At dawn
A Restful Eastertide, Scene 2
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could embalm him. Very early on Sunday morning, as the sun rose, they went to the tomb. They worried out loud to each other, “Who will roll back the stone from the tomb for us?”
—Mark 16:1-3 (The Message)
Happy Resurrection, friends! Easter Sunday kicks off a week in the liturgical calendar known as the Easter Octave and a seven-week festival called Eastertide or The Great Fifty Days.
Eastertide, beginning with the Feast of the Resurrection and including the Feast of the Ascension, lasts fifty days, paralleling the 50 days Christ spent on earth after his resurrection. Exclamatory worship and celebratory feasting characterize the prayers and practices of Eastertide, which include invitations for baptism, thanksgiving, savoring beauty, feasting, play, and caring for creation. It is a time of celebration for the new creation Jesus inaugurates for us al…