a simple entry regarding Easter\u00a0Week<\/a> on the official Church website.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not \u201cHoly Week\u201d as such \u2014 that is, the specifics of Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday and so forth \u2014 that I care about. \u00a0My more fundamental hope is that we\u2019ll pay more attention to Easter altogether. \u00a0To the suffering and atonement of Christ and to his resurrection. \u00a0Those ideas and events are, after all, absolutely basic to our doctrine, utterly essential to our hope. \u00a0\u201cThe fundamental principles of our religion,\u201d taught Joseph Smith, \u201care the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
If I had to choose between them \u2014 which I\u2019m happy that I do not \u2014 I would plainly have to go with Easter over Christmas as the more theologically and biblically significant holy day, the more fundamentally important of the two. \u00a0And yet, perhaps because it hasn\u2019t (yet) been as significantly commercialized \u2014 compare the ubiquitous \u201conly 364 shopping days left till Christmas!\u201d and the retail store Christmas decorations that begin to appear, now, sometime in October \u2014 many, even, of us churchgoers scarcely know that it\u2019s Easter time until we wake up on Sunday morning in the pew and realize what day it is. \u00a0And, once in a while, we Latter-day Saints even have church services on Easter \u2014 on Easter!<\/em> \u2014 devoted to Relief Society or the welfare program or some such theme.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In this, I think we\u2019ve perhaps been taking our cues too much from the indifference of the surrounding culture rather than from the teachings of the Gospel itself.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In my neighborhood, we\u2019re having stake conference this weekend. \u00a0We\u2019re going to get a new stake presidency. \u00a0That worries me a bit. \u00a0I\u2019m hoping, pleading, that Easter doesn\u2019t get lost in the press of business.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Yet another message for Easter Week from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: \u00a0 https:\/\/www.mormon.org\/easter\/principles-of-peace\/forgiveness \u00a0 By the way: \u00a0 We\u2019ve been in \u201cHoly Week\u201d since last Sunday \u2014 Palm Sunday \u2014 and, traditionally, today is Good Friday. \u00a0I\u2019ve expressed the wish before that Latter-day Saints paid at least a little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Rembrandt's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/04\/785px-Rembrandt_Harmensz_van_Rijn_-_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\")
<\/a>