A time after Easter Sunday when new members of the early Church received “further instructions in the Christian mysteries”*,
A time after Easter signaling the final phase of initiation for new members in today’s Church,
A time after Easter for all of God’s children to “rest in His Love” and “ponder His… sacrificial Love”.
*Catholic Customs &Traditions, Greg Dues, Twenty Third Publications, New London, ISBN 978-0-89622-515-2
In a featured article for Catholic Online, Catholic author, Hugh McNichol, offers useful thoughts about this special time.
“…Mystagogia is the seeping in period, in which all believers are able to take time and more deeply contemplate the Church's life and sacraments, which we so joyously celebrated in the past weeks… [I]t is similar to a retreat, a time in which we can take a break and understand the events that have happened in our liturgical celebrations.”
So as the world puts away the Easter bunnies, baskets and holiday memories of this year's springtime holiday, the Church leads us in a different direction. She instructs that Easter Sunday does not mark an end to a holiday season; but rather, Easter Sunday begins a new season. It is a season that begins with mystagogia, a time calling us to reflect on the holiness of the days through which we, as the Body of Christ, have just walked. Our Lady of Emmitsburg, in concert with the instructions of the Church, provides guidance, in a straightforward way, as in her message of 4/2/98 (below), which enables all to fulfill the Church's instruction to a fuller degree: "contemplate the depth and breadth of my Son's Love for you, right now in this moment of your life. Take the time to rest in His Love... ponder His interior sacrificial Love for you." In addition to her guidance on setting aside time for contemplating and reflecting on the Paschal Mysteries, she even provides points to be pondered during those times of mediation, of mystagogia, when she stated that the meaning of Easter is not only the external acts of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of her Son, but extends to the unfathomable Love with which these acts were performed, acts which marked us as His own, forever, obtaining freedom for the children of God. How fortunate we are to have such a Heavenly Mother! She is a mother who teaches her children how to more fully observe the instructions of the Church and how to live out the Gospel message more fully, so that we may have a closer and fuller walk with her Son, Jesus Christ. All of this can occur through her messages, the messages of Our Lady of Emmitsburg who is a Heavenly Mother feeding us with words on which to ruminate, nourishing us with the food for our thought, so that we may spend this mystagogia time with an abundance of holy reflection fare.
This is the meaning of Easter, little children. It is not only the Death and Resurrection of my Son but the breadth and depth of His Love which He embraced for each one of you in order that you could be free and live with Him for all eternity; free from the chains of pain, misfortune, poverty, illness and the sin of death; free, happy and unequivocally His for ever and ever. Try, little ones, to contemplate the depth and breadth of my Son's Love for you, right now in this moment of your life. Take the time to rest in His Love. Try to ponder His interior sacrificial Love for you.
Our Lady of Emmitsburg, 4/2/98
The information on this web site contains excerpts from Private Revelations 12:1, The Prophecies of Our Lady of Emmitsburg.
So fly away you evil spirits! The Lion of the Tribe of Juda, the Root of David has conquered. All the evil ones shall be silenced and cast into the Lion's mouth.
