The 50 GregCast Easter Proclamations!

50 Ways to Live Your Easter!

Several years ago, I blogged for each of the 50 days of the Easter Season, expanding on 50 Ways to Get Through Easter! Each of the items below offer a little advice on how to LIVE THE EASTER MIRACLE each day of the year. I hope you enjoy this reprint, and I hope you can take the challenge to live each day as if it were Easter... Happy Easter!

1.Easter Sunday:  Simply Celebrate that HE IS RISEN!
2.Activity: Be active in your faith!  Go to church!
3.Animation: Without this, its just a picture!
4.Awakening: WAKE UP!
5.Being: Don’t try to BE anything except yourself!
6.Birth: A new part of ourselves has to take root!
7.Bloom: Show off a little!
8.Body: We are One Body in Christ, and We Do Not Stand Alone!
9.Breath: “Ruah” - You are alive with the breath of God!
10.Brio: Bring energy and determination to your faith!
11.Carpe Diem: Seize the Day!
12.Church: We All Stand on the Rock!
13.Confirmation: The Coming of the Holy Spirit!
14.Consciousness:  How do we experience our faith?
15.Continuance:  KEEP GOING... “Don’t Give Up, You Still Have Us!” (p.g.)
16.Creation: What was your “beginning”?
17.Dedication:  “A prophet to the nations I dedicated you!”
18.Discipleship:  “Make disciples of all nations!”
19.Élan: Use “a force” within!
20.Élan Vital:  THE “vital force” is the Spirit!
21.Endurance:  Run the “good race’!
22.Energy: Let the energy “light the lamp” to show the world!
23.Enthusiasm: Enjoy the ride, and go for broke!
24.Essence: What is at the “core” of your relationship with Christ?
25.Excitement: What excites you about LIFE?
26.Existence: To exist is to BE...
27.Flesh:  ...to BE (or not to be) is to live (or die)!
28.Growth: What ways do we as a society need to grow?
29.Heart: Let the world move your heart!
30.High Spirits: Be positive!
31.Impulse: Act on your gut... Doing the right thing!
32.Individual:  How do you catch a “unique” rabbit?  You “nique” up on him!
33.Lifeblood: He gave his, so we could BE Him for the world!
34.Liveliness: As we are Him for the world, we share LIFE!
35.Mission:  Share the Word!
36.MOM:  Listen to Her and Great Things Will Happen!
37.Oomph: Provide that “oomph” in the way you share your life!
38.Person:  The “I” must move to the “WE”.
39.Presence:  Jesus is the Real Deal!
40.Pulsating:  Like blood through the veins, how’s the faith in your life?
41.Soul: Where is that thing anyway?  CLEAN UNDERWEAR
42.Sparkle: Be contagious!
43.Spirit: Its not one third of the Trinity for nothing!
44.Survival:  Fall back when you need to, and let “US” do the driving.
45.Verve: Verve is the verb that turns faith into action!
46.Vigor: Vigor is the trigger that makes faith bigger!
47.Vitality: Its the vital nature of it all!
48.Zest: Its not just a soap anymore!
49.Zing: You can’t do this thing, if you ain’t got that zing!
50.PENTECOST: Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your faithful!

Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost

Sitting at Mass Sunday, my Pastor, Fr. Phil O'Kennedy, preached about this Easter Season, and the fact that is is coming to a close. The message revolved around the season's three buzz words... Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost. While this is not a repeat of his Homily, I do thank him for the inspiration, most every week. His message and the style he presents always offers me a spring board into how I express my faith. I believe that this is how church is supposed to work. Thanks Father!

Resurrection: This is most definitely the GOOD NEWS of the Easter season and the season of Spring. Each year we get to witness everlasting life, or as a fav' band of mine sings, "The season's cycle moving round and round, pushing life up from a cold dead ground... It's growing green! (Season Cycle - XTC's Skylarking) The miracle of The Resurrection plays out the real possibility that there has got to be "More Than This" (an awesome song by Peter Gabriel off the "Up" collection.). So, preparing one's self to live forever is very much a part of life!

