Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

Villiers School

Headmistress: Ms Jill Storey

Deputy Headmistress: Ms Mary Quinn

School Secretary: Ms Janet Bray

Headmistress’ PA: Ms Michelle Tuite

Bursar: Mr Ian Jacob

Phone: 061-451447

Email: info@villiers-school.com

This publication

of Red Sokz was

written and pro-

duced by the

following stu-

dents, with guid-

ance from Ms

Phillips:

Evan Hallihan

Caitlin Ryan

Desmond

Serena Oke-

chukwu

Inside this issue:

Hockey Success

Active Schools

Spikeball Tourna-

ment

Enterprise 2018

Model United

Nations 2018

Cycle Against

Suicide Confer-

ence

Ski Trip 2018

Junk Kouture

Jokes & Riddles

Easter Recipe

What’s happen-

ing over Easter

Easter Reflection

Dear Red Sokz readers,

We are delighted to bring you another edition of our cherished Red Sokz magazine.

The academic year of 2017/18 has been jam-packed so far and it’s hard to believe

we are heading into our final term before commencing 5th Year.

Transition Year is a great year for developing different skills and becoming involved

in extra curricular activities, that many of us may not normally, have encountered.

We’ve been pony-trekking, laser-tagging, walking, lots of walking , among sampling

potential Leaving Certificate subjects, developing business ideas and representing

countries in Model United Nations, to name but a few —no wonder the time is fly-

ing by!

Of course, we’re not the only year busy this year. Our, not so little, first years com-

peted in the traditional First Year Mile this term. Huge well done to the boys: Sam

Logan, Jack Quinn and Thomas Fitzpatrick and the girls: Clara Egan, Ruby Mulhol-

land and Sinéad Brennan. Even on the final day before our Easter break, our under

15s Rugby Boys clinched a win against Nenagh to secure their place in the final of

the Cleary Cup against Clonmel on April 13th—well done boys!

In the upcoming term we’ve already two finals to attend and our TY Drama to look

forward to, which we are so excited about. We’ll tell you all about them in our con-

cluding Red Sokz, before we pass this mantle onto next year’s Transition Years. But

for now, put your feet up, get the Easter eggs in and sit back and relax while you

peruse this edition.

Happy Easter!

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

Earlier this month the Senior Hock-ey Boys got on a bus and travelled to Garryduff. There, they were striv-ing for victory to retain their title of, Munster Hockey Cup Champions.

Last year was a phenom-enal sea-son, as the Sen-

ior Boys had finally broken a long cycle of Villiers consistently being so close, yet just a little too far away to get their hands on the cup. They proudly brought the cup home last year and were eager to prove they could do it again this year.

Preparation, training and consistent commitment were evident in the Villiers Senior Boys and justly so, as it would be no easy feat to beat their opponents Newtown.

The Senior Boys were impassioned, but took the game very seriously; they gave Newtown a reason to worry when the first goal went in. Granted, the opposition did score a goal to bring it level, but this was only a small comfort for some time. In the second half, the boys were back on form, and despite good de-fence from the opposition, managed to put another ball in the back of Newtown’s net. Newtown were not ready to give up, but try as they did, they could not score again to draw the final.

The Senior Boys represented the school brilliantly. There was no jeer-ing, no fighting and no name-calling. They were the epitome of a team. They carried each other, encour-

aged each other and praised each other. They returned to Villiers with their heads held high, basking in the glory of their success. The pride of their peers, parents and teachers was palpable around our School.

An assembly was held in recognition of their success and their head coach Mr Gray, spoke fondly about his team. He acknowledged their continued effort all season and praised them as mature young men, having worked tirelessly in the face of such hardship at the beginning of the year. The Senior Boys dedicated their win to the late Neville Atkin-son, as Conor and Craig presented the cup to Ms Storey on behalf of their teammates. Well done lads!

Needless to say, the Senior Girls have been training hard all season, rain, hail or shine, with Ms Ryan every Tuesday and Thursday be-tween 5pm and 6pm. They have a considerable number of wins under their belt, resulting in an approach-ing final of their own. The date of which was recently confirmed; our girls will be ready for the showdown on Thursday 12th April, as will their loyal supporters. All we can say is keep training, best of luck and bring it home to Villiers.

