Hello everyone!  I hope that you are well and keeping safe.  We are here already on the third Sunday of Easter.  If you are like me these days just seem to blend  together.  Our gospel passage this Sunday is taken from Luke, chapter 24.  It is the famous encounter between the risen Lord with two of his disciples walking away from Jerusalem going to a village named Emmaus.  I bet we all could tell this story by heart because it means so much to us.

Here are three things I really appreciate about this story, this encounter.  First, it appears to me that the disciples were very  disappointed and were returning to what they knew and how they lived before they met the Lord.   Jesus, it would appear to them, was a big let down.  How often I have allowed myself to get discouraged because things didn’t go as I expected.  How many missed opportunities all because I gave up.  Secondly, it is such a great detail that Luke includes in that they didn’t recognize him at first.  Doesn’t that make sense when they already gave up on Jesus?  How often has it happened in your life that you develop a certain way of looking at things so much so that you don’t see many other things.  When you think about the healings of the blind men in the gospels, they were never simply healed for restoring one’s normal sight; they were grace-filled encounters that helped those formerly blind to see what God wanted them to see.  To see things in a new light.  Not so with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.  They were going back to the way they used to see.  But then, how their eyes were opened when Jesus broke the bread!  Their new sight was restored in the beautiful gift of the eucharist.  They recognized him! Beautiful!

And finally, we read how they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem to meet up with fellow disciples and join in the proclamation, “The Lord has been truly raised and has appeared to Simon!”  Their eyes, their lives were never going to be the same as they now bore witness to the risen Christ.  We might pray today and every day the refrain of that wonderful song, “Open the eyes of  my heart, Lord!”  God bless everyone!

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Blood is still urgently needed during the crisis, and donors can now help in a safe way and during a time that works for them.  With blood donations falling by 75% as a result of blood drive cancellations, the NY Blood Center has increased the capacity at its Donor Centers by expanding their hours of operation and adding additional days. They also provide for more physical space between donors, have reduced the number of donors per hour, and take several additional sanitary measures and precautions regarding both donors and staff. In order to control donor flow, appointments must be made and walk-ins will be not accepted until further notice.

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