HAPPY EASTER.
SAY HI TO FRANK

The faithful never leave us without something to do, unless we hide in our offices or go out in our cars wearing sun glasses. There is a good and healthy tiredness. It is the exhaustion of the priest who wears the smell of the sheep… but also smiles the smile of a father rejoicing in his children or grandchildren. It has nothing to do with those who wear expensive cologne and who look at others from afar and from above.  Do I know how to rest by accepting the love, gratitude and affection which I receive from God’s faithful people? Or once my pastoral work is done, do I seek more refined relaxations, not those of the poor but those provided by a consumerist society? Is the Holy Spirit truly ‘rest in times of weariness’ for me or is he just someone who keeps me busy?

Pope Francis, in a message to priests about how to spread the message to a weary population of Catholics..

Blood Moon With Total Lunar Eclipse & Eerie Biblical Message Rising Over U.S. Easter Weekend

Some Christians believe the blood moon lunar eclipse tetrad could be connected to Jesus’ return — or signify a world-changing event about to take place.
According to the King James Bible, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord comes,” (Joel 2:31).

The end of the world..
Armageddon..
There has been lots of end times before, so I’m not going to pack my bags yet. I think we’ll be here for a while. 
But that’s not saying things won’t stay scary.

Blood Moon With Total Lunar Eclipse & Eerie Biblical Message Rising Over U.S. Easter Weekend

It may not happen but it’s sure worth seeing. If this particular weather model run from yesterday proves true, it will be a white Easter with a potential blizzard along the East Coast..

Yes, you read that right.

Not much confidence is in the model at this point.. but April is still a time when snow could fall—never discount the chance of it occurring by fluke.. April showers.. rain or snow. Hopefully May flowers will follow.

4/21 hit:

Bring your Own Bongs: We were gonna crack eggs but they we got high.. 4/20 was Easter, but what seemed to matter more to many was that it was 4/20.. A public smoke out took place as a white cloud of pot smoke shrouded a park in Colorado.. 

By now the eggs are dyed and dried.. the bunnies are sleeping.. the candy wrappers are littering the floors. Easter is over, “he has risen” they say.. but risen from where and to what? Did Christ walk the earth? And if so, was he the son of man? Or a legend.. a myth.. a man?  Is Easter is another pagan treat for the retreaters? Nothing rebellious about a religious holiday that took the rhymes of the reason and turned them Christian.. It worked for the rest, why not for the best.
Horus was first, though.. Jesus just stuck around longer..

Now that your yolk is easy and your burden is light, sit back and watch the HTML as it flies through the air on the website of your choice..

WITH THAT SAID.. Millions of people flock to Rome for the canonization of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXII .. 

An interesting sunrise today in a cemetery in Centralia PA

How appropriate for today.. A 5.4 quake has just struck EASTER ISLAND..

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEqavkJGCE?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=374]

Good morning. It’s Easter Sunday.

This is Keith Green singing an Easter Song. After all, if you’re going to have an Easter song, you may as well get all Jesusy in someone’e face with it, right?

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

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Here is a quick video from today.. the Coal Speaker family went to what was going to be a simple and peaceful Easter Egg hunt. I never really went on these.. my wife Tara did, as a child.. This was Ayden’s first in his two years and one month of life. We didn’t know what would hit us, and I am still quite surprised at what did..

The weather was quaint.. the sun was rolling in and out from behind the clouds.. There was a warmer feeling today, at least warmer than it has been for the entire winter.. And when we arrived at the site of the Easter Egg hunt in St. Clair PA, there were hundreds of people already waiting. Baskets in hand.. children in arms.. kids in Easter bunny costumes.. ages 1 through whatever age you need to stop hunting for Easter eggs…

How bad could this be, I thought? Mom and dad figured, ‘we got this.’ 

So we instructed the two year old Ayden the best we could on the ground rules. He ignored most of what we said, but he knew the basic premise: Hunt and gather as many eggs as he could.. There were even prizes, apparently, for certain eggs. My wife’s sister told us, “When you get ten eggs, go to the building to collect your prizes.”

That certainly sounded easy enough, right?

By this point, more and more people had already shown up. The POTTSVILLE REPUBLICAN this morning reported that over 3,000 eggs were hard boiled and ready for the event. Clearly, there were enough people to get all of those eggs.

