Here at Church Life Journal, we’ve had several conversations about the challenge of celebrating Easter for the entire the season, and we figure if we’re struggling to keep our Easter joy alive for fifty days, others probably are too. To that end, we’re offering several posts over the next two weeks with some ideas for sustaining a spirit of celebration throughout the Easter season.
First, we’ve put together not one but two Spotify playlists to help people enter into the joy of the season through music, which is a key component of our liturgical life and our daily life (remembering of course that our liturgical life is meant to overflow into and transform our daily life). This music has been chosen for its ability to remind us that Christ is alive forever, that the darkness has been conquered, that “the sufferings of this present life are as nothing compared with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18, NRSV), and that “if we have been united with [Jesus Christ] in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom 6:5, NRSV).
The first playlist comprises festive liturgical and classical music, containing both well-known and hidden gems of the Easter season and its concluding feasts of Ascension and Pentecost.
The second playlist comprises 'fun' music (though I personally find classical music fun also!); it features more secular/popular songs that are shot through with images and lyrics that speak of resurrection, songs that turn our gaze toward the eternal in the midst of the day-to-day.
Join us this season as we explore different ways to sustain our joy in the risen Christ throughout the next fifty days. Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Featured Photo: Lawrence Lew, OP; CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0.
