Post-Easter Let-Down

In the days after Easter, we find ourselves kind of depressed. After all, we've just come off three to five closely spaced services in God's house, hearing of His love for us in the Blessed Sacrament, death for our sins, and resurrection for our justification of Jesus Christ, His only Son. We have had a "foretaste of the Feast to come!" The services were all deeply moving. After all that, how can I return to a boring life and work?

I am particularly guilty of this, and so I write to myself here and hope that it might be of some help others.

In Church
First off, those subsequent church services are going to seem a little thin compared to all the splendor of Easter morning. That is why the Octave of Easter is often called "Low Sunday" (tho I prefer Quasi Modo Geniti, the name from the Introit). It is important to remember that our Holy Mother, the Church, is the Queen of Heaven. To borrow from other sources, it matters not how we men dress her, or how many of us are there with her, she is still the Queen, and it is good for us to remember that fact. Also, as we say in the liturgy, we are gathered with "angels and archangels, and all the company of Heaven." So while the folks you can see may have dwindled in number, the majority of the participants remain. The ceremony and substance, reverence, dignity, and good order of the Mass has not changed.

Now, when I speak of our Holy Mother Church, I don't mean a building. I mean the pure and spotless Bride of Christ. The "one holy catholic and apostolic Church" we confess in the Creed.

At Home
Secondly, it was nice to have all those services and all that singing, the Word of God spoken to us every day for nearly a week. Why should it stop? We have hymnals and prayer books brimming over with orders for the daily Office, from Matins to Compline, you could stop five or more times a day to pray the hours, if you had the time. Also included in the hymnals and prayer books is a lectionary with daily readings from the Scriptures, and at least a partial psalter for praying the psalms. These can both be inserted into your praying the Hours. And, as if that weren't enough, there are many very fine devotional books available expounding upon portions of Scripture. Lastly, there are resources on the Internet for devotional use. Concordia Catechetical Academy is a source of a couple of excellent resources. There is no shortage of material available to enrich the daily devotional life of our families.

Of course, we probably can't set aside five times each day when we can pray the Hours of the daily Prayer Office. That's OK. We didn't go to church 5 times a day during Holy Week either. One time, the same time, every day, in the evening is great. Find a time when the whole family can assemble together to pray and hear God's Word together. I like for my family to pray Compline together just before bed. Vespers right after dinner is also a good option. This way you have daily opportunity to sing hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs together, and to pray together, and hear God's Word. Jesus said "Wherever two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am, in the midst of them." Take Him at His word!

The head of the Household should lead these devotions, as that person has been given the authority and responsibility in the home for such things. That same head of household should be in contact with the family's pastor to get answers to questions that arise.

At Work
Lastly, no, we can't do it five times a day because we have jobs, chores, and other responsibilities. We have vocations to fulfill. God has given us these vocations and they are a holy calling. In our vocations, God serves our neighbor with His love. He uses us as a mask. For example, it is God who has created science and medicine, and it is God who gives us doctors to understand and implement that science and medicine as it pertains to the human body. The doctors then use the science and medicine to make our lives better, as they heal our illness, ease our pain, mend our broken bones, etc. The doctors, knowingly or not, are serving us with the love of God in administering the gifts God has given us.

So we should not be depressed about returning to the "boring" jobs we have, because through our jobs we are serving others in the place that God has put us for just such service. That goes for changing dirty diapers just as much as it goes for the world's premier brain surgeon. It goes for preparing supper as well as the proverbial rocket scientist.

Keeping these things in mind will keep our Lord in our mind, and it might even help us have a new appreciation for our families, jobs, and parish families, and all the gifts that God our Father showers upon us, most especially the forgiveness of all our sins for the sake of Jesus Christ.