Ms Sterritt kindly provided Red Sokz with an update for the Minor Hock-ey, their season has now unfortu-nately come to an end. The Minor C2's beat Crescent in an exciting cup game last week, but unfortunately lost out to Laurel Hill on Tuesday. Anna Scutz, Bianca Ma-

rais and Tory Byrne really stepped up to the mark on the day. The Minor C1's played a very ex-citing game against Laurel Hill Coláiste on Wednesday and won on strokes with goals from Aideen Howard, Marta Dominguez Salas and Clara Egan. They will play the next round after Easter and we hope that Mary, Faith, Ella, Laoise and Jill will continue to play as well as they did in Laurel Hill. The Minor B's have finished their league campaign in which they won nearly all of their games. Unfortu-nately, they lost their cup game to Crescent on Thursday. Mila Harte, Jessie Gavin and Rebecca Conway were stand out performers on the day, but the entire squad real-ly fought all the way to the end. Training will continue for one more week after Easter to help the girls that still have a game to play! Well done to all three squads for their commitment to training and for their enthusiasm throughout the season.

By Evan Hallihan

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

In previous editions, we have men-tioned our success with achieving the Active Schools Flag. We remain very proud of this achievement, as only 20% of schools (both primary and post-primary) in Limerick, cur-rently share the Active Schools sta-tus. This is a surprising figure consid-ering how important and beneficial being active really is, to students and staff alike.

As an acknowledgement to the valid-ity of the Active Schools campaign, we as a School do not want to stop now, simply because we were awarded the flag. As a result, Active Schools remains part of the TY cur-riculum in Villiers and all participants

may choose a “Year -long project” linked to being active and promoting exercise.

Transition Year students this year, teamed up with Volleyball Ireland, whose goal this year is to encourage and promote women in sport.

TY students were divided into groups and assigned responsibility to either a participating primary school or 1st year Villiers students. The primary schools involved were Meelick Na-tional School and Ballina Primary School.

The Villiers Active Schools TY stu-dents taught their assigned pupils, how to apply different skills in spike

ball such as: ‘the spike’, ‘volley’ and ‘catch and throw’. The TY students also gained

knowledge on how to be referees and scorekeepers.

A representative from Volleyball Ire-land organised a huge tournament earlier in the year between many primary schools all over Munster, who were already taught the rele-vant skills by their teachers. Based on this tournament, the Active Schools TY students applied similar principles in organising our own mini tournament for Meelick, Ballina and Villiers students.

The tournament was a great success. All of the students who participated received a certificate and the win-ners were awarded medals.

By Serena Okechukwu

Enterprise allows

the students in Transition Year to

experience what it would be like to

run a real business. This year, like

many previous, the students collab-

orate to develop some viable busi-

ness ideas.

In TY Enterprise

2018, there are a

total of six

groups, each with

their own busi-

ness venture.

Each group designed and created

their product or service, wrote a

brief portfolio outlining their ideas,

along with their costs of production

and presented these at the Enter-

prise Conference, in the South

Court Hotel.

The ideas ranged from a wedding

package [candy cart, wedding post

box and cake stand] for hire to

sweet packs for purchase and a

wooden train set, complete with

instructions for assembling. A big

thank you to Mr O’Connor and Mr

Kearsley for all their assistance and

guidance throughout the projects.

Although, none of

the groups were the outright win-

ners, Adam and Kieran did very

well coming fourth overall, with

their innovative idea of a youth’s

toolbox and mini

project, fostering

trade skills for young

boys and girls. Many

ideas have also be-

come quite fruitful

for our budding en-

trepreneurs. Just remember, Steve

Jobs did not achieve his success

without many attempts.

By Evan Hallihan

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

Model United Nations is a school trip that takes place multiple times over the school year. It has been running in Villiers for over 10 years and has had many positive outcomes to it. MUN is about young delegates from all over the world joining, to talk and debate about global problems that could range from human rights to economic affairs. Each student repre-sents their country, which they have chosen prior to the trip. However there is a catch, as your own person-al views are not necessarily relevant; the fun twist in MUN is that you have to role-play from the perspective of your chosen country. This term there were two big MUN trips for Senior Cycle students. Over 39 Transition Years and Form V students in total travelled to Poland and Prague.

Poznan was the first trip where our Form V and five of our TYs travelled. They said it was an amazing experi-ence for both the debates and out-

side in the beauti-ful scen-ery of Po-land. There

were over two hundred people at the conference both Polish and Irish. Here they discussed many current global topics, for example Counter Terrorism, from 9am-6pm.

