Poll: Most Americans Celebrate Easter

63% Say They Will Attend Church Services

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, APRIL 10, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Nearly two-thirds of Americans will be attending Church services this Easter, according to a poll released by the Knights of Columbus.

The fraternal organization released on Thursday the results of a poll conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

Of those surveyed, 63% said they plan to observe Easter by attending a Church service. Among Catholics, 74% said they would attend a service.

Seventy percent identified Easter as the most important, or one of the most important, religious holidays. Of the practicing Catholics polled, 80% said the same.

The poll also found that 86% of Americans and 89% of Catholic Americans correctly identify Easter as the celebration of Christ's resurrection.

"This data shows very clearly that Americans and American Catholics have a very deep-rooted faith," said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. "In their the celebration of Christ's resurrection on Easter, Americans reconnect to the
faith that has been handed down to them over thousands of years, and continues today to be a source of great hope."

In addition, 34% said they prepared for Easter by observing the solemn season of Lent -- the traditional 40 days of penance and reflection
Leading up to Easter Sunday. Of the practicing Catholics polled, 77% said they observed Lent.

The survey polled 2,078 Americans and 521 Catholics from March 24 to March 31.

Divine Mercy In my soul

Notebook I

(continued)

Vilnius August 2, 1934. On Friday, after Holy Communion, I was carried in spirit before the throne of God. There I saw the heavenly powers which incessantly praise God. Beyond the throne I saw a brightness inaccessible to creatures, and there only the Incarnate Word enters as Mediator. When Jesus entered this light, I heard these words, "Write down at once what you hear: I am the Lord in My essence and am immune to orders or needs. If I call creatures into being - that is the abyss of My mercy." And at that very moment I found myself, as before, in our chapel at my kneeler, just as Mass had ended. I already had these words written.

(Once) when I saw how much my confessor (probably Father Sopocko) was to suffer because of this work which God was going to carry out through him, fear seized me for the moment, and I said to the Lord: "Jesus, this is Your affair, so why are You acting this way toward him? It seems to me that You are making difficulties for him while at the same time ordering him to act."

"Write that by day and by night My gaze is fixed upon him, and I permit these adversities in order to increase his merit. I do not reward for good results but for the patience and hardship undergone for My sake."

Vilnius October 26, 1934. On Friday at ten minutes to six, when I and some of our wards were coming in from the garden to supper, I saw the Lord Jesus above our chapel, looking just as He did the first time I saw Him and just as He is painted in the image. The two rays which emanated from the Heart of Jesus covered our chapel and the infirmary, and then the whole city, and spread over the whole world. One of the girls who was walking with me a little behind the others, also saw these rays, but she did not see Jesus, and she did not know where these rays were coming from. She was overwhelmed and told the other girls. They began to laugh at her, suggesting that she was imagining things or perhaps it was light reflected by a passing airplane. But she persisted in her conviction, saying that never had she seen such rays before. When the others suggested that it might have been a searchlight, she replied that she knew very well what a searchlight was like, but never had she seen rays such as these.

After supper the girl approached me and told me she had been so moved by these rays that she could not keep silent, but wanted to tell everyone about them. Yet she had not seen Jesus. She kept telling me about these rays, and this put me in an awkward situation, as I could not tell her that I had seen the Lord Jesus. I prayed for her, asking the Lord to give her those graces of which she had such need. My heart rejoiced in the fact that Jesus takes the initiative to make Himself known, even though the occasion of such action on His part causes me annoyance. For Jesus, one can bear anything.

During adoration I felt God close to me. A moment later I saw Jesus and Mary. At the sight of them I was filled with joy, and I asked the Lord, "What is Your will Jesus, concerning the matter about which my confessor told me to ask You? Jesus replied, "It is My will that he should remain here and that he should not take the initiative of dispensing himself." I asked Jesus whether the inscription could be: "Christ King of Mercy." He answered, "I am King of Mercy," but he did not say "Christ". I desire that this image be displayed in public on the first Sunday after Easter. That Sunday is the Feast of Mercy. Through the Word Incarnate I make known the bottomless depths of My mercy."

