursting to attract the bees. It is such a celebration of life. I have been spending a lot of time studying and attending church. I love my church family. It was something I had always wanted as a child. So many of my friends had church functions and support that I never had. To be able to see my children raised in church has been one of the best blessings of this life. We are truly family:sisters and brothers in Christ. 

This past year has been a tough one. My body is changing again with ALS. New normals are happening or new weaknesses that I have to learn to adapt to. One is that my phone is turning into a brick because my hands are saying,  “I’m done.” I am not able to answer every call, text, or notification. I will try. Please be patient with me. My eye gaze devices are my communication life lines. Besides that, the grief has not released me from Ken breaking into the veil of heaven. 

One of the best parts of Easter is bringing new members into the church. It is the RICA or Rites of Christian Initiation program. People tend to think of Catholics as being a secret club, especially where I live in West Tennessee. We are a minority. We have the RCIA program each year for those interested in the faith. If you need a church home, I will sponsor you and teach you. It is this program that saved me through a grief-stricken Lent. The first Easter without my beloved husband. God took me into His heart. He gave me a job. Not long before Ken flew free, a former student had contacted me about being a Catholic. I would usually see her working in restaurants on Sundays.  As a family, this is our Sunday treat after church. I had her in fifth grade and eighth grade. I always kept up with her. Once you are one of my students you are always a part of my life. She’s a single mom and has to fight for everything she has. She knew when she had her son it was a life changing experience. She worked and went back to school. She promised me when she could she would come to church with me. Right as we were losing Ken physically, she started showing up to attend church with me. God sent this precious young lady, her amazing fiancé, and son to mentor through the RCIA program. This class was a great group. It helped me and grew my spiritual maturity. It helped me to understand more about the heavenly life my husband had entered. All while gaining new people to help me forge forward to complete my earthly race.

One of the most beautiful scenes this Easter was witnessing one of our first communion students celebrate Holy Thursday. This young lady used to weep and cry every Sunday to come to the Lord’s Table. This has been since she was a baby. During Lent I could hear her sweet voice singing the Psalms, the hallelujahs, and reciting prayers. Talk about a reverence for God. This young lady is special. I am so thankful that I was present. Just a little funny. Her little brother had a stomach bug. When he saw her he burst into tears. He cried, “Why is she dressed like a princess? I want to go as Spider-Man.“They had to talk him down and assure him she was not coming home with a bag of candy. 

Easter was full of adventure for my son and I as we followed Christ into the desert for forty days of Lent. As I said it was our first without Ken, and we were solo. We visited the cathedral, we went to parish fish frys, we made even more friends, we fasted, we cried out in prayer for God to help our grief, and sometimes we just cried. Something beautiful grew between my middle child and me: patience, kindness, understanding, love for each other but also a reckoning. The reckoning is that all we really have in this life is each other and more importantly God because this life is just a breath compared to the entirety of Creation. We will one day face the veil. Students, if you need a church home like I did, just contact me through our parish. Come find the fount of life that fills voids in this race we call life. My husband and I called these voids God-holes instead of potholes. He is Risen! 

Sarah Anderson Alley

Sal the Easter Loving Gal

Quotes for the Day:

Do not abandon yourself to despair.  After all we are The Easter People and hallelujah is our song.

Pope John Paul II 

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

St. Augustine 

A rebirth out of spiritual adversity causes us to become new creatures.

James E. Faust