At a concert put on by friends, a song brought me back to another time and place, as only songs can do: "This land is parching, this land is burning. O healing river, send down your waters."

The Catholic Register is conducting its fifth annual Easter drawing contest. The top entry in each of 3 categories will receive a $50 gift certificate for a day at the movies. The winning drawings will appear in The Register’s Easter edition, March 27, 2016; and will appear on The Register’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Rules
• The contest is open to all children enrolled in Catholic elementary schools programs.
• One prize will be awarded to the top entry in each of these categories: Grades 7-8, Grades 4-6 and Grades 1-3.
• Entries must be original, in colour, drawn or painted on an 8.5” x 11” page, and illustrate some aspect of Christ’s Resurrection on the first Easter morning.
• For electronic submissions: minimum resolution is 300dpi, in jpeg or PDF format.
• A completed entry form is required for every entry. All entries must include the signature/authorization of a parent
or guardian. Entries become the property of The Catholic Register.
• Electronic submissions can be sent to lucybarco@catholicregister.org. (E-mail entries must include: Child's Name, Address, Phone number, Grade, Age, and parent/guardian authorization.)
• Submission deadline is noon March 18, 2016.

Entry form can be downloaded here. Please print out the form and send it with your submission.

Please send entries to:
Easter Contest, The Catholic Register,
1155 Yonge St., Suite 401,
Toronto, ON
M4T 1W2

Earlier this month, the international wire services carried a story involving a fragment of papyrus written in Coptic that suggested Jesus may have referred to “my wife” in speaking to a group of followers.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican confirmed Pope Francis will lead a full slate of Holy Week and Easter liturgies in Rome and at the Vatican, keeping pace with a usually busy papal schedule.

I’m sorry. In writing about a controversial documentary earlier this month (Dramatic Jesus Discovery documentary lacks hard evidence), I never should have brought up the Resurrection in such an offhand way. I should never have imagined the Resurrection could be explained in a single paragraph of a newspaper article.

Simcha Jacobovici’s documentary The Jesus Discovery provocatively asked “what if” a tomb now under an apartment complex in Jerusalem actually contains the bones of Jesus and His family. In my review, I took the bait and posed the question to myself.

VATICAN CITY - With Easter flowers and blossoming trees still decorating St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI held his weekly general audience and encouraged Catholics to let the risen Lord into their hearts and to share his peace with the world.

As he did with the disciples after Easter, "even today the risen Lord can enter into our homes and hearts even if, sometimes, the doors are closed," the Pope said April 11.

"He alone can roll back the burial stone that man often puts over his feelings, relationships and behavior; stones that sanction death, division, hatred, anger, jealousy, mistrust, indifference," Pope Benedict said.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - Like many residents of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI spent the Easter Monday holiday outside the city, but he suggested that people use at least part of the extra day off to look again at the Gospel accounts of the Easter story.

Reading the accounts "allows us to meditate on this stupendous event that transformed history and gives meaning to the life of every person," the pope said April 9 as he greeted visitors gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo.

Before reciting the "Regina Coeli," a Marian prayer used in place of the Angelus from Easter to Pentecost, he said the four Gospels do not try to describe or explain the moment of Jesus' resurrection; "that remains mysterious -- not in the sense of less real, but hidden."

Instead, the Gospels describe how the women went to the tomb and found it empty.

"In all the Gospels, the women have a great space in the accounts of the apparitions of the risen Jesus, just as they do in the accounts of the passion and death of Jesus," the pope said.

"At that time in Israel, the witness of the women could not have an official, juridical value," he said, but the Gospels' emphasis on their stories demonstrates that they "lived an experience of a special bond with the Lord."

That special bond, he said, "is fundamental for the concrete life of the Christian community and this is true always, in every age, and not just at the beginning of the church's story."

Pope Benedict was scheduled to return to the Vatican April 11 for his weekly general audience, then head back to the papal villa, about 15 miles south of Rome, until April 13.

VATICAN CITY - Light and darkness, truth and lies, hope and despair are in a constant battle in the world, but with his death and resurrection Jesus conquered sin and death for all time, Pope Benedict XVI said on Easter.

"If Jesus is risen, then -- and only then -- has something truly new happened, something that changes the state of humanity and the world," the Pope told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square before giving his Easter blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world).

The hard part of being a Christian isn’t staying on the right side of canon law or the 10 commandments or the catechism. It’s living a resurrected life — obeying the law of life.

It’s easy to forget what St. Paul tells us about living in Christ. Easy to forget because it can seem impossible to figure out what he means. He tells us, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2).

What is “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus?” In what sense is it a law? We all die and we all sin, so how have we been set free from either one?

VATICAN CITY - Uncovering the cross and genuflecting before it in his stocking feet, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Pope presided at the service April 6 and chanted the solemn prayers of intercession for the church, for himself and for the world, but during the homily he sat and listened.

Following tradition, the homily was delivered by the preacher of the papal household, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa.

TORONTO - Nestled in the back corner of the Malta Bake Shop, amidst the sweet fragrance of golden pastries, sits an artistic homage to the Passion of our Lord.

Owner Charlie Buttigieg has been collecting and displaying statues of the Easter story for the customers in his west-end Toronto shop to enjoy for the past seven years. The figures are beautifully rendered and full of detail, and are a common tradition in Buttigieg’s native Malta.

VATICAN CITY - An Italian couple, married 59 years, let the joys and sufferings of families guide the reflections they prepared for Pope Benedict XVI, thousands of pilgrims and potentially millions of television viewers to meditate on during the Stations of the Cross at Rome's Colosseum.

The Pope asked Danilo and Annamaria Zanzucchi to write the meditations for his Good Friday service April 6 in Rome. The Zanzucchis, who have five children and 12 grandchildren, are the co-founders and were the longtime leaders of the Focolare's New Families Movement.

JERUSALEM - With Easter in full swing, it can be a daunting task to find a quiet moment of contemplation at any of Jerusalem's holy sites, but it is especially so at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Throngs of pilgrim groups and tourists with cameras pack the church, posing for photos at the spots where Jesus was crucified or laid in the tomb. Some place souvenirs on the sacred sites for a blessing.

But at the Stone of Unction, which commemorates the anointing of Jesus before burial, some faithful find the noise from other visitors fades away. The smell of rose water with which the stone is periodically bathed permeates the immediate vicinity.

TORONTO - A spirit of joy always has to be deep in our hearts, Cardinal Thomas Collins said during this year’s World Youth Day Palm Sunday celebration in Toronto on March 31.

Organized by the Office of Catholic Youth, the event drew about 400 youth from across the archdiocese for a night of prayer, reflection and public displays of faith as they carried the World Youth Day cross from St. Paul’s Basilica to St. Michael’s Cathedral in downtown Toronto.

Holy Week is not a particularly tranquil time for a priest.

In the midst of all the activity, I find Good Friday is the most resonant. My favourite service is actually extra-liturgical, the preaching of the Seven Last Words in our cathedral. It’s a two-hour service of readings, hymns and meditations, reflecting upon the seven times Jesus speaks from the cross. I have been preaching the Seven Last Words for nine years now, accompanied by the students at Newman House, who provide the music and do the readings.