Shortly after 1pm, Ayden and Mommy and Daddy happily got in line in the 1-2 year old section. And then, much to my surprise, an air horn let loose to indicate that the race had begun—quite frankly it was a race I didn’t know existed.

Once the kids were permitted to go collect eggs, the parents of those children quickly forgot that they had children. They pushed, poked, ran, and did whatever they could to get in front of others. They rushed to where the eggs were, taking every single one that they could find. I thought to myself, well the rules have changed.. So I took Ayden and picked up, realizing now that it was a life and death struggle for hard boiled eggs—you can hear in the video Ayden getting so excited about the immediate need to run that he told me, “HURRY!” Meanwhile, Tara was holding the camera for what she thought would be a cute family video, only to turn into a state of modern war.

At one point you’ll hear Tara, my wife, being struck in the face. Maybe by Ayden’s shoe, or maybe by someone else. The panic was so fast and furious that I just can’t tell. 

In the end, little Ayden only captured one yellow egg. You’ll see at the end of the event, he was quite proud of that little yellow egg. 

I don’t know what happened in other age group sections at the egg hunt, but in the kiddie section, I was amazed at so much.. amazed that, in this little “fun” event, how parents could act.. If they acted like this because red Easter eggs mean they can collect a dollar, I’d hate to see how they act before a big natural disaster in a grocery store. Oh wait, I already did, I went to Walmart before Sandy.

So I suppose next year, or next egg hunt, we’ll be ready.

Perhaps we’ll arm Ayden with shin guards, a helmet, and a mouthpiece. Maybe we’ll get him cranked up on sugar just so he can beat the crowd.. 

I am just grateful Ayden got a yellow egg. As my wife and I stood in amazement for a minute after the event suddenly ended, we also saw a spattering of kids and moms here and there, looking stunned, like zombies just attacked and ate the family dog. Maybe they, like me, thought they’d get a priceless family photo of their children happily finding an egg. Little did they know, other parents had much more ulterior plans.

All for eggs.

I am amazed….

Happy Easter nonetheless. Hopefully no one tramples your eggs.

Pope Francis holding a tall, lit, white candle, enters a darkened St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican Saturday, March 30, 2013, to begin the Vatican’s Easter vigil service. Pope Francis is celebrating a trimmed back Easter Vigil service after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he has begun to put his mark on the Catholic Church. Francis processed into a darkened and silent St. Peter’s Basilica at the start of the Saturday service, which recalls the period between Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

No way in hell (or heaven) that Benny Natzinger would ever have done this.. Pope Francis, prostrate on the ground for Good Friday mass.. plain black shoes and all. A day after he stirred the world by washing the feet of young prisoners.. not a bad holy week for the Pontiff, now was it?

MY YEARLY ODE TO MINI EGGS

Oh Cadbury Mini Eggs, I love you
You’re chocolate goodness, it’s true
You melt in a mouth and not in a hand, 
And are always fresh and never bland

Your milky goodness and your colorful bite
Can help any creature have a good night
Your Easter gift every year,
Maybe better than a cold beer

Mini Eggs, Mini Eggs, 
To you I’ll walk with faster legs
It’s time again to almost part,
I hope your chocolate will not make me fart

The Easter season will soon be gone
And with that we’ll have to say so long
In a few months, you’ll be manufactured again
Eggs of glory for women and men!

Happy Easter.

Happy Easter. Indeed.

Yes it’s Easter… So do you think someone named Jesus rose from the dead, inquiring minds want to know?

I remember those pre-parenthood days..

When my wife and I would see parents buying gifts for their child for Easter. How foolish we’d think. And chuckle.. and go home and continue to be proud of the fact the WE don’t buy gifts for holidays in which gifts were never intended to be the theme.

But tomorrow Ayden will be as proud as a peacock on his brand new Thomas the Train *almost* life size toy and a $10 yard sale iMac computer, along with a $.50 chair to sit at…… Is there a help group out there for hypocritical parents?

I get no money for this product placement, but by God, the best candy ever made comes out this time of year: Cadbury mini eggs. Loved them since I was young.. still do now. The best tasting chocolate to fill a basket. Get them this weekend and eat them… They’ll be discounted in three days.

Easter message from the Pope: Political

Benedict urges diplomacy in Libya.. Calls on Europeans to welcome refugees from North Africa..

love that you have an adorable baby to share with the world, yet you post a picture of a ham.

A friend of mine with a logical point