April, 2004 Calendar In This Issue: The Passion of the Christ and the Execution of Jesus What Do I Do? No Nursing Home for Me!! Mozart and the Easter Bunny Same Sex Unions and Gay Marriage: A Policy for St. Augustine's Taize and Labyrinth in Holy Week Spiritual Practices: A Practicum Episcopalians

by Christa Buswell

During Lent last year, I decided to live dangerously and write a letter to God every day. Called these missives pseudo-psalms. And they were very pseudo indeed. Some praiseful, most grumpy. But as Easter drew near, they became more life the real thing, and on Easter Sunday they ended like this:

Easter! I welcomed back the
Alleluia. To the very upbeat beat of
Mozart's Alleluia.
From Exsultate! Jubilate!

And I know why he wrote it.

He just couldn't contain it -
This vibrant, exuberant,
Exultant and jubilant,
F-major brilliant
Feeling of joy.

Neither can I, Lord,
Neither can I.
But he said it best.

So where does the Easter bunny come in? And those colored eggs the poor thing lays against all biological probability? Like it or not, he's part of the season. That's why we have Easter bunnies and cards and spring-hued gifts at Books by-the-Sea. Joyfully Easterly. Come have a look.

We live in an age where scientific "proof" is the non plus ultra. What we have forgotten, to our peril, is "that through myth and symbol the experiences which make up our daily lives are affirmed and made sacred." Thus Gertrud Mueller Nelson in her splendid book To Dance With God.

Let's keep in mind that the mundane, everyday objects in our lives are part of the ritual of being human. That they are part and parcel of our minuet with the divine. Yes, even Easter Bunnies.

Happy Easter and a rousing Alleluia to us all!

Copyright © 2004 St. Augustine by-the-Sea