Springtime   28 April 2022 Dear and gentle reader, with my hiatus from blogging over, Holy Week and Easter liturgies survived, and visiting family completed, I'm back and full of blathering. The natural world surrounding us is coming back to life.  The grass is greening up, flowers and trees are budding and blooming, the wee creatures seeking mates to make more wee creatures.  The cold of winter is gone, and life begins to show itself once again. Thus it is with our faith.  After the forty days of penitential Lent, we celebrate the Lord's victory over sin and death, not for Himself, but for us and the world.  Nature herself echoes what God Himself does for us.  New life; new hope; new love planted firmly in our hearts, minds, and souls. The new life can be frightening, since it calls for continual conversion.  The victory of Christ rising calls us to daily take up the Cross, die to self and sin, and rise with Him to the life of the sons and daugh...