It is com­mon knowl­edge that the cel­e­bra­tion of East­er is as­so­ci­at­ed with the Church. The be­lief that the Church shares, is that Je­sus has res­ur­rect­ed and this event is glo­ri­ous. How­ev­er, just as I be­lieve that Lent is not on­ly a Church re­lat­ed fes­ti­val; I al­so share the same view about East­er. I see East­er to be a time of re­new­al for the in­di­vid­ual. Lent deals with penance, re­flec­tion, fast and prayer. On the oth­er hand, East­er presents a time where one can learn from the ex­pe­ri­ences of Lent, of the flesh and is al­so a time of re­new­al for the fu­ture.

For ex­am­ple, if you gave up Face­book dur­ing the pe­ri­od of Lent, it as­sures you that you can go for 40 days with­out it. Even if it seemed to be an ad­dic­tion be­fore, do­ing with­out it shows that you can use it in mod­er­a­tion and it does not have to con­trol your life. There­fore in the pe­ri­od of Lent, you learnt that you could study for long hours with­out the in­ter­rup­tion of Face­book or any oth­er dis­trac­tions and that gives you a sense of ac­com­plish­ment. The spir­i­tu­al jour­ney is over, the pe­ri­od of self-de­nial has passed and yes you can eat choco­lates again. Nev­er­the­less, that does not mean that you for­get your self–growth and the ac­com­plish­ments that you have made dur­ing the Lenten pe­ri­od. There­fore do not eat a bag of sweets to com­pen­sate for your Lenten self-de­nial. Again, every­thing must be done in mod­er­a­tion.

East­er brings with it two mes­sages which per­tain to the in­di­vid­ual.

The Lenten pe­ri­od al­lowed you to cleanse, fast and de­ny your­self of per­son­al com­modi­ties. East­er al­lows you to see that every­thing hap­pens in mod­er­a­tion. You can­not de­ny your­self of sweets for­ev­er but you can­not have too much ei­ther. Sec­ond­ly, since you have grown and achieved a lot you are now al­lowed a chance for spir­i­tu­al and self growth. This self-growth must be prac­ticed reg­u­lar­ly in­stead of be­ing lost in the dust un­til next year. Since East­er is a world­wide cel­e­bra­tion, buy some East­er cards and some East­er eggs and share them among you friends. You may even want to have a scav­enger hunt. East­er is a time of cel­e­bra­tion and re­new­al. How­ev­er, in the act of fun, do not for­get to re­mem­ber the mes­sages of East­er, cel­e­bra­tion, self-growth and mod­er­a­tion.

Re­nee Rogers

St. Joseph's Con­vent P.O.S