10 #EasterThursday Things That Caught My Eye Today (March 31, 2016)

"The whole liturgy of the Church radiates from #Easter, as if from a luminous, incandescent centre" ~ Benedict XVI.

— Fr James Bradley (@FrJamesBradley) March 31, 2016

Our hope is in the Lord. Alleluia! #Easterpeople #hope pic.twitter.com/t6Lob3G9jt

— Saint Pauls Outreach (@SPO_National) March 31, 2016

"Peace be with you!" the Risen Christ says to his disciples today, shown in this stained glass window from Edinburghhttps://t.co/8VKn4jFoEa

— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) March 31, 2016

4. Fr. Roger Landry:

• At the same that we don’t doubt the resurrection, however, we may be “slow of heart” to believe in the consequences of the Resurrection in us, that we were really crucified in Christ, that we died in him, and the life we now live we live united with his Risen Life. We are slow to realize in action that what has occurred in us spiritually is greater than what happened to the cripple at the Beautiful Gate physically. Jesus wants to take us through these stages, by meeting us and explaining to us that he wants to make us his living witnesses, icons of his Risen Life, becoming the message we announce on our lips, that Christ has truly risen from the dead, that his mercy is fully transformative, and that the joy we show is a certain proof that can warm the hearts of others that what Christ did and his Church proclaims is actually true.
• Today the same Jesus who met the terrified disciples in the Upper Room meets us here to bring about that transformation. Just as he led them through a “liturgy of the word” to understand how all that the prophets and he had foretold had to transpire, so he has led us on a similar journey. Just as he told them to see and touch him, so he has us behold him as the Lamb of God and not just to touch him but to be touched by him on the inside and become one with him in Holy Communion. And just as he sent them out as witnesses of risen life and his teachings to the end of the world, beginning from Jerusalem, so he will say to us at the end of this Mass, “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” to all nations, beginning [where we are today]. We will suffer for doing so, but it’s here that Jesus not only opens our minds and mouths but strengthens us to remain faithful when we do, so that repentance for the forgiveness of sins — and the Divine Mercy that meets that repentance — will allow people to learn how to hear, know, love and proclaim Jesus’ holy, saving name and come to share in this world and forever Jesus’ resurrection!

(The Lord)…who despite our imperfections offers us his closeness, his word and his strength, and gives meaning to our lives. #PopeFrancis

— Bishop Barres (@BishopBarres) March 31, 2016

6. “Believing that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is not just a matter of assent to a proposition- it means that we have accepted a unique way of life.”
https://fatherstevegrunow.wordpress.com/

“By dying, He destroyed our death! By rising, He restores our life!” A Life Restored, a Lesson for #Easter: https://t.co/C6nw4qESn1

— Cardinal Dolan (@CardinalDolan) March 31, 2016

8.From the Jerusalem Catecheses, in the Office of Readings:

You were led down to the font of holy baptism just as Christ was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb which is before your eyes. Each of you was asked, “Do you believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?” You made the profession of faith that brings salvation, you were plunged into the water, and three times you rose again. This symbolized the three days Christ spent in the tomb.

As our Savior spent three days and three nights in the depths of the earth, so your first rising from the water represented the first day and your first immersion represented the first night. At night a man cannot see, but in the day he walks in the light. So when you were immersed in the water it was like night for you and you could not see, but when you rose again it was like coming into broad daylight. In the same instant you died and were born again; the saving water was both your tomb and your mother.

Solomon’s phrase in another context is very apposite here. He spoke of a time to give birth, and a time to die. For you, however, it was the reverse: a time to die, and a time to be born, although in fact both events took place at the same time and your birth was simultaneous with your death.

This is something amazing and unheard of! It was not we who actually died, were buried and rose again. We only did these things symbolically, but we have been saved in actual fact. It is Christ who was crucified, who was buried and who rose again, and all this has been attributed to us. We share in his sufferings symbolically and gain salvation in reality. What boundless love for men! Christ’s undefiled hands were pierced by the nails; he suffered the pain. I experience no pain, no anguish, yet by the share that I have in his sufferings he freely grants me salvation.

Let no one imagine that baptism consists only in the forgiveness of sins and in the grace of adoption. Our baptism is not like the baptism of John, which conferred only the forgiveness of sins. We know perfectly well that baptism, besides washing away our sins and bringing us the gift of the Holy Spirit, is a symbol of the sufferings of Christ. This is why Paul exclaims: Do you not know that when we were baptized into Christ Jesus we were, by that very action, sharing in his death? By baptism we went with him into the tomb.

If God provides an inspiration, He will provide the means — @BishopBarron at @umary #JesusITrustinYou

— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) March 31, 2016

10.