Buona Pasqua!

Even though it's part of the culture and people probably don't believe everything they talk about, I appreciate the Catholic traditions here on holidays. The last one was Santa Margherita day, the patron saint of Cortona. I don't pray to the saints or worship them, but their lives (at least the ones told in stories passed down) are inspiration for how I would like to be remembered after I die. Today is Easter, so this past Friday was Good Friday and there was a procession through town stopping at each church to pick up a statue of the suffering Christ. There are photos on my facebook, it would take too long to upload them all! It ended at Piazza Repubblica in the center of town. There was a skit with Mary and Jesus, and the Archbishop spoke. The statues of Christ were displayed in the piazza. After studying tons of paintings from before and during the Renaissance, I understand the purpose of how they painted. It wasn't to say: "this is exactly what the scene would look like if you were there." The paintings might look a little awkward because people don't usually stand symmetrically on two sides of something in a 3/4 view away from who they're looking at... BUT the point is all the symbolism in each figure as reminders to the viewer. That might be a vague explanation but it would take too long to explain further. Anyways, all these traditions like the Good Friday procession with statues of suffering Christ, Saturday midnight mass where they run through the church with the resurrected Christ statue right at midnight, Easter mass... have all been reminders to me of God's grace and Jesus' suffering to cover my sin. Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ is risen!

"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
Romans 5:6-11

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."
1 Tim 1:17