Resurrection of the Lord (Year C) March 27 (Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Psalm 118; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18)

The most profound and gripping theologies take the form of a story. Few people are moved by dry metaphysical speculations or hairsplitting, but many are moved by a powerful story. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is as one movie title had it, The Greatest Story Ever Told. Perhaps that is part of the problem in our own time — we have opted for an overly rationalized and skeptical approach to our faith, allowing the power and excitement of the great story to slip away.

During Lent, we are all like Jesus, starving in the desert and being asked to turn stone into bread. But we must choose each and every time to say no. Even in the “Our Father” we ask God to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” But why must we face temptations during Lent and how do they shape us?
This Lenten season I decided to give up Facebook and YouTube videos. The reason was simple. I wanted to be more productive. So, I resolved to liberate myself from procrastination and to purposefully get work done.

WINDSOR, ONT. - It’s obvious that fasting during Lent has slid, dramatically, over the last several decades.

Each year during Lent the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace makes its major push for funding, tapping the one source that not only keeps the organization afloat but also the only source of funding that can validate its existence — ordinary Canadian Catholics.

Pope Francis had barely begun this year’s Lenten message when the talk turned to women’s wombs.

Pope Francis is taking direct aim at the wealthy and powerful of the world, saying in his message for Lent that they are often “slaves to sin” who, if they ignore the poor, “will end up condemning themselves and plunging into the eternal abyss of solitude which is hell.”

VATICAN CITY - Lent is a time of conversion and a time to deepen one's faith, demonstrating and sharing it through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY - To enter Christ's empty tomb like the disciples and see that he has risen, Christians today also must "bend down," Pope Francis said in his Easter message.

During Holy Week, Catholics are called to reflect on the Last Supper, when the apostles came together like a family to break bread with Jesus for the final time. It was from that simple meal, with bread at its centre, that Christ gave mankind the Eucharist.

VATICAN CITY - Joy is not a word people usually associate with strict fasting and penance — unless they are Eastern-rite Catholics.

JERUSALEM - Several pilgrim groups gathered in a sunny courtyard in Jerusalem’s Old City. They were preparing to follow a tradition reaching back at least to the fifth century: walking along the Via Dolorosa, through the cobbled streets of Jerusalem’s Old City.

MIAMI - Some of the Church’s most ancient traditions and rituals are witnessed during Holy Week, including the preparation, blessing and distribution of oils central to the Catholic Church’s sacraments and rites.

The biblical accounts of Jesus’ passion and death focus very much on His trial, describing it in length and in detail.

Through the powerful Scripture readings of the Triduum, and especially the Gospels of the Easter Vigil and Easter morning, we catch glimpses of the profound meaning of the Paschal mystery. How can we give expression to the conquest of death and the harrowing of hell? We must honestly admit to ourselves that we have no words.

There should be no ifs, ands or buts. Christians are called to live like Christ.