Their days were not just filled with the conference excitement; our stu-

dents also visited the Salt Mines in Krakow and Auschwitz of course, where they heard harrowing stories about the Holocaust.

One of the most fascinating things the group came across was a fire-breathing dragon. Krakow has a leg-end about its city that a dragon would come and eat the villagers. The people of Krakow decided to make a statue to celebrate this leg-end.

The students also had the privilege to experience the Night Train. This can be a very expensive excursion; it was made feasible by the frugal research of Amelie, a member of our cleaning staff. Ms Gowing and Ms Woods would like to thank Amelie for her assistance in ensuring the students could experience this as well, within their budget.

The remaining Transition MUN stu-dents, who were not in Poland, went on the second trip to Prague. I inter-viewed one of the students who attended the trip; they said: ‘All de-bates are done in English. Each day is different. The countries who shared the same view join together and wrote a resolution, which was to compromise the views of that spe-cific topic that you had debated that day.’ They said their favourite memory of the trip were the punish-ments. Punishments consisted of people singing and dancing. ‘A group of the delegates that travelled from Villiers decided to chance their luck on Paddy’s day and asked the Chairs

if they could leave early in order to watch the Irish rugby match. The Chairs agreed, but only on condition that they sang the Irish national an-them’, which to our boys was an easy feat.

Similar the Poland trip, the students’ days were filled with debate and their evenings with sightseeing and boat tours. The students said that Prague was a beautiful city to visit and many were sad to leave.

To most of the students who trav-elled with MUN it is a life changing experience. It is a great learning curve, getting more involved with the world and certainly helps with future political careers. You can make many new friends and experience different lifestyles. I think for anyone who likes to learn new things and enjoys a challenge: MUN is a must for you.

Lucky for Villiers students, the School also gets involved with Junior MUN, which follows the same principles, but is applicable to Junior students. This year, a group travelled to Wes-ley College in Dublin with Ms Woods and Via, an experienced senior stu-dent. The Junior MUN candidates partook in some vibrant debating and did very well.

By Caitlin Ryan Desmond

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

The Community Group is a group of TY students responsible for creating a brighter atmosphere in the Vil-liers campus. They traditionally support multiple charities, but in particular Zest 4 Kidz, a charity ded-icated to helping less fortunate chil-dren in Uganda by building a hospi-tal and supplying the money for operations. It is a group I am very proud to be a part of this year.

On the 17th and 18th of January, the Community Group attended a con-ference in the 3Arena, Dublin. We initially arrived in the Zest 4 Kidz Offices, where Bob and John (members of Zest 4 Kidz) greeted us. We practised a version of our video for the conference, but not before Bob and John through us a mini party and gave a presentation on the reasons for founding Zest 4 Kidz.

Our overnight halt was the magnifi-cent Brays Hotel in Co. Wicklow. Following rest and a five star break-fast, we arrived at the conference at 9:55, where we mingled with over 7,000 students and witnessed an interesting array of speakers. Some schools, including Villiers, performed on stage and received applaud from the awestruck audi-

ence.

Kevin Hynes delivered a speech about his near death

experience atop the Golden Gate

Bridge. He expressed that he be-lieved he proba-bly would not have gone to that extent, if someone had just asked him if he was okay.

In addition to Kevin, we heard from a college graduate who had eye trouble earlier in life and she ex-plains how people used to bully and pick on her, but that only moti-vated her further. Two Olympic gold and silver medallists spoke about the value of forming bonds and teamwork, while a clip showing their victory in the 2012 Olympics was playing.

Other noteworthy speakers includ-ed two hurlers from the Galway Hurling Team. This was very striking in a sense, because they seemed very relatable to many in our group. One of them spoke about his gambling problem in his teen years, which lead to him spending all his money on making bets in his local bookmakers. He explained that he felt he could not reach out to anyone he knew, friends or fami-ly, as he thought they would disap-prove of his actions. The second hurler gave an account of how he descended into a depression; he would not be as confident in his ability as he used to be, he would avoid friends and family where pos-sible and he would not meet his friends for a tea or coffee anymore.

Regardless of the speaker, regard-

less of the problem, regardless of the background, they all sent out the same message: Its OK not to feel ok and its definitely ok to ask for help.