Ascension: An equally important part of life is knowing that we must progress! In moving from "point A to point B", we have to be about improving our existence. In my Faith, I am called by God, through the reality of His Son Jesus Christ, to know, love and serve the Lord AND one another! The improvements in my life gets me ready to care for the lives of others! In a real sense, I am ascending to a high form of action! You see this is Maslow's Hierarchy, and other such explanations of education... One must progress to a greater sense of good, that usually involves the community around them!

Pentecost: This brings forth the necessity of an organized body of people, working together to support one another in their mutual efforts to not only improve themselves, but also bring about the betterment of society. No, I'm not talking communes and stuff, I'm talking about social responsibility and the opportunity we all have to work together to make life great! All social networks have leaders who have experience, and students who need to learn more by following the good examples of those leaders leading the way. Pentecost is certainly a Christian concept, and it is after all the Birthday of the Church! But we, the people of God, are that Church, and it is our responsibility and our opportunity to make things better for those living among us, and those yet to come. Was it Chesterton who wrote that "whether through a garden patch [or something else], [our goal is] to leave the world a bit better off", and to have that world know that we have lived!

So, in the end, we celebrate the everlasting life given to us by God (Resurrection), and the opportunity to grow and progress through life as we "know, love and serve" that God and one another (Ascension), and do so in the midst of other great people who care for and serve those around them as "One Body", unified with one purpose!

Now, to deal with the whole concept of agreeing on what that purpose should be... That's why this whole thing is certainly NOT a piece of cake... To quote the great Frosty the Snowman on this hot almost Summer day, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

The Feast of Pentecost and the Zing!

The Feast of Pentecost and the Zing!

Today is the Eve of Pentecost, and we celebrate the “ZING” of life. It’s that outside force that somehow provides the spark we all need to keep going. To have a ZING in one’s step, infers (or is it implies) that one has “pep”, or extra energy! The Feast of Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, and the Church is called to act on the Word of God, “making disciples of all nations”. (Matthew 28: 20) A key factor in sharing that Word lies in the energy or ZING behind the message. In sales, no one buys a product that bores the salesperson. So it must be so with The Faith. We need that ZING to make it all work. Like the spirit of Zen, let us proclaim that ZING is truly part of who we are as God’s creation. It is in the wind, and the dreams, and in the healing power of the Holy Spirit.

The Wind and Zing: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: See!  I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life. I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD. (Ezekiel 37: 4-6)

The “Ruah” has always been my favorite concept of the Holy Spirit. It is the “Breath of God”, and the source of all life and creation. To adapt a popular song from yester-year, You can’t do this thing, if you ain’t got that ZING!

The Dream and Zing: Thus says the LORD: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions... (Joel 3: 1)

A phrase that I hear a lot in ministry is “Spirit of Hope”. Our lives are for living, that’s for sure. But what makes us human is our capacity to dream and hope. It’s that ZING, or special touch of who we are! We can imagine a world that is better. We can see a day when all shall be well. “We are prophets of a future, not our own.” (Archbishop Oscar Romero, martyred March 24, 1980) Read the entire prayer

The Healing and Zing: In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. (Romans 8: 26)

Another capacity of our humanity is our ability to understand that from time to time, we need help. We are creatures of community, and thus we are naturally dependent on one another, especially in times of trouble. The ZING of healing is one that comes from above, just when you need it. It’s that last second reassurance that everything is going to be OK, and best of all, it is not dependent on having to pray the perfect prayer.

The Christ and Zing: On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.” (John 7:37)

On this Eve of Pentecost, I need the world to know that I am saved because of Jesus Christ! I need all to know that it Christ that quenches my thirst for life! I too want to exclaim that not only is Jesus the Lord of all, He is the ZING! He is the life of creation, He is the culmination of all of our hopes and dreams, He is the source of healing and comfort, and He, with God the Father, is the power of the Holy Spirit!

ZING, while not an official Church term, is the best word to wrap up this 50 Day journey of faith. This has been about more than just getting through Easter, it has been about keeping Easter alive in the hearts and minds of the people of God. Happy Pentecost!

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faith, and kindle in them the fire of your love!