Easter Octave: The entire past week we have been celebrating the feast of Easter and actually will celebrate it for another six weeks or so until Pentecost. But, this past week we have celebrated the Octave of Easter. Formerly there were a number of feasts that had octaves but now the Church has reduced it to two feasts – Christmas and Easter. These two feasts of course celebrate the great events of our salvation and redemption. The birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This Sunday is also observed as Divine Mercy Sunday. This devotion was fostered by St. Faustina and is encouraged to pray for the forgiveness of our sins or the forgiveness of the sins of others, especially those who may be dying today. Coming immediately after Easter we can see that we are celebrating the Divine Mercy of God in a special way during this season. The whole Paschal Mystery is an expression of God’s mercy and his desire to forgive us and bring us to eternal life. This Easter Octave weekend was a busy weekend here. The students return today to complete the school year. Graduation is scheduled for May 15, 2010. Spring seems to have arrived and the temperatures have risen and the trees are blooming sending forth their leaves. This weekend we also had an oblate retreat. There were about forty oblates here for the weekend. The retreat was given by Father Pachomius and he seemed to be well received and appreciated by the oblates. His retreat was entitled: "Conformed to the Image of Christ." I am posting a group picture of the retreat here on the blog. For more pictures go to my smugmug photo web site here. That should take you directly to the pictures from this retreat. Or you can go to http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/ and then look for the album "Oblate events 2010."
This picture is a group picture of the oblates here this weekend.