{"id":1140,"date":"2014-04-21T23:34:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T23:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1140"},"modified":"2014-04-15T23:45:55","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T23:45:55","slug":"easter-monday-what-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/04\/easter-monday-what-next.html","title":{"rendered":"Easter Monday: What Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo courtesy of koratmember\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A hoarse voice from all that praiseful singing, a stray foil wrapper without the chocolate egg, hosiery with the beginning of a run, achy joints from wearing Sunday-best shoes a little too long…<\/p>\n

It’s Easter Monday, and we’ve celebrated the Resurrection with all our heart.<\/p>\n

What next?<\/p>\n

The build up to Easter is particularly emotional – especially if you participate in Palm\/Passion Sunday and Good Friday “the big day.” Listening to the words of the Gospels is hard, and gets harder each year. How awful that Jesus had to go through all that. How terrible it is to listen to how He suffered.<\/p>\n

But, Easter makes up for all of that. What amazing love and joy! What a marvel! What a great time to be a Christian.<\/p>\n

The letdown can be tough, especially if you have a chronic illness and pain. Something about celebrating Easter takes the edge off of the health burdens for me. Light steps in, those creaks and aches are pushed far in the back of my sensibilities.<\/p>\n

But then, it’s Easter Monday.<\/p>\n

One way to handle the letdown is to remember. As we pick up the remnants of celebration, we remember the fun. As we put away the dishes, we remember the warmth of family. As we discard that pair of hosiery and try to stretch out our achy muscles, we remember the motion, the activity, the way we put our faith into a celebratory mode. These are sure to bring a smile to my face.<\/p>\n

And, we can do more than just remember. We can revisit the Gospels, retell the story, spread the Word – Jesus is Risen!<\/p>\n

Easter does us no good if it’s only one day a year. And, thankfully, Our Lord knows that.<\/p>\n

His Salvation is for all people, at all times.<\/p>\n

His love never ends!<\/p>\n

Blessings for the day,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A hoarse voice from all that praiseful singing, a stray foil wrapper without the chocolate egg, hosiery with the beginning of a run, achy joints from wearing Sunday-best shoes a little too long… It’s Easter Monday, and we’ve celebrated the Resurrection with all our heart. What next? The build up to Easter is particularly emotional…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43,4],"tags":[1011,29,478,1010,45,183,1013,265,1012,1014],"class_list":["post-1140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","tag-celebration","tag-chronic-illness","tag-easter","tag-easter-monday","tag-faith","tag-gods-love","tag-gospels","tag-joy","tag-letdown-from-celebration","tag-the-resurrection"],"yoast_head":"\nEaster Monday: What Next? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/04\/easter-monday-what-next.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Easter Monday: What Next? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A hoarse voice from all that praiseful singing, a stray foil wrapper without the chocolate egg, hosiery with the beginning of a run, achy joints from wearing Sunday-best shoes a little too long… It’s Easter Monday, and we’ve celebrated the Resurrection with all our heart. 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1141,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}