The trip was overall a worthwhile a tremendous success, a testament to the Villiers Community Group and I hope next years’ Community Group gets to experience it as well. On behalf of this years’ Community Group, I would like to thank Mrs Janet Bray for accompanying us and also Mr Jackie McNair for facili-tating and organising the whole trip.

Since the con-ference in Dub-lin , the Com-munity Group

have been involved in a number of

different activities. We had a very successful, orange-themed bake sale , to raise money and aware-ness for the Cycle Against Suicide Campaign.

In addition, we also teamed up with the Kindness Committee’s Colour’s Day fundraiser, for Beaumont Hos-pital and encouraged students and staff to wear bright colours, pro-moting positivity around Villiers. After all, we are all in this together! Happy Easter :)

By Evan Hallihan

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

The annual ski trip was anticipated

greatly and executed perfectly this

year, like always. This year we spent

eight eventful days in Madonna di

Campiglio, in the North of Italy

which might I add, was a very beau-

tiful and picturesque place. The

stunning snow-capped mountains

and clear blue skies, created the

perfect place to ski.

We began our journey midday on

Sunday to Dublin airport and arrived

in Milan late that night, where we

got on bus up the mountain. At

1:30am we arrived at our ski resort

with tired heads, however nobody’s

face shone of anything other than

excitement, as we saw the fluffy

layer of snow.

Despite rising early for lessons and

exhausted from the previous night

of travelling, we all managed to sur-

vive the next day of skiing and

snowboarding. Over two thirds of

this year’s group were complete

beginners and I’m proud to say, by

the end of the week we all came

home “professional skiers” (or so

we’d argue anyway).

While our days were filled with ski-

ing lessons, our nights were packed

with fun activities organised by the

teachers who came along. From

discos, to late night snow walks, Di

Campiglio has left its mark on all

who visited and of course, who can

forget the highlight of all the ski

trips, the famous Talent Show. It

was a memorable night for most,

with fantastic dance moves and un-

forgettable voices, not to mention

the hilarious dance routine another

school from London, who we shared

to resort with, had performed.

But as life goes, all good things must

come to an end, too soon if you ask

me. Thankfully we have next year to

look forward to. Everyone has al-

ready started to sign up for The Ski

Trip 2019. If you have any queries

about the ski trip next year, Mr Sad-

dlier will be very happy to answer

any question.

By Caitlin Ryan Desmond

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

Junk Kou-

ture is a

national

contest held

throughout

Ireland,

Northern Ireland and Scotland. The

aim is to create eye- catching cou-

ture outfits, made from everyday

‘junk’ that you’d normally find in the

bin. Thousands of second level stu-

dents from across Ireland, submit

their recycled designs in the hopes

of being crowned champion.

The procedure is always time con-

suming, each group has approxi-

mately five months to make an

outfit out of recycled materials, as

well as take photos of their designs

and submit ten pictures with their

write-up, which must include the

theme, materials

and concept of their dress.

This year, Villiers entered seven

groups into the nationwide competi-

tion. During the February midterm,

two dresses from Villiers: Pava Blan-

ca and Seneoires Dragones success-

fully made it straight through to the

semi-finals. All the other dresses

were put into the voting system

(similar to a wild-card entry) with

highest voted joining the other semi-

finalists. One of our own dresses

Silver Blossom came 5th in the south-

ern region voting rounds with over

5.4k votes, but unfortunately it was

not enough to get a third Villiers

dress through.

The semi-finals took place in the

University Concert Hall, Limerick.

We had an incredible night, Amy and

Rebecca represented their teams

and the School excellently, as they

performed

in their

dresses, on

stage. Un-

fortunately,

neither

dress made the cut into the finals

held in Dublin, but we are all very

proud of all the Villiers entrants.

Being involved in Junk Kouture my-

self this year, I can vouch for the

time, effort and commitment re-

quired for the completion of one

dress, never mind seven. On behalf

of all of the students involved in

Junk Kouture, I would like to thank

Ms O’Brien and Ms Mahon for lend-

ing materials to the groups and most

importantly, Ms Thornton for her

much appreciated help, her patience

and her endless enthusiasm which

got us all through to making such

incredible dresses.

By Serena Okechukwu

Q: Did you hear about the two

giraffes racing?

A: It was neck and neck!

