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Posts tagged ‘Easter’

Apr 5

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Gardener of Souls, Lilies Spring to New Life

And the Glory by Ann Weems
“The silence breaks into morning.
That One Star lights the world.
The lily springs to life and
not even Solomon …
Let it begin with singing
and never end!
Oh, angels, quit your lamenting!
Oh, pilgrims,
upon your knees in tearful prayer,
rise up
and take your hearts
and run!
We who were no people
are named anew
God’s eople,
for he who was no more
is forevermore.”

“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.”― G.K. Chesterton

Desert to garden.
Good Friday Cross to Sunday empty tomb.
The Gardener meets Mary, a woman, who walked all the way through.
Saved by love.
To this very day.
To receive and give.
With grace and joy.
To pass it on.
As it was given.
Unconditionally and overflowing.
Again and again.
Love prevails, carries through, on, forward.
Happy Easter.
Cast light.

“This is an invitation,
a choice,
a threshold, a gate.

This is your life
calling to you
from a place
you could never
have dreamed,
but now that you
have glimpsed its edge,
you cannot imagine
choosing any other way.

So let the tears come
as anointing,
as consecration,
and then
let them go.

Let this blessing
gather itself around you.

Let it give you
what you will need
for this journey.

You will not remember
the words—
they do not matter.

All you need to remember
is how it sounded
when you stood
in the place of death
and heard the living
call your name.”
—Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Apr 2

Root in Love, Bloom in Kindness

“Remember finally, that the ashes on your forehead are created from the burnt palms of last Palm Sunday. New beginnings invariably come from old false things that are allowed to die.” – Richard Rohr

“We seldom notice how each day is a holy place
Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,
Transforming our broken fragments
Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us a dignity presides
That is more gracious than the smallness
That fuels us with fear and force,
A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanks
For being betrothed to the unknown
And for the secret work
Through which the mind of the day
And wisdom of the soul become one.” – John O’Donohue

Opening a door
Yielding in traffic
Sitting with a friend
Greeting a stranger
An encouraging word
Last suppers that we didn’t know would be last
A $20 to a soul on a corner
Playing hopscotch with a child
Asking, listening
Washing feet
Eucharist of the ordinary
Holy places
Without counting or conditions
Love

“In the humility of the washing of the feet, we find the greatest heights of love.”— Pope Francis

Apr 21

Filled and Overflowing

“You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted. Begin again the story of your life.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Lives of the Heart

“Empty and filled,
like the curling half-light of morning,
in which everything is still possible and so why not.

Filled and empty,
like the curling half-light of evening,
in which everything now is finished and so why not.

Beloved, what can be, what was,
will be taken from us.
I have disappointed.
I am sorry. I knew no better.

A root seeks water.
Tenderness only breaks open the earth.
This morning, out the window,
the deer stood like a blessing, then vanished.”― Jane Hirshfield

New beginnings
Fresh starts
Emptied to filled, overflowing
Hope, joy, delight
Color, fragrance, beauty
Borne of winter spilling fully into spring
Tenderness breaking open and through
New beginnings

“One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read – in such a moment, anything can happen.”― Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Apr 20

THE Gardener

“The resurrection tells us it is never too late. Every so often we will be surprised. We must believe that the stone will be rolled back, and we must be ready to poke out our timid heads, take off the linen bindings of death, and walk free for a time, breathing resurrection air.”― Ronald Rolheiser, Prayer: Our Deepest Longing

“Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she bent over to look inside. Then she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She replied, ‘They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not realize it was Jesus. Jesus asked her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who is it you are looking for?’ She thought he was the gardener and said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means, ‘Teacher’).” – John 20:15-16

Ashes to Resurrection
Third Day
He is Risen
Is, not was
Now, this moment, each day
For each and all
No one left behind, excluded, othered
For each and all
Love
Resurrection air
Breathe it in

God’s Love – “Who breathes where You will, breathe into me and draw me to Yourself. Invest the nature You have shaped, with gifts so flowing with honey that, from intense joy in Your sweetness this clay might turn from lesser things, that it may accept (as You give them) spiritual gifts, and through pleasing jubilation, it may melt, entirely, in holy love, reaching finally out to touch the Uncreated Light.” – Scott Cairns

Apr 19

Holy Saturdays

“Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man – there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as “The women, God help us!” or “The ladies, God bless them!”; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unself-conscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything “funny” about woman’s nature.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Are Women Human? Penetrating, Sensible and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society

“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was himself a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.”—Matthew 27:57-61

The days after when before became after with no turning back
Tipping points, pivotal moments, thresholds crossed
Moments in our lives when grief kicked down the door down and plopped down
Moved in and became the loud neighbor
In our holy saturdays, the middle space between our own crosses and resurrections
Hope remains, faint, but remains
Wait, not yet, but soon
Soon, soon, soon

“Blessed are you, who feel undone,
too tired even for tears,
longing to be spoken back into being.

