What does Easter Means To Us?

It is a great question. Finding out that bit more about someone and understanding a little more as to how they live their life can be a bit eye opening but it is all about understanding who they are. I have to say, for religious reasons Easter is my absolute favourite time of the Church's calendar. As fun as Christmas is, it is this point in my year when I actually have to sit up and announce what it is I believe.

You see, from today (Thursday) my world gets turned upside down. We have to experience the joy and understanding of one of my best friend's final meal. Tomorrow (Good Friday) we watch his agony, his absolute disbelief that everyone turns away from him and leads him to his death. On Saturday we rejoice that it is nearly time for Him to come home and on Sunday we celebrate that what seems unbelievable is achievable as we watch him walk among us, his friends again.

Being a Catholic is who I am, I have never been different and when I was younger, Easter was another reason to relax and party whilst pigging out on lots of chocolate, but I would say that in the last 10 years, when I have really understood what it is I believe in, the whole journey to Easter has been far more important with an end goal of trying to be more like Jesus. And boy do I mess it up. The whole of lent is littered with sin for me, usually I notice that my swearing increases? Why is that? And I can be more unchristian than ever. I could do loads more for our Church and I should but time flies and maybe I don't prioritise properly. One think that Rob and I are so strict with in the run up to Easter is our Lenten Fast. We make sure we give up something and we bloody do! We always give up Chocolate and Sweets. If we can muster the courage we might also throw bread or crisps or another vice in there but this year, we just did the Chocs and sweets. And it was hard, as a blogger I have had to take so many photos recently of chocolate eggs. I have been to parties or had very chocolaty things offered (it is hard to resist) but what is so important is that we just do it and we don't faulter. It is so good for our mind and soul and we are so excited about that first taste on Sunday as our celebration for trying to deny our "needs" in life. I must say, the Church allows you to break fast on certain days, for example Mother's day was one of these, and I made a chocolate cake covered in mini eggs and you know what, we hardly ate any of it. I took it into the teachers at Raph's school the next day as we didn't want it in the house. I suppose maybe we just wanted to try our best.

The 40ish days of lent are almost over now and we are going to enter into a time of mourning. I love it though. Easter is the true time to reflect and to reevaluate why I continue to go to church every week. I don't need to, I could opt out of this practice but every year I am so harshly reminded that the "stories" we listen to happened. This is not make believe. And I choose that I am going to live my life by the cross, as a Christian prepared to love my faith and pass it to my children. This is the time when I understand why my parents dragged us to church, why I know I needed to marry a fellow Catholic, why I spend every Sunday trying to get the children to focus on the Alter for the 10 minutes; that it is important. Because we believe in Jesus and This is our truth. 

For us as a family, faith has never been so important. To be able to both take the children to church and show a united front and to pray with them together is essential for our daily lives. 

Rob and I always say we feel quite lost if we don't attend church on a Sunday, It is funny how it effects us.

Today I have got our Easter books off the shelf; lovely child friendly versions of everything that is about to happen and I will be taking them to church with us so I can read them to the children and they can get a sense of what is happening. For Rob and I guiding them in any way to help their understanding is what we will do to help teach them our faith. As Christmas is a sign of celebration for Jesus's birth, Easter is the time allowing us to understand his death and how important it is for us living our everyday lives, trying to do the right thing. 

xx