Strangely, all things came about just as the Lord had requested. In fact, it was on the first Sunday after Easter (April 1935) that the image was publicly honored by crowds of people for the first time. For three days it was exposed and received public veneration. Since it was placed at the very top of a window at Rostra Drama (Shrine of Our Lady above the "Eastern Gate" to the city of Vilnius), it could be seen from a great distance. At Rostra Drama, during these three days, the closing of the Jubilee of the Redemption of the World was being celebrated, marking the nineteenth hundred years that have passed since the Passion of our Savior. I see now that the work of Redemption is bound up with the work of mercy requested by the Lord.

(Note Book 1- to be continued)

Papal Address at End of Way of the Cross

"Gaze on the Lifeless Face of the Crucified One"

ROME, APRIL 10, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a transcription and translation of the reflection Benedict XVI offered today at the end of the Way of the Cross in the Roman Colosseum.

* * *

At the end of his dramatic Passion narrative, the Evangelist Saint Mark tells us: "The centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, and said: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’" (Mk 15:39). We cannot fail to be surprised by the profession of faith of this Roman soldier, who had been present throughout the various phases of the Crucifixion. When the darkness of night was falling on that Friday so unlike any other in history, when the sacrifice of the Cross was already consummated and the bystanders were making haste to celebrate the Jewish Passover in the usual way, these few words, wrung from the lips of a nameless commander in the Roman army, resounded through the silence that surrounded that most singular death. This Roman army officer, having witnessed the execution of one of countless condemned prisoners, was able to recognize in this crucified man the Son of God, who had perished in the most humiliating abandonment. His shameful end ought to have marked the definitive triumph of hatred and death over love and life. But it was not so! Hanging from the Cross on Golgotha was a man who was already dead, but that man was acknowledged to be the "Son of God" by the centurion, "on seeing that he thus breathed his last", as the Evangelist specifies.

We are reminded of this soldier’s profession of faith every time we listen anew to Saint Mark’s Passion account. This evening, like the centurion, we pause to gaze on the lifeless face of the Crucified One at the conclusion of this traditional Via Crucis which, through radio and television coverage, has brought many people together from every part of the world. We have re-lived the tragic event of a man unique in the history of all times, who changed the world not by killing others but by letting himself be killed as he hung from a cross. This man, seemingly one of us, who while he was being killed forgave his executioners, is the "Son of God", who, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant … he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:7-8).

The anguish of the Passion of the Lord Jesus cannot fail to move to pity even the most hardened hearts, as it constitutes the climax of the revelation of God’s love for each of us. Saint John observes: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16). It is for love of us that Christ dies on the cross! Throughout the course of the millennia, a great multitude of men and women have been drawn deeply into this mystery and they have followed him, making in their turn, like him and with his help, a gift to others of their own lives. They are the saints and the martyrs, many of whom remain unknown to us. Even in our own time, how many people, in the silence of their daily lives, unite their sufferings with those of the Crucified One and become apostles of a true spiritual and social renewal! What would man be without Christ? Saint Augustine observes: "You would still be in a state of wretchedness, had He not shown you mercy. You would not have returned to life, had He not shared your death. You would have passed away had He not come to your aid. You would be lost, had He not come" (Discourse 185:1). So why not welcome him into our lives?

Let us pause this evening to contemplate his disfigured face: it is the face of the Man of sorrows, who took upon himself the burden of all our mortal anguish. His face is reflected in that of every person who is humiliated and offended, sick and suffering, alone, abandoned and despised. Pouring out his blood, he has rescued us from the slavery of death, he has broken the solitude of our tears, he has entered into our every grief and our every anxiety.

Brothers and Sisters! As the Cross rises up on Golgotha, the eyes of our faith are already turned towards the dawning of the new Day, and we begin to taste the joy and splendour of Easter. "If we have died with Christ", writes Saint Paul, "we believe that we shall also live with Him" (Rom 6:8). In this certainty, let us continue our journey. Tomorrow, on Holy Saturday, we will watch and pray together with Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, and we will pray with all who are suffering; we will pray above all with those who suffer in L'Aquila, hit by the earthquake. We will pray so that in this dark night, the star of hope will appear to them, the light of the Risen Lord.

I wish all of you, even now, a Happy Easter in the light of the Risen Lord!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Divine Mercy in My Soul

Poll: Most Americans Celebrate Easter

Papal Address at End of Way of the Cross