The appearances of Jesus after his Resurrection, as recorded in the New Testament, are, to be honest, kind of confusing.  The people he appears to don’t recognize him right away, even though they knew him before. Critics of Christianity attribute these appearances to the imagination of Christ’s followers.  They say that the first Christians simply invented the Resurrection, and that’s why the Gospel accounts are so confusing. Pope Benedict XVI attributes the unique character of these Gospel pages to one simple cause: Christ’s Resurrection itself was something entirely, radically new. He writes:  “It was an utterly unique experience, which burst open the normal boundaries of experience and yet for the disciples was quite beyond doubt.  This explains the unique character of the Resurrection accounts…” In this Easter Retreat Guide, A Cure for Discouragement, we will dive into one of these accounts, our Lord’s appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

• The first meditation will look at the cause of their discouragement.
• The second meditation will contemplate our Lord’s cure for it.
• And the conference will offer practical tips to help us do for others what Jesus did for them.