Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
History and Religion
As Easter Follows Lent

As Easter Follows Lent

Last updated on: April 7, 2026 at 1:34 am by Mary Pezzulo

0 Comments

As Easter Follows Lent 2026-04-07T01:34:19-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

graves with broken headstones from a local graveyard

image by Mary Pezzulo

They discovered graves on the hillside just down the street.

Down on the south end of LaBelle, just behind the laundromat, construction workers tore up the vacant lot that’s been empty for as long as I’ve lived here. I was sorry, because there’s so little nature here in LaBelle. I wish they’d let every vacant lot grow up wild and turn back into prairie, but of course, they can’t. Workmen came in their noisy excavators and flayed away the grass and weeds, leaving a strip of copper-colored mud. And then their work halted suddenly, because they found the graves of six people, two of them children.

These were graves from the 1860s, which is really not remarkably old. The state of Ohio is two hundred twenty-three years old, the city of Steubenville is one year younger, and humans have been living and dying in Ohio since 500 BC or earlier. The first things the settlers saw when they got to the Ohio river valley, were mounds where the prehistoric Americans had buried their dead. You’ll find little churchyards dotted with graves everywhere around here, even when the actual churches have been torn down. Still, it was a little unsettling to think that there had been 160-year-old bodies lying under the crabgrass in a lot I’ve walked beside many times, with nobody remembering them.

The construction site has stood vacant and quiet ever since the discovery.

I saw it as I drove out of town for my hike. The soil was bare and muddy, with pink flags stuck in the spots where the graves had been found, as if they were decorated for Easter.

I stopped to get gas within sight of Union Cemetery, where the Civil War veterans are buried. I drove west, past Mount Calvary cemetery where the Catholics are buried, past the B’nai Israel Jewish cemetery. I passed the stone marker outside the Methodist church, where Morgan’s Raiders shot a farmer’s wife dead through a second story window in 1863. I passed the Fort Steuben burial estates and kept driving, all the way down Route 43, to get to the lake. Driving to Jefferson Lake State park was like driving back in time: from the chain fast food restaurants at the Wintersville shopping center, through the respectable 1950s housing development, then suddenly through farmland with modest clapboard houses that look like something out of a history book. And then I was at the park, at the lake all rich and murky with duckweed, screaming with the songs of a thousand spring peepers, so far away from town it felt as if the human race didn’t even exist.

It had been raining for days. The earth was so muddy, I could barely find a place to step. Wind troubled the normally placid surface of the lake, and the crick swelled well over her banks.

I trudged down the lake trail, my feet squelching in every puddle. The sides of the trail were dotted with violets, a symbol of faithfulness, and Spring Beauty, a symbol of hope. Up above me soared a turkey vulture, a bird which is supposed to be a grim harbinger of death, but I rather like them. They look majestic from a distance and are comfortingly ugly up close. Trees were just beginning to get their buds, and the moss was so green it didn’t even look real. Being in a place so full of life on Good Friday seemed scandalous, somehow. Still this has become my tradition. On Holy Thursday and in the Holy Night that Saturday, I go to Mass. On Good Friday, I go find a place to pray in nature.

Sometimes, when I pray in nature, I feel peace, but just then I didn’t. All I could feel was worry– about the state of the country and the world, the wars breaking out all around. About what’s going to happen tomorrow and the day after that. About what’s going to happen to Adrienne and the gang of funny classmates who are graduating from the eighth grade in just a few weeks. And to the children at the church outreach, and to Jimmy’s boy, the Baker Street Irregulars, the Artful Dodgers, and even the Lost Children who I haven’t seen in years. To all those children in other parts of the world, whose names I don’t know, who are already suffering and dying. If it was just me who was going to suffer, I wouldn’t mind so much. But I cannot stand the thought of children suffering.

The world is so cruel, and it’s getting crueler.

