50 Ways to Celebrate Easter

Well, the Triduum was powerful, with its veiled statues and empty tabernacles and pillars of fire…

with its monks at the foot of the cross and candlelit nuns…

it was a whirlwind couple of days, but now Easter has come and gone and we’re ready to move back into the Ordinary.

Except that there’s nothing Ordinary about it. It’s Easter! Every day this week is Easter Sunday and the Easter season won’t be over till June! The Church in her wisdom asks us to fast for 40 days and follows it up with 50 days of feasting. But (as with Christmas), we tend to forget it’s Easter by, oh, Tuesday and we lose out on some incredible riches. And I’m not just talking jelly beans, either. So how about this Easter we try to live like an Easter people?¹

So here you have it: 50 ways to keep those alleluias coming all Easter long.² It’s not as structured as the Advent and Lent Boot Camps, but it gives you a jumping off point. See if you can’t get all these in this season–and let me know if you do! I’ll devise some prize.³

1. Figure out which of your Lenten resolutions shouldn’t stop just because it’s Easter. Don’t stop praying the Rosary or going to Mass because Jesus rose. Don’t start cursing or being uncharitable either. Easter shouldn’t be a time to relax our pursuit of Christ but to rejoice in the effort we’re making. You don’t have to fast as hardcore as you did for Lent, but don’t quit the prayer and the almsgiving while you’re about it.
2. Change the background on your phone to some stunning piece of artwork celebrating the resurrection.
3. Buy Easter candy half price this week. Make sure to buy enough to last you 50 days.
4. Pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
5. Check out Maximus of Turin’s triumphant reflection on Easter.
6. Use the word alleluia whenever possible. Try to replace all other positive exclamations with this one.⁴
7. Have a party to celebrate the canonizations of JPII and John XXIII. Eat kielbasa and pierogies with cannoli and gelato for dessert. Read poetry. Open all the windows. Go skiing. Tell jokes. How very papal all those things are!
8. Read this excerpt from a homily by St. Ephrem the Syrian.
9. Have dessert every night. Explain to your kids that they get to have all the cake because Jesus loves them.
10. Wait until Easter is half over. Give someone a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, saying, “Happy Easter!”
11. Read the book of Acts.
12. Go to Mass on Ascension Thursday—even if there is no Ascension Thursday in your diocese.
13. Have an Easter party. In June.
14. Greet everyone by saying, “He is risen!” Judge them if they don’t respond correctly.⁵
15. Make a holy hour every week in Easter.
16. Pray Christ the Lord Is Ris’n Today, especially verse 4. Consider getting 1 Cor 15:55 tattooed on your face. Decide against it.
17. Change your Facebook cover picture to something celebrating the Resurrection–and not something cheesy or kitschy, but something that will cause people to gasp for the beauty.
18. Read the popes’ recent Easter messages. Tweet the highlights.
19. Check out this piece by St. Peter Chrysologus.
20. Any time you would have said, “I’ll pray for you,” ask instead, “Can I pray with you?” Then get comfortable praying out loud.
21. Choose joy.
22. Get an Easter-themed manicure. (I usually just paint my nails gold, but Easter lilies would be pretty sweet if you can find someone to do them.) When people comment on it, tell them it’s for Easter. Be prepared to explain that it’s still Easter.
23. Don’t ever have an Easter egg hunt on Holy Saturday. If you already did, have another one in reparation, and switch your family tradition to Easter egg hunts during Easter. You have 50 days to hunt eggs—don’t do it on the one day Jesus is in the tomb!!
24. Pray a rosary every day. Feel free to use the glorious mysteries whenever you want.
25. Meditate on this passage from St. Augustine.
26. Change the message on your alarm to something that will remind you to rejoice from the moment your feet hit the floor.
27. Wish everyone you meet a happy Easter. Even when it starts to get weird.
28. Make a pilgrimage to a shrine in your area.
29. Treat others as you would treat Christ. (Here are 100 ways to try.)
30. Do a Bible study for 7 weeks. Read each of the appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection.⁶
31. Go to confession. Twice.
32. Start reading the whole Bible through in a year.
33. Trade your Starbucks habit for a McCafé habit. Give the money you save to the missions.
34. Read this passage from a letter to Diognetus.
35. Stand on a street corner with a sign that says “Free prayers!”
36. “Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen.” (Mother Teresa)
37. Memorize 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
38. Choose a spiritual book to read during Easter. Try The Imitation of Christ or Practicing the Presence of God.
39. Forgive.
40. Find a Eucharistic procession to take part in for the Feast of Corpus Christi. If there isn’t one, start one.
41. Pray the Exultet.
42. Keep holy water in your house. Bless yourself every time you pass it.
43. Read this sermon by Theodore the Studite: “How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate!”
44. Give a “welcome home” present to someone who’s just entered the Church.
45. Stop in to visit the Blessed Sacrament every day.
46. Change your ringtone to some sweet version of an Alleluia—but maybe not the Leonard Cohen one. It probably won’t evoke Easter joy among your more secular friends.⁷
47. Meditate on At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing.
48. Wear red on Pentecost. All red.
49. Tell someone about Jesus.
50. Orient your life toward being a saint. As yourself at the end of each day: Did I live today like heaven is the only thing that matters? When making decisions, ask yourself: What would I do if I were a saint?

Try a ringtone like this on for size:

1. By the way, that “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song” thing that everyone’s suddenly qu0ting this year? Love it! And JPII did say it…but he was quoting Augustine. Just saying. [↩]
2. Thanks to Fr. Curtis at KU for the challenge! [↩]
3. likely immaterial [↩]
4. Sweet! Awesome! Cool! Great! Nice! [↩]
5. “He is risen indeed!” The judging part is a joke. [↩]
6. Mt 28:1-10, Mk 16:1-8, Lk 24:1-12, and Jn 20:1-10; Mt 28:16-20 and Mk 16:9-20; Lk 24:13-35; Lk 24:36-53; Jn 20:11-18; Jn 20:19-29; Jn 21:1-23 [↩]
7. And not to be a hipster, but it might be a little overdone. [↩]

Author: Meg

I'm a Catholic, madly in love with the Lord, His Word, His Bride the Church, and especially His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist. I'm committed to the Church not because I was raised this way but because the Lord has drawn my heart and convicted my reason. After 2 degrees in theology and 5 years in the classroom, I quit my 9-5 to follow Christ more literally. Since May of 2012, I've been a hobo for Christ; I live out of my car and travel the country speaking to youth and adults, giving retreats, blogging, and trying to rock the world for Jesus. View all posts by Meg