Easter? On Saturday Night?

I belong to a liturgical church. We spend three days this week moving from the season of Lent into the season of Easter.

Today is the third and final day. Tonight we will get together for my favorite service of the year, the Great Vigil of Easter. Tonight, in the darkness, we will mark the moment Lent is over and Easter begins.

Tonight is not a time of baskets, bunnies, or Easter bonnets. Tonight is a time of remembering our true selves.

We begin in darkness. The light spreads slowly as flame is shared from candle to candle. The readings begin, and continue, in near darkness. We remind ourselves of the story in which we participate. The story flows through us and we remember.

We remind ourselves and each other that the story continues.

Everything changes as we get to the moment when Easter begins. There is an explosion of light and sound. The lights go on, the readings and the music are different. The light that once was shared from candle to candle floods the room, and each of us.

We have journeyed through a valley of darkness, and found a way into the light.

The story we share is not over. It is renewed again and again, reborn in new life. The world comes back to life again, and new life is born again in us.

A song may be ending, but the story never ends.

The spiritual life that fills us, and the universe around us, continues drawing us. Our hearts, like candles in the darkness, catch fire. We share our flame with the hearts around us.

Spiritual life floods in, igniting us to remember who we can be. We practice the story we share.

It is Easter.

When do you experience new life?

[Image by TheNoxid]