Good morning dear friends! Happy Easter morning! This morning we had Mass in the theater and I read the second reading and sung the Alleluia!!!!  Then leaving Mass I heard a lady telling an Irishman that she went to school in Miami with Irish nuns and an Irish Bishop…. I turned and asked her what school? It was St Theresa school where I went from 1 through 7 grades. She was about 10 years after me…. Then I found she goes now to St Augustine church where I go to Emmaus and Book club! She made her Emmaus at St Augustine and my friend Saba Millares was a speaker at that retreat. I told her Saba leads the book club and I would love to see her at meetings… (Saba: Her name is Maria and in Spanish her last name means "dolls"… Do you know her?) By then we were in the elevator and another lady said "I went to Emmaus at St Hugh" which is a church in Coconut Grove. By now 2 men chimed in they were Emmaus brothers, and one was wearing a UM tee shirt so we did a big "The U" and by then…. I didn’t want to get out of that elevator!!! God incidence? I don’t think so! We did a big "Jesus Christ is risen!!!" in the elevator and wished everybody a Happy Easter. Right now, behind me in the Centrum, the Easter Bunny is holding little children for photos…. !!!! This morning, Chuck and I were drinking coffee on the balcony at 615am…. and I commented how cloudy it was and he said, "Look! the Easter bunny!" It was a big pink cloud that LOOKED like a rabbit! So I took a photo and hurried up to deck 11 on the other side of the ship and got a brilliant sunrise photo (or 3). Thank God!!! For his homily in Mass Father Connolly told a story of reading a story to his little niece and he said she knew all the characters and when to turn the pages … "she knew the story… but she loved being in her uncle’s lap… and hearing him read the story to her." Then he said, we all know this story, and this week we have read the Passion twice… we know all the characters, Herod, Pilate, Peter…. we know what happens, yet we continue to read it. We know, but God reads it to us everyday so we know … We lean on our cherished Father’s chest and we feel safe listening to him read to us. During Communion the ship’s lead singer got up and sang… "I know my Redeemer lives." Who told the oceans to come only so far! Who set the stars in the sky? I know my Redeemer lives! The same gentle hands that hold me when I’m broken… they hold away death and darkness. To which I can only say.. "Thank you Jesus!" God bless you this Easter Day. Home tomorrow…. Time to go pack! Then to the pool!!! Be kind. God bless you.
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