A Gift With Nowhere to Go + Next Week’s Gospel Reflection
When sorrow and resurrection sit side by side, followed by NEXT Sunday’s Gospel reflection and discussion questions
Note From Me: A Gift With Nowhere to Go
I started making my father-in-law an Easter basket weeks ago. Just a small one, some bright paper grass, a few treats, and a package of Reese’s eggs, his favorite.
But he died the Wednesday before Easter, and now his basket sits on my desk, a gift with nowhere to go.
After his death, everything blurred together. Funeral plans and Easter plans. Grief and celebration. Loss and resurrection. It felt disorienting at first, almost wrong, somehow, to be moving between such extremes. But in the simple beauty of the funeral Mass we celebrated on Easter Thursday, something settled into place:
We cannot understand the Resurrection without death. And it is only the Resurrection that gives us hope in the face of death. These things belong together.
In the days leading up to the funeral, our home was full of family, voices, hugs, and the steady hum of people coming and going. All of our kids were here, which felt like a fleeting gift wrapped inside the sadness.
For a couple of hours following the funeral reception, I found myself alone in my house. I turned on some quiet music. I gathered dirty towels and threw them in the washer. I filled the dishwasher, scrubbed the sink, and poured a cup of coffee and carried it out to the front steps.
I sat on the worn wood and exhaled. Sunshine warmed my shoulders and a soft breeze fluttered through the trees. I smiled at the sound of peepers in our pond. They were raucous. So loud, so insistent, like they had something urgent to say about the world.
Spring is waking up here in New Hampshire. The woods are filled with pussywillows and chattering birds leaping from branch to branch. Everywhere, small signs of life return.
It feels like mercy. It feels like joy.
With grace,
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Sunday Gospel Reflection: When You Don’t Recognize Him
Gospel for Sunday, April 19, 2026
Luke 24:13-35
There is something deeply comforting about this Gospel. Even the closest followers of Jesus can walk with Him and not realize it.
Two disciples are leaving Jerusalem, walking away from the place where everything fell apart. Their words say it all: “We were hoping…” Hope, in the past tense. They are disappointed, confused, and grieving. And Jesus meets them right there, in the middle of their discouragement.
But notice how He meets them.
