THE CATHOLIC “STRETCH”

“Grandma, Easter is such a really special celebration, I just wish Easter would last more than one day.”

“Actually it does, Jeffrey! In the Catholic Church from as early as the third century, Easter is a 50-day celebration. It begins on Easter Sunday and extends all the way to Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost commemorates when God gave the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The prefix ‘penta’ means….”

“I know! It means FIVE-something. Like Pentagon the huge five-sided building where the Department of Defense is located in Virginia.”

“You got it! The name Pentecost originated from the Jewish Feast of Weeks which came 50 days after the Jewish Feast of Passover. Jesus was in Jerusalem to celebrate that feast when the soldiers arrested Him and eventually crucified Him. But I’ll tell you more about Pentecost later. And Passover, too.”

“We can celebrate Easter for seven weeks? So that’s why we are still singing resurrection songs at Mass and reading the stories from the Bible about what happened afterward. It seems like in our Church we get to stretch out the good stuff to enjoy longer. Like at Christmas. We spend four weeks of Advent getting ready for Christmas. That’s when we light the 4 candles in the Advent wreath each Sunday, isn’t it?”

“Yes, and remember how we ‘stretch out’ Christmas for 12 days afterward too! The 12 days begin on Christmas Day and end at Epiphany, January 6. That’s the time the Wise Men or Magi came to worship and bring gifts to Jesus. In some places people give gifts to each other on Epiphany day and sometimes give Christmas gifts on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas.”

“I’d like that kind of gift-giving idea! And I sure like the “stretching out” celebrations in our Catholic Church!”

NEW BOOK JUST RELEASED!

Introducing Leona Choy’s

Autobiographical TRILOGY:

"GOD ROCKED HER ROCKING CHAIR!"

Finally Finished?

BOOK ONE: After writing over 30 books, Leona Choy at last published her autobiography, Czeching My Roots, when she was nearly age 80. She took for granted her adventurous and satisfying missionary, writing, and broadcasting career as a Protestant evangelical was complete. Wasn’t it time to retire and coast to a finish?

Was there MORE?

BOOK TWO: SURPRISE! This book tells the story of how God unexpectedly drew her into the Catholic Church, which she calls the “Land of MORE,”and launched her into another fruitful, active, exciting season of her life.

Now she had to write a sequel to update her story!

My Journey to the LAND OF MORE: Evangelical to Catholic was published by Coming Home Network International. Be sure you read Book Two as the background for Book THREE. There would be MORE to come!

YES! Still MORE!

JUST RELEASED!

BOOK THREE:

What were those first few years like as a new Catholic Christian? Did her advanced age keep her from enjoying the freshly revealed TREASURES of the "Land of MORE?"

Did Leona find that she had to leave behind her entire evangelical faith-backpack? Were there cross-cultural adjustments as she had when she was a missionary in China?

How did she relate to her evangelical friends? Did she experience “friendly fire”? What was the mother lode of TREASURE Leona discovered—and all the gold nuggets spilling out of the spiritual TREASURE CHEST of the Church?

Of course she had to write a sequel to a sequel to a sequel.

JUST OFF THE PRESS—this book is IT!

Live the TREASURES yourself and introduce this book to your friends—converts and “cradlers” and not-yet-Catholic friends and family!

DIRECT ORDERING INFORMATION

$12.95 each

for book #2 or #3 add S & H

**** INTRODUCTORY PROMOTION ****

When you order directly from Leona:

$25.90 for both books #2 and #3

you will receive a complimentary copy of Book # 1

the FLAGSHIP of her Autobiographical TRILOGY

(Over 400 pages, a $17.95 retail value)

Offer ends August 1, 2012

All orders please add S & H

$3.95 for 1-2 books; $5.45 for a set of 3 books

VA residents add 5% sales tax

Make checks payable to: Leona Choy

Mail to P.O. Box 2697 Winchester, VA 22604

email orders: leonachoy@comcast.net

All books signed by the author

Call Leona at 540-877-1813 for quantity discounts

GOOD FRIDAY

PUBLIC DISPLAY

So publicly You were displayed to die

before the stony eyes of finite men!

not on a private hill away from sight

but stripped and ripped before a raucous mob

taunted, mocked, bereft of modesty.

strident cries and jeers with laughter mixed

the passing rabble gazed indifferently

at the spectacle of gross debauchery

man perpetrating on his fellow man.

So publicly You were displayed to die

when dying should be private to a man!

Few saw beyond the sweat and stench of death

that it was God's own Son paraded there.

A common scene enough to daily view

along a busy, trafficked public road

a hundred malefactors hanging bare.

So publicly You were displayed to die

before uncaring eyes of mortal men!

No background music softly fading out

or cinema lights and make-up on that stage

only the curse of soldiers and the shout

of hirelings paid to false accuse and rail.

So publicly You were displayed to die

O Christ! Not for Yourself but for mankind

to generations stretching to my time.

God so loved the world and thus He gave

His Son to public disrespect and scorn.

For that the only Son of God was born!

HIS SANDALS

"And they all left Him and fled. And a certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he left the linen sheet behind, and escaped naked." Mark 14:50-52 (Mark is the only Gospel writer who records this incident.)

From a Commentary: The early Church is practically unanimous in ascribing the Second Gospel to Mark, the cousin of Barnabas and associate of Paul and Peter. Strong tradition also supports the assertion that in this Gospel is recorded the recollections and preaching of Peter, who calls Mark "my son" in 1 Peter 5:13. Most scholars hold that this is the earliest of the four Gospels, safely dated between A.D. 50 and A.D. 70.

HIS SANDALS

(An imagined scenario)

What happened to Jesus’ sandals?

Leona Choy

Soldiers jerked them off

to nail His bare feet

to a rough-splintered cross

callously casting lots

for His seamless garment.

They tossed aside His filthy sandals

caked with mud

and stained with blood

from His painful struggle

up Golgotha's hill

—not worth a throw of dice

Then I noticed the sandals

hugged tightly under the arm

of a frightened youth.

They called him John Mark.

Where had I seen him before?

At the synagogue door?

Or helping his mother

host them all at the Last Supper?

Perhaps in Gethsemane

running naked from the grasp

of Jesus' enemy?

What would that lad do

with the precious sandals?

Were they just a souvenir

of a grisly spectacle

that even in a later movie age

would probably be rated "R"

for violence and brutality?

Hiding alone in the shadows

on the fringes of the crowd

he watched the Man on the cross

suffering and dying.

Without Parental Guidance

to explain the meaning

would he grasp the import

of this scandalous documentary?

Would this wide-eyed youth

understand the dreadful drama

he beheld that historic day

outside the city wall?

Would he realize God had planned

this event from Eternity?

Would God provide a mentor

to relate the significance

of the death of this Man

who took off His sandals and robe

in the Upper Room

and stooped to wash

the grimy feet of His friends?

Would he wear those sandals?

Would he dare?

Would he be found worthy

and chosen eventually

to walk in the sandals

of that Man of Galilee?

Would they be to him

like the mantle of Elijah

enduing him doubly

with power for service?

Would he wear those very sandals

to take the Good News one day

far away on missionary journeys?

YES! And he would write

for those who weren't there

those scattered everywhere

and down the corridors of time

what he had seen firsthand

with his youthful eyes

and received from the keen memory

of Peter the fisherman-disciple

for he too had known

the beloved Christ of Galilee!