Dear friends in Christ,
Starting Sunday, we begin our journey through Holy Week. That means Easter Day is almost upon us. As it does every year, our Lenten journey through the wilderness ends with the dawning light of ultimate joy in the promised land of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I suspect that many readers of this email will have had some kind of Lenten discipline, whether that means special prayers, or Bible studies, or practices of self-denial, or something else. For many years, I wondered about adopting Easter disciplines too.
As we approach Holy Week and Easter, I wonder if you might consider entering fully into the observances of Holy Week and then celebrating with abandon the Great Fifty Days of Easter.
The church makes Holy Week observance pretty straightforward. Some churches after daily services each day of Holy Week, but most churches at least offer Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Eve or Easter Day. Simply taking part in these liturgical offerings helps us to encounter the Paschal Mystery afresh.
But what about Eastertide? I encourage you to find some way to celebrate the full 50 days of Easter. At Forward Movement, we offer a blog with meditations each day of the season, 50days.org. You might join a book group or a prayer group for the season. And if you want other daily devotions to read, you could make your way through my latest book, Easter Triumph, Easter Joy: Meditations for the Fifty Days of Eastertide.
Easter is too amazing to celebrate just one day. How will you bask in the glow of Christ’s Resurrection?
Yours faithfully,
Scott Gunn
Executive Director
More from our ministry:
Read along with the Easter lectionary: A Journey through Acts
Prepare to welcome the newly baptized with the gift of common prayer
Even if your bracket is busted, you can still vote in Lent Madness!