Q: Did you hear about the man who proposed to his

girlfriend in the garage?

A: He couldn’t back out of it!

Q: What tables does a pupil not have to learn?

A: Dinner tables!

Q: How do parents know their children are teenagers?

A: When they look at their monthly phone bill!

Q: Why should you have a dog if you also have a teen?

A: So you have one person who’s happy to see you!

Q: What’s the highest form of flattery?

A: A plateau!

Q: You are running a race and pass the guy in

second place. What place are you in now?

A: Second. You never passed the guy who

was in first!

Q: Imagine you are in a dark room. How do you get out?

A: Stop imagining!

Q: You answer me, but I never ask you a question. What am I?

A: A telephone!

Q: What can travel around the world while stating in a corner?

A: A stamp!

Q: A man without eyes saw plums in a tree. He neither took

plums, nor left plums, how can this be?

A: The man had one eye and there were two plums in the tree –

he took one. By Evan Hallihan

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

You will need:

• Disposable piping bags for a

really neat chocolate drizzle

on top

• 7” cake tin with removable

bottom

Ingredients:

For the base:

• 300olate digestive biscuits

• 150g unsalted butter

For the cheesecake:

• 600ml double cream

• 150g icing sugar

• 560g cream cheese

• 1/2 lemon (just the juice)

• 267g Mini Cadburys Crème

Eggs (cut into quarters)

To decorate:

• 3 Cadbury Crème Eggs

• 150g white chocolate

• 75g milk chocolate

• Yellow gel colouring

Method:

1. Finely crush the biscuits

2. Melt the butter, mix in with the crushed biscuits and press into a

cake tin with the removable bottom

3. Beat the double cream with the icing sugar until it forms soft,

floppy peaks

4. Very gently fold the cream cheese, lemon juice and chopped mini

Crème Eggs into the cream until everything is combined—you can

add more lemon juice if you prefer a stronger flavour

5. Top the biscuit base and level out

6. Leave to firm up in the fridge for at least 3hours or overnight

7. Remove from the tin by running a slim, sharp knife around the

edge and popping it out

8. Melt your milk chocolate, allow to cool for 5 minutes and then

drizzle over the top

9. Melt your white chocolate, allow to cool for 5 minutes and drizzle

half over the top

10. Colour the remaining half of the white chocolate with a little yel-

low gel colour and drizzle over the top

11. Unwrap and cut the remaining Crème Eggs in half—sit on top to

decorate

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

1: Panoramic Wheel (Limerick’s answer to the London Eye). Dates: Saturday the 10th of March- Sun-day the 15th of April Opening hours: 12pm-9pm Location: Arthur’s Quay Park Fee: Adult € 4.50; Child €3.50

Staying at home this Easter? Well, there’s plenty going on right here in Limerick! Have a look at the happen-

ings of our grand city below.

2: Limerick's Family Easter Festival A three hour long event with food and drink, live music, entertainment for the family and to mention the biggest Easter egg hunt in Limerick Dates: Thursday 29th, Friday 30th & Sat-urday 31st MARCH Location: Milk market Fee: Free

4: Buttercup Farm is an old traditional

farm in the heart of the Golden Vale

near Croom. It is a perfect place for a

family outing over the Easter break.

Here you can enjoy delicious home-

made desserts and drink refreshments

in the charming tearooms. They also

have animals like cattle, pigs, duck,

sheep and even peacocks that you can

feed and pet. Every year Buttercup farm holds a special

event that takes place over the Easter break. “Easter down

on the farm” is where you can join

the Easter Bunny and all the fluffy

animals on the farm for an Easter egg

hunt over

the Easter

3:Art Exhibition ‘Approach’ is an exhibition of artwork painted by the 2nd year students of Limer-ick School of Art and De-sign are being displayed in the Hunt Museum. Dates: Friday 23rd March 2018 /Sunday 15th

