Throughout Lent, I tried to focus on the concept of “joy.” In the midst of the personal sacrifices, the extra time in prayer, and the “desert” of entering a spiritual journey alone, I found sustenance in bringing my thoughts back to joy. While there were definite moments of challenge, and the voice of the devil tempting me to think negatively, my focus on that three‑letter word enabled me to recognize that Jesus was with me every step of the way. Joy blessed me with the ability to focus on the fact that personal challenges are gifts from God to help me grow in my faith and my relationship with him.

Easter Sunday arrived, and that joy was on full display. We sang “Gloria” and “Alleluia.” We broke our fasts and enjoyed celebrations with the music, foods, and activities we had put on hold during Lent. Yet the secular world—and admittedly, even our own routines of work, chores, illness, and worry—tend to thrust us back into the ordinary of life long before Ordinary Time resumes.

Danielle Bean reflects on this concept in her Easter post on Substack. She notes that as we return to our usual responsibilities and situations, we may find ourselves not feeling different or changed. Yet, whether we readily notice it or not, something radical has happened: Jesus has conquered sin and death!

Bean notes that because of our human tendency to put the celebrating aside and return to “normal,” the Church, in her wisdom, gives us 50 days to live out Easter. “Not just one beautiful Sunday, but a whole season to let the reality of the Resurrection sink in.” She suggests that we choose small ways to live like it is Easter: a quick prayer of gratitude, a moment of patience, an embracing of joy, a quiet “Alleluia” in your heart.

Dr. Tim Gray, too, reminds us that we have spent 40 days of Lent sacrificing and doing more to grow in our penitential mindset, but that the Easter season is even longer than Lent because sin and death have been defeated. As difficult as Lent can be, it can feel almost easier to focus on our sins and shortcomings than to dwell on the joy of the Resurrection, which we can almost take for granted. Dr. Gray suggests that, just as we made Lenten promises, we should also make Easter promises by adding opportunities for ourselves to experience joy each day of the Easter season, from Easter Sunday right up until the Feast of Pentecost.

Life can be busy, but training and disciplining myself to think of joy more deliberately will, I hope, develop a stronger faith within me. Inspired by the Abiding Together podcast, I purchased an Easter present for myself: a book by Laura Kelly Fanucci entitled Living Easter: 50 Days to Practice Resurrection. Each day, she provides an Easter Gospel passage, along with a reflection, a prayer, and an action item.

Fanucci begins the Easter season by reflecting on the fact that Mary Magdalene stayed with Jesus throughout his Passion and death, and was ultimately the first to greet him on Easter morning. She writes, “To be faithful—to believe—is to stay. Even when it looks like all is lost.” These statements resonate with me. To be faithful, I need to stay present to what Easter means. I need to thank God each day for his sacrifice, his conquering of death, and his divine mercy. The only way I can have even a small chance of truly being grateful is by staying in an Easter state of mind.

Thus, I aim to become an “Easter person” by embracing joy each day. As Laura Kelly Fanucci reminds us, “… the true joys of our lives do not rise and fall on the whims of any given day. Joy asks us to dig deeper for God’s presence in the unlikeliest places, and faith promises that we will find what we never expected. The joys of true friendship, fruitful work, committed love, supportive community, and gratitude for life itself—these outlast any good mood and survive every bad one. For God is the source of our delight.”

“We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song!” —St. John Paul II