Dear Prep Community Members,

In 325 CE, the Council of Nicaea decreed that Easter should be celebrated in the spring (at least in the northern hemisphere). As the last snow melts and plant buds burst with new life, we celebrate the hope and glory of the risen Christ. Darkness to light. Winter retreat and hibernation to a wonderful feeling of newness and aliveness. In that sense, Easter is the timeliest of the year’s liturgical seasons.

Hope is paramount to the message of Easter. Hope in something better for our world or for ourselves. Hope in renewal or change or new life. Though often challenging or seemingly elusive, we need hope. In her book, Hope in the Dark, author Rachel Solnit asserts that

Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists…It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same.

Hope is an emphatic action verb that is both a disposition and a gift. It calls and guides us. It defines the myriad ways we support and encourage each other, even in the face of darkness. It is an antidote to despair, acting as a catalyst for renewal and change. It demands the best of who we are. Most importantly, its gift is rooted in extraordinary love – a love we can share and receive in equal measure.

John O’Donohue, an Irish poet, priest, and philosopher (and one of my favorite writers) offered a particularly insightful view of the Easter message in his book, Walking in Wonder:

We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts, and when we find it we are meant to give it away generously. The dawn that is rising this Easter is a gift to our hearts and we are meant to celebrate it and to carry away…the gifts of healing and light and the courage of a new beginning.

In this season of renewal and new life, grace and astonishing love, I wish our families and our entire Prep community the blessings and hope of Easter!

Jon McGee

Head of School

The post A Season of Renewal and New life appeared first on Saint John's Prep.

The seasons of the church’s liturgical year very often play out as a rhythmic from-to transition. The shift from Lent to Easter is no exception. For 40 days, we experience the quietude of reflection, repentance, and renewal that define the Lenten season, and then via the Triduum abruptly shift to the thunderous celebratory crescendo of Easter and the hope and joy it signals. From ashes to fire. Darkness to light. Winter to spring. Deep sleep to a feeling of tingling aliveness.

We are physically reminded of Easter each year in the form of the longer daylight hours and warming temperatures (much earlier this year!) that mark the transition of seasons – our exodus from darkness to light. As we celebrate the newness of spring and its palpable sense of new life, Easter reminds us of our need for renewal, in our lives, in our relationships, and in our world. Pope Francis offers us a particularly powerful message:

The Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith. Let us not quench the wavering flame that never falters and let us allow hope to be rekindled. [We must] find the courage to create spaces where everyone can recognize that they are called, and to allow new forms of hospitality, fraternity, and solidarity.

In this season of renewal and new life, grace and astonishing love, I extend the blessings and hope of Easter to our entire Prep community!

Jon McGee

Head of School

Saint John’s Preparatory School

The post From Darkness to light: Transitioning from Lent to Easter appeared first on Saint John's Prep.