Easter is finally here.  Christ is risen!  It's been a long forty days of Lent, but we're finally here.  So now that we're on the other side, I thought I'd share what happened this Lent.  Feel free to skip if you'd like, as it will most likely be a lot of Catholic rambling.  But if you want to read on, then by all means!

      Starting from the beginning, as of Ash Wednesday I had been meeting with a group of people from my church weekly to prepare to present the Living Stations of the Cross on Good Friday.  I cannot begin to express how grateful I have been for their fellowship and support, and I am so happy to have been able to grow closer to other people with such a passion for our Catholic faith.
      After a few weeks of faith-sharing and spiritual preparation, we received our parts and began to spend our time together rehearsing as well as praying.  I got the role of Mary this year, which I was very happy about considering that I had completed the renewal of my Marian Consecration only two days previously.  Though I missed a couple of rehearsals due to unexpected scheduling stuff, I was finally able to rejoin with the group and rehearse several times before Friday. 
      Finally, two days ago, it was Good Friday.  We met at 9:30 to watch the Passion of the Christ, which though very hard to watch (as usual) was a good and mindful way to start the day.  From there we went to Good Friday service (which was very emotional because Huffle was still processing the Passion movie) and then had some free time.  At 3:00 p.m., the hour that Christ died on the cross, we prayed a Divine Mercy Chaplet (one of my all-time favorite prayers) and had a little more down time before it was time to get into costume and do our final run-through of the Stations.  At 6:00 we ate a light dinner and received blessed Crucifixes and Rosaries before entering a "Grand Silence" as we got back into costume and went into the Adoration chapel to pray together for a few minutes.  Then it was time to present the Living Stations of the Cross, and man, it was awesome.  God definitely worked that night both for us actors, readers, and musicians, as well as all the lovely people who came to pray with us.  Needless to say, I was both physically and emotionally drained by the end of the day, haha.
      Other than that ministry, though, there were so many other blessings this Lent.  I worked really hard on improving my prayer life (and hey guys!  It worked!) and my Lenten fast, though not quite as difficult as I was anticipating, was still a great experience of discipline and being aware of Jesus' sacrifice for us.  I read an awesome book at the beginning of Lent that blew my Catholic mind (it was supposed to be something that I read all through Lent, but oops I kind of read it in two weeks).  Of course, I can't think of this year's Holy Week without thinking of the fires in the Notre Dame cathedral on Monday.  I still haven't found the words to express how I feel about that.  It broke my heart. 

     Anyway, after all that, now it's Easter!  I've hardly stopped smiling since I got home from the Easter Vigil Mass at 11:30 last night.  Blessings to you all, and enjoy your day!  For my Catholic friends out there- LET THE FIFTY-DAY PARTY BEGIN!