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Bright Monday, Holy Hilarity Sunday
Be sure to Tah, dah, Tah, day!
Lent is surrounded by Joy. There are the carnival celebrations and Mardi Gras on Maundy Tuesday. Then it ends with the ultimate gift of Love and the surprise of Easter Joy!
I heard about “Risus Paschalis” or the Easter Laugh. It’s been described as a medieval custom that the preaching for the First Monday (Bright Monday) all the way to the Holy Humor Sunday following Easter (Bright Week) included jokes. It was a special celebration of the joke God played on the devil by Jesus rising from the dead.
This marks the end of the restrictions of the Lenten Journey and continues the celebrations of Easter with joy and laughter at Christ’s triumph over death.
Do you enter the Joy? What is God like for you?
I was talking to someone who was talking about why this culture thinks that God is dour, stern, punishing and humorless. I was surprised, I didn’t know they did. He said the male authority figures of his youth, principally his father and parish priests, were like that and he thinks he unfairly transferred these characteristics from these men, onto God. I asked him if he still felt that way, and he didn’t. I asked him. “What made the change?”
“First of all, I was removed from that environment when I went to college. There I met priests who were different from those I knew before. Then I began to have a more personal relationship with God, and when I did, I was able to view Him differently. I was awakened to all the evidence around me, which showed me that God is capable, wise and kind. I was looking at the competence and capabilities of God and my limitations in understanding what God was attempting to tell me. I began to see things in a more humorous way. Jokes about God are very common. When we look at that humor, God is all knowing, limitless, and man is limited, he doesn’t always get it and sometimes it’s funny that he could be so far from the truth.”
I’m glad his eyes were opened. What is your image of God?
I have been “accused” of being a Pollyanna. And even if it is meant disapprovingly, I receive it as a compliment, with a “Wow, thank you!”
Do you recall that movie? A little girl changed the entire town. As a child, she was a powerful force for good. At the beginning of the movie she had wanted a doll, but when she opened the box that was sent to them, in it she found a pair of crutches. Her father taught her to play the Glad Game. She came up with the fact that she was glad she didn’t need them.
He told her that there were 365 quotes in the bible for gladness (joy, delight, happy). I wondered if that was true so I took out my Concordance and checked it out – there are. One for every day of the year!
I also looked and found one for each day of “do not fear,” “do not be afraid,” “do not be anxious.” Every day we can be reminded to let go of fear and enter the joy!
How can you bring more gladness and joy into your life? When you contemplate the miracle of this season, does it fill your heart with de-light? Where do you place your thoughts? Where do you want them to be?
Maybe you would consider taking a daily vitalmin - a verse of Joy – to add more vitality into your life?
God is greater than we can imagine. He is Peace, He is Love, He is JOY.
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be full." John 15:11
Lynn Durham, author of From Frazzled to Fantastic! You’re One Thought Away From Feeling better. For comments or to share stories write to smile@LynnDurham.com
For a free Laughing Christ bookmark and a Prescription for Joy bookmark send a self-addressed stamped envelope to 356 Route 175, Holderness, NH 03245
Lynn Schwartz Durham is a mother of three sons and a well-being coach living in New Hampshire, USA. Since her childhood days in Lordship, Connecticut where she held “health camp” at the beach, Lynn has been interested in helping others feel better.
A UConn graduate and registered nurse, Lynn has taught nursing, “Women’s Wellness” and “Spirituality and Health.” Lynn speaks, facilitates retreats, and writes - all focused on well-being …for those who want to release anger, anxiety and anguish … for those who want to embrace, cherish and celebrate life!
Lynn has published over 100 articles and columns, is a contributing author to several books, has an audio book called Dancing Gracefully with Life and is the author of From Frazzled to Fantastic! You’re One Thought Away From Feeling Better,
For many years Lynn was a member of the National Speakers Association, the National Wellness Association and the American Association of Therapeutic Humor. She has studied at the Harvard Deaconess Mind Body Medical Institute in Boston where a fellow participant called her a glass of Prozac!
Lynn is also a NH Real Estate Broker in the lakes and mountains area, a grandmother, an artist, dancer and bridge player.
Through contact with Lynn on TV, radio or in person, people change the way they see their world. Whether we find her with a flower in her hat, or spinach in her teeth, Lynn brings her sense of Joy in the Journey wherever she goes.