I rounded the bend in the trail by the crick, which was high and noisy. If it had been a little later in the year, I’d have taken off my shoes and waded, but I knew the water would be ice cold in early April. I stood on the bridge, leaning on the railing, watching the water flow, to try to ground myself, but it didn’t work.

Suppose when I got out of the park, back to where my phone could get a signal, I found out there’d been a catastrophe? Suppose Jimmy’s boy’s terrible premonition had come true, and there was a nuclear war? No one would drop a nuke on a ridiculous little steel mill town in Northern Appalachia, but the thought of that almost made it worse. I’d far rather be vaporized by surprise one day, then sit in relative safety, watching the whole earth descend into hell. I’d rather die than watch other people die. If I could take all the suffering in the world on myself, I would.

I guess that’s a sign that God hasn’t abandoned me. I am a Christian, and I believe that God Himself had the same instinct. The Son of God descended into hell to stop others from having to go there, and to free the people who were there already. Whatever our differences, on that issue, we see eye to eye.

I trudged uphill, where the mud was much less thick. As I trudged, I went from fear to anger, and grumbled under my breath. Lately, I haven’t been so angry with God, for stranding me in Northern Appalachia, and for all the unpleasant adventures I’ve had there. But just at that moment, my heart exploded with anger again– about my own life first, and then about all the lives all over the world that are upended by misfortune. And I let the Father know how I felt.

Even more flowers lined the path, like the trim on the bottom of a royal robe. Up above, the sky was glorious, and the trees were flecked with the first buds of their leaves. A world so beautiful had no business being so terrible. A God Who made springtime had no right to also make human beings to muck up the face of the earth.

Down the trail went, on a grade so steep I practically had to slide on my back. At the bottom, it was muddy again. No matter how hard I tried to stay out of the wettest places, it was no use. Before long, my shoes and socks were neatly coated with red-brown earth.

I thought of those graves in my neighborhood again. How terrible to go under the ground, with no one but God to know where they laid you. How terrible to be a human being, living on the surface of a beautiful, mysterious, vulnerable planet like this one, teeming with life but also so full of the dead. One moment you’re here, and the next you’re forgotten under the ground. The people on top of the earth are cruel and getting worse, and the people under the earth are forgotten.

It was about three o’clock. I wanted to kneel, but there was no clean place to do it.

I closed my eyes and said “Into your hands, I commend my spirit,” and apologized for complaining so much.

Surely He heard me.

Surely there’s meaning to all of this.

Surely, God hasn’t abandoned us. The earth isn’t just a ball of mud gorged full of forgotten corpses. The earth is alive and pregnant with the dead, eager to give birth to them once more. The time is coming, always immanent, always near, always just ahead of us, when the Son of God will appear and call all the forgotten dead out of their graves to life eternal. As Spring follows Winter and Easter Follows Lent, so the crucified Man will rise up and ascend to the Father. And as just as we saw Him ascend, we will see Him come down to make this right.

I don’t even know if I felt that hopefulness inside me there on the trail, or later as I got back to LaBelle where those strange graves lie decorated with pink flags. But I feel it now.

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows an d Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, donate to “The Little Portion” on paypal or Mary Pezzulo on venmo

History and Religion

Home and Religion

American Christianity

Previous Post

April 2, 2026

You Didn't Kill Jesus: A Message for Good Friday

Next Post

April 7, 2026 A Note on the Brink of War, or Maybe Not

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"You're talking about supercessionism, the idea that Christians "replace" the covenant that the Jewish people ..."

Alex

Yes, the Old Testament is About ..."

"Oh I'm sure it did."

Mary

A Televised Execution is a Moral, ..."

"For what its worth, it seems like the whole thing originated from Pete Hegsith speaking ..."

Evil-Striker

A Televised Execution is a Moral, ..."

"You may be right. A war and its aftermath are different than day-to-day governance. Still, ..."

Mary

On Traditionalist Bullies, and the Death ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to 1 Timothy, what is a trustworthy saying deserving of full acceptance?

Select your answer to see how you score.

God is love Faith without works is dead The Lord is our shepherd Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners