Hatched, Matched, Dispatched!

Easter is here at last after 40 dark days of Lent! The dark, brown curtain covering our beautiful window in church was finally opened and I had the honors to do so!

Seeing it was Easter we had lotsssssssssss of people for Easter Sunday Mass. In fact, our pastor planned ahead and scheduled two Masses for 9:30am-the usual one in church and another in our parish hall. Both were packed. Fr. Ricky, our diocesan vocation director, celebrated the one in church.
Here is how our hall was transformed for Easter Sunday liturgy:

The empty tomb on stage was transformed from the cave for Adoration on Holy Thursday night.

Fr. Ariel had a very strong homily-Be proud to be a Catholic and don't be afraid to show it!! One way to do it is to make the sign of the cross in the restaurant before you eat.

He also had us all laughing with one of his jokes: In the Philippines we have some Catholics who only come to church 3 times in their life: 1) when they are Hatched 2) when they are Matched and 3) when they are Dispatched!

After the two 9:30am Masses we had an Easter egg hunt, sponsored by our school, for all children at the Masses. We don't have green grass, and we don't have snow but our dirt and stone playground with a few weeds.So some eggs were hidden and some weren't. Ages 6 and under got to go first and then any other age could run and find eggs. Here is what the hunt looked like:

Easter dresses-no bonnets though!

The race is on for the eggs!

Big  Sister and Little Sister!

Try hiding eggs in this!

She found a golden egg-it says-"See Father A for a prize!"

A very proud Papa!

The hunt is over and we have some happy children and parents.

At the Easter Vigil we had an outstanding Easter fire to light our new and very tall Paschal Candle.

Sunset!

Catechumens burning their letters to God they wrote earlier on their retreat.

Blessing the fire!

Ready to light the new Paschal Candle!

Coming to the end of our RCIA Journey-three of my teachers-I sponsored two and Chris sponsored the other one.

Holy Saturday morning-the 14 Stations for the Way of the Cross were acted out or picured by 14 families as we walked all around our church/school property. Here are a few of them.

Simon of Cyrene helps to carry the cross.

Mary, his Mother, stood beneath the cross.

Tears of the weeping women of Jerusalem.

The veils of the weeping women of Jerusalem.

The children were asked to carry the cross. 

 The Stations helped us to connect with the Good Friday services.

The candles in the background were there to represent the Reflections on the Seven Last Words.

Lent is over and now we sing Alleluia! Alleluia!  Bring out the chocolate! :-):-):-)