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Showing posts with the label symbols

Signs and Symbols

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 Photo (c) 2016 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas Long before her death, my mother told me that the yellow butterfly was her sign or symbol.  She said, "When you see a yellow butterfly, it will be me."  After her death, a yellow butterfly has visited me often.  The serendipity of these sightings is often so poignant as to bring me to tears.  Skeptics, on the other hand, tell us that we see signs and symbols because we want to see them. They say that our need to have some kind of proof causes us to find an answer where there really isn't one. This may be, however, there are times when things happen, when signs appear where the variables are simply too high to brush off as matter of fact. In my life, I have found signs and symbols that could not be reasoned away on multiple occasions. Allow me to give you an example of the most recent event.  My daughter and family were on a river in Maine with her husband's sister and her family. The boys were playi...

What Is Holy Week?

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Christians around the world will begin observance of the holiest of weeks in the Christian calendar - Holy Week .  Like many of our feasts, some of the history of Holy Week has been forgotten, as have the rites and rituals observed.  Why do people get palms on Palm Sunday?  What is Maundy Thursday all about?  Why do the symbols of lambs, eggs and flowers surround Easter? Historically, Holy Week or Easter Week as some call it, is the remembrance of the time that Jesus of Nazareth joined with his disciples to celebrate the Jewish feast of Passover, was arrested, tried and executed.  This week culminates in the holiest of holy days, Easter - the day of the resurrection of Jesus. Symbolically, Holy Week is filled with imagery, the meaning of which has been forgotten by many.  Palms have long been a symbol of life, rebirth or resurrection. They are used on Palm Sunday as foreshadowing for Easter Sunday. Maundy Thursday gets its name from the new comma...