I am grateful and thankful for the wonderful week we had at Monticello First UMC during Holy Week & Easter. There was good attendance at our annual Holy Week services. It was good to worship together with our other Christian communities of faith as we gathered to reflect upon the final week of our Lord’s human journey to the cross. Our guest preachers all shared the messages that God had placed on their hearts with us and each of them did an excellent job. The special music that was shared with all of us in attendance was beautiful. I am always amazed that in our small town we have so many persons who have been blessed with outstanding musical talents. All of those who spoke or sang were a blessing to all of us.
           The after-service luncheons were also a real blessing to all who attended these special services. Worship, the Word and the music, feeds our souls. But, we also need to feed our bodies. The ladies of Monticello First UMC always do an excellent job preparing a variety of foods during Holy Week. It is also gratifying that the Presbyterian ladies share their culinary talents and foods with us. I appreciate all the efforts made by the ladies to prepare and present these luncheons during Holy Week. I am very aware of the work that is required to make this event possible. Once again, thank you for your many talents and work.
           Our community wide Easter Sunrise service was very well attended. By actual count we had 157 in attendance at 7 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning. The weather was quite good if a little cloudy. However, the temperature was quite pleasant. The ministers from various local churches all did a good job – none of them spoke too long – and shared their perspectives on the Resurrection of our Lord. The music was also quite good. Thanks to all who participated and to all those who came. A special thank you to Ken and Carol Horton and to Joneen for being here at 5:30 a.m. to help set up the chairs and the sound system for this service. I was grateful, and relieved to see them. Setting up for the service, and putting everything back in its proper place afterwards is one of those unseen parts of any special service.
           Our regular Sunday morning worship service was well attended, with almost 60 in attendance. Our numbers would have been better if I had made it clear that we would also have our regular morning worship even though we had an early morning service. Oh well, live and learn. We also had real communion on Easter Sunday. By that I mean we did not use those little cups with a mini-wafer and a sip of terrible tasting grape juice for communion. We actually had real communion wafers and real (fresh) grape juice. We also used our beautiful silver communion service and came to the chancel rail for communion. Some of us knelt and others were a little unsure of what to do about kneeling to receive Holy Communion. I am aware that it has been at least 5 years, thanks to Covid, since we have had communion the proper way. I was a little rusty myself conducting the service, we will all get back into the regular way to have communion. It will just take practice. God willing, we will be discontinuing use of the little packaged communion cups, except for carrying communion to the sick.
           I hope that you and your families had a very blessed and happy Easter. May we remember every day that, He Lives!
 
Grace and Peace, Ben