What does Easter mean for you? Is it just another of those feasts that turn up on the calendar charting the arrival of spring? Bringing in its wake hosts of golden daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze, as the famous poem says? Or does Easter have another deeper meaning in your life’s trajectory?

Here we are in Holy Week, on the cusp of Easter. In a sense, this final week of Lent is like that last final stretch of a marathon; we are nearly there and the end is in sight. Yet this is also the time when we might feel most tempted to give up on those resolutions we’ve set ourselves because…well it’s almost Easter.

Walking through Dublin city centre on Ash Wednesday, I exchanged glances with a gentleman passing me on the footpath. Both of us were wearing ashes on our foreheads. It was a moment of connection, acknowledging each other's faith and observance of the holy day.

As a child, one of the first things I often heard people mention about Lent was to ask the question, “what are you giving up?” Random strangers or people who never seemed to talk about anything else to do with matters of faith, would suddenly speak about what they were ‘giving up.’ And the default was always chocolate and sweets!

Perhaps you feel like you're skimming the surface of life or stuck in a rut ... from a Catholic perspective, it can be a very positive reality because renewing yourself is very much anchored in Christ.

Thick in the trenches of parenting small children and balancing professional work, I’ve had my fair share of overwhelm over the years, and in quiet moments of prayer I’ve often thought does God really care about all this? Does any of this actually matter to Him? Do I really matter to Him?