6: April is Poetry Month - Limerick Writers Festival. April is the best month to write poetry according to many famous poets. It is an inspirational time of year. Limerick is hosting a poetry festival to represent this time. The event will carry out on Sunday the 1st - Mon-day the 30th . Festival Programme of Events Tues 3rd April 8pm - ‘On the Nail’ with Sarah Clancy and Stephen Mur-phy, Chez le Fab, Arthurs Quay Park. Thurs 5th April 7.30pm - Gerry Hanberry 'The Poetry of Bob Dylan', Limer-ick City Library. Mon 9th April 7.30pm - Polish Poetry in translation, Nelly's Corner, Nicho-las Street. Thurs 12th April 7.30pm - Great Writers: The Romantics with John McDonagh, Limerick City Library. Tues 13th April 7.30pm - John Liddy Book launch (in tandem with Knute Skinners book launch), St Munchin’s Church. Sun 15th April 3pm to 6pm - John Spillane song writing work-shop, Steamboat Music (followed at 9pm by a free concert by John in Charlie Malones, Wolfe Tone Street) Mon 16th April 7.30pm - Reading: John Liddy; Tim Cunningham, Eoin Dev-ereux, Chez le Fab, Arthurs Quay Park. Thurs 19th April 7.30pm - Eoin Devereux in conversation with poet Kevin Higgins, Limerick City Library. Thurs 19th April 9am to 6pm - Poetry in Motion Conference at MIC with Paul McNamara. Fri 20th April 12pm - Poetry and Painting with artist Kate Hennessy. CB1, O’Connell Street. Mon 23rd April 3pm - World Book day event Arthurs Quay Shopping Cen-tre. Mon 23rd April 7.30pm - UK poet Helen Mort reading with Edward O’Dwyer, Narrative 4, O’Connell Street. Thurs 26th April 1pm - Lunchtime National Poetry Day reading at the Hunt Museum. Thurs 26th April 6.30pm - 8pm - ‘On the Nail at the Library’ with Jacquel-ine Saphra and Ron Carey, Limerick City Library. Sat 28th April 10.30am - 12.30pm - Poetry Writing for Older people with Ron Carey, Limerick Writers’ Centre. Mon 30th April 7.30pm - Limericks Slam ‘The News gets Verse’, Nellys Corner Café. Cash prize for winner. Limerick Poetry Wall - 30 poems 30 days

By Caitlin Ryan Desmond

Follow us: @VilliersSchool & www.villiers-school.com

The Season of Eastertide

I was asked a very interesting question recently, namely, ‘how long does Easter last?’ This may sound

strange to some because we live in an increasingly secular world where Easter Sunday is when we get choco-

late and lasts for a single day. Which religious season is longer, Christmas or Easter?

Well, Easter Sunday is just one day, while there are 12 days of Christmas. Yes and no. The Christmas season

actually lasts 40 days, from Christmas Day until Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation, on February 2. The

12 days of Christmas refer to the most festive part of the season, from Christmas Day until Epiphany.

The Easter season or Eastertide lasts for fifty days, until Pentecost, and goes from 1st April to 20th May this

year. The Fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or

better as one "great Sunday." These above all others are the days for the singing of the Alleluia. On the forti-

eth day after Easter, the Ascension is celebrated. This solemnity directs our attention to Christ, who ascend-

ed into heaven and who is now seated at the right hand of the Father. The weekdays after the Ascension

until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Para-

clete. This sacred season of fifty days ends on Pentecost Sunday, which commemorates the giving of the Ho-

ly Spirit to the apostles, the beginnings of the Church and its mission to every people and nation. Easter is

also more than just an extended celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. In the early church, Lent was a sea-

son for new converts to learn about the faith and prepare for baptism on Easter Sunday. The initial purpose

of the 50-day Easter season was to continue the faith formation of new Christians. Today, this extended sea-

son gives us time to rejoice and experience what it means when we say Christ is risen. It is the season, when

we remember our baptisms and how through this sacrament we are, according to the liturgy, “incorporated

into Christ’s mighty acts of salvation.” As “Easter people,” we also celebrate and ponder the birth of the

Church, gifts of the Spirit (Pentecost) and how we are to live as faithful Disciples of Christ. I have come to

believe that, in many ways, Easter gets short shrift in our churches and in our modern world. As a result, we

miss some of the richness and joy of a full Easter celebration. However, I believe that if we extend our cele-

brations of Easter to a yearly season, the result can be a more vital and jubilant faith. For example, if Lent is

a season for fasting or giving up something, Easter is a season for feasting or adding something positive to

your life. Therefore, if you gave up something for Lent, in Eastertide you might intentionally enjoy the good-

ness of life and remember that joy of your life. Easter is a time to affirm the delight of a God-given life. So

Happy Easter to one and all!!!

Blessings and peace,

Chaplain Jackie McNair