A Mother’s Reflection for Easter:
(by Abby Henderson, Coordinator of Faith Formation, grades 6-8 at Our Lady’s)
On Easter morning, in the midst of the glory of the morning and the rush and hustle to get everyone ready for Mass, one of our family’s favorite traditions is Resurrection Rolls. It combines my charge to feed my family physically and spiritually in one delicious swoop.
We take refrigerated crescent roll dough, which, when rolled out, represents the burial cloth, marshmallows for the body of Jesus, melted butter as the oil for anointing the body, and cinnamon sugar as the spices used to prepare the body. Cover the marshmallow in butter and sugar mixture, then wrap in the triangle dough, being sure to “seal” it in the tomb, pinching the edges together. Bake as directed on the package. When they’re done, an “empty tomb” results, as the marshmallow melted, leaving a tasty quick breakfast that reinforces the Easter story for my children. (for a complete recipe click here).
As a mother of five I do a lot for feeding the hungry, both physically and spiritually, every day in my family. Randy and I take our role of leaders and partners in our domestic church seriously and do our best in taking these responsibilities seriously.
Physically we provide three meals a day, plus snacks, for seven people. Spiritually feeding my family takes similar daily effort. We make it a priority to provide them a family meal with dinner prayer every night of the week. Often Randy and I will split who eats with who, so that any child who may have activities and eats early/later will still have a parent pray and sit with them during their dinner.
We also pray with all of our children before we drop them off for school each morning. It’s often just a quick cross signed on their forehead and a “God bless you and keep you safe” repeated again at bedtime when we bless them and we share a short prayer, to end our days with a thank you to God. Weekly Mass attendance, spontaneous prayer intentions for friends and family, and monthly adoration are also a part of our family life, and volunteering where we are able. Our youngest filled up our M&M tube within 5 minutes of getting home from Mass at the beginning of Lent this year!
In Matthew 25, the Judgement of the Nations, where we take our inspiration for this year’s focus, Jesus says, using the parable with the king,
‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me….. ‘I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’
When we take the time to pause and reflect it’s apparent how much more work there is yet to be done for the Kingdom by me, my family, our parish, and the world. Having used this Lent as a time of education and reflection on feeding the hungry, may our Easter season now be a time to put in to practice all that we know and have learned.
As we hear in today’s first reading, Peter says of Jesus:
“He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God” -Acts 10:42
Let us use this as an encouragement to seek and live the truth of Christ resurrected in our daily lives to preach to the people through our words and actions today and every day.
May this Easter be a blessed one for you and your families as we reflect on the glorious, amazing miracle of Christ’s Resurrection. Help us to keep that joy in our hearts and may it remind of the importance of feeding the hungry wherever, whenever, and however we find them.
Alleluia! Alleluia! He is risen!
This Lent at Our Lady’s we focused on the idea of Feeding the Hungry both physically and spiritually. If you haven’t yet, I invite you to go back and read through the daily blog – even as a staff member here for over a decade I learned much about the many ways our parish is involved in outreach, both to parishioners and the community, in these actions.