mcoleman117

Dear Friends

Such an early Easter was a curiosity and was taken as the opportunity to alter public attitude to this great feast of the Resurrection. Holidays in some cases, were reduced to just a few days and I fear that this will be the thin edge of the wedge in making Easter as irrelevant as Pentecost in the mind of the nation. Such an early Easter provides some interesting statistics:

Easter is always the 1^st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here are the facts:

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

Although interesting it is essential that people appreciate the great events of the Passion, Death and Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Our celebration must not be ruled out because of the equal disposition of holidays in a year.

I flew to Lourdes on Maundy Thursday and attended the Easter ceremonies in the Underground Basilica. They were most impressive liturgies and worthy of the Sacred Triduum. The weather was dreadful. It rained, and was cold, for the whole week until the following Friday afternoon when it rained, but we did not get wet. GROUP 117 arrived on Easter Sunday, by which time I had hired an electric scooter to solve my mobility problem following my knee replacement at Christmas. 2008 was the last pilgrimage to Lourdes for GROUP 117 after 28 years. Eventually 40 members arrived in Lourdes, which included three generations of two families. It was a sad and yet happy occasion. As one member

wrote: "Lourdes was indeed magic a thoroughly good end to an era which we have all grown up with in so many ways. I know I will go again it has been a benchmark in my life and year for so long and this year proved to me it wasn't just you lot; there is something about the place as well, though it will be hard without the 117 spirit because despite our different starting points I do believe it was a spiritual experience and I have to pay tribute to the communal responsibility for that, we ARE all one when we strive to make 117 work; and it did."