Jesus Christ Has Risen, Alleluia!
Dear friends, I have not posted since April 9. I imagine like myself you have been busy with Holy Week and Easter preparations. This year I was not as busy Holy Week with food preparations as in past years. Why? Because none of the grandchildren were going to be with us. I always enjoy making and baking different treats with the children when they are visiting or when we go to visit them. I will leave a link at the bottom of this post to share some items that I have made with them over the years. Bob and I were blessed, however, to have a dear friend visit for Easter week.
Today, I am going to share the cake that I made for Easter, its recipes, and a short reflection on what it means to celebrate.
Below is a picture of the Lemon Cake found on a Martha Stewart site along with the frosting. I had made this cake for Easter a few years ago. We enjoyed it very much as did others. My husband especially likes lemon desserts, so it seemed the perfect cake to celebrate Christ's rising from the dead this Easter Sunday.
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| Lemon Easter Cake |
CELEBRATING
What does it mean to celebrate a season or feast day in the Church year, the liturgical year?
To celebrate means to honor, give praise and rejoice in a person or an event. We celebrate family birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, and other events throughout family life. We celebrate with gifts and often parties acknowledging the life of the person we are celebrating and/or the various milestone such as a 25th wedding anniversary.
In the Church we celebrate with honor, praise, and rejoicing the Persons of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We call this special kind of celebrating Worship.
Easter is the greatest feast in all the events of the Catholic Church. In fact it is THE solemn feast when heaven and earth rejoice at the Lord's triumph over sin and death and His resurrection. It is such a tremendous feast that it lasts 8 days! The eight days after Easter are called the Octave of Easter.
Easter is not just an 8 day celebration. Easter is an entire season, 50 days! It is 50 days for us to reflect and rejoice and celebrate Christ's victory over sin and death. Some times when Easter Sunday is over or the Octave is completed, we forget we are still in the Easter Season. I encourage you to follow the readings at daily Mass or if you are able to attend daily Mass to recall and reflect what the Apostles and early disciples were doing in the first days and years of the Church after the resurrection and ascension of Our Lord.
As you know I enjoy preparing celebratory foods to celebrate the feast days. Music is another way many who have the gifts and talents give honor, praise, and rejoice in the great events of the Easter season. Prayer is an additional special way we can lift up our voices to the Lord in celebration of this Holy Season. Below I have included the Regina Caeli prayer in English and Latin, which is prayed during the Easter Season instead of the Angelus. If you haven't purchased the book, The Thief Who Stole Heaven by Raymond Arroyo, for your children or grandchildren, I highly recommend it.
Queen of Heaven
V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.
V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Regina caeli
V. Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia.
R. Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia.
V. Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.
R. Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.
V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.
R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.
Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus; ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Link for the The Thief Who Stole Heaven
Previous Posts with Easter treats for and with children: April 4, 2015 and April 11, 2020. You can find them by clicking on the link in the Archives to the right of this post.
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