Blessed are you, who ache to remember
the bonds of love that formed you,
that hold you still, even now.
May they be as iron
that strengthen your soul.

Blessed are you,
who glimpse, however faintly,
that this present darkness
is not all there is.

And blessed are we who dare to say:
I am known.
I am loved.
I can love again.
Even—especially—here,
in this very moment.” – Kate Bowler & Jessica Richie

Apr 17

Crosses and Tables

“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us. ”― A. W. Tozer

“I want to be outside with the misfits, with the rebels, the dreamers, second-chance givers, the radical grace lavishers, the ones with arms wide open, the courageously vulnerable, and among even—or maybe especially—the ones rejected by the Table as not worthy enough or right enough.”― Sarah Bessey, Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women

Grace, overflowing
Mercy, unending
Love, without no bottom, no endpoint, no boundaries, no limits
Beyond comprehension
Without viable explanation
Third day coming, not yet, not yet, not yet

“We are freed to free others.
We are affirmed to affirm others.
We are loved to love others.”
― Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem

Apr 15

Transitions to Transformations, Spring Unfolding

“Healthy religion gives us a foundational sense of awe. It re-enchants an otherwise empty universe. It gives people a universal reverence toward all things. Only with such reverence do we find confidence and coherence. Only then does the world become a safe home. Then we can see the reflection of the divine image in the human, in the animal, in the entire natural world—which has now become inherently “supernatural.” That is the paradox, and all dualistic language will henceforth fail us.”― Richard Rohr OFM, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”― George Eliot

Still dry and brown
But glimpses of what is to come
Buds, dots of green popping up
Growth surfacing
Proof of what is to come but not here yet
Pre-game of spring with winter cool still lingering in the air
Soft rain
Longer sun
Patches of color
Hallway between winter and spring
Lent and Easter
Before and after
Waiting, walking slowly to notice, signs of life
Closing in on the threshold to cross over
Transitions to transformations
Spring unfolding
Inviting us to do the same.

“Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.”— Rumi

Apr 14

Holy. Sacred. Path.

“It is not over,
this birthing.
There are always newer skies
into which
God can throw stars.”― Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem

Holy Week by Ann Weems

“Holy is the week …
Holy, consecrated, belonging to God …
We move from hosannas to horror
with the predictable ease
of those who know not what they do.
Our hosannas sung,
our palms waved,
let us go with passion into this week.
It is a time to curse fig trees that do not yield fruit.
It is a time to cleanse our temples of any blasphemy.
It is a time greet Jesus as the Lord’s Anointed One,
to lavishly break our alabaster
and pour perfume out for him
without counting the cost.
It is a time for preparation …
The time to give thanks and break bread is upon us.
The time to give thanks and drink of the cup is imminent.
Eat, drink, remember:
On this night of nights, each one must ask,
as we dip our bread in the wine,
“Is it I?”
And on that darkest of days, each of us must stand
beneath the tree
and watch the dying
if we are to be there
when the stone is rolled away.
The only road to Easter morning
is through the unrelenting shadows of that Friday.
Only then will the alleluias be sung;
only then will the dancing begin.”

The road to Easter.
No way to but through.
Walk the path, all of the way.
Love, the path and destination.

Apr 13

Ashes to Palms, Darkness to Light

Blessing for Palm Sunday by Jan L. Richardson
“Blessed is the one
who comes to us
by the way of love
poured out with abandon.
Blessed is the one
who walks toward us
by the way of grace
that holds us fast.
Blessed is the one
who calls us to follow
in the way of blessing,
in the path of joy.”

“May the blessings released through your hands
Cause windows to open in darkened minds.

May the sufferings your calling brings
Be but winter before the spring.

May the companionship of your doubt
Restore what your beliefs leave out.

May the secret hungers of your heart
Harvest from emptiness its sacred fruit.

May your solitude be a voyage
Into the wilderness and wonder of God.

May your words have the prophetic edge
To enable the heart to hear itself.

May the silence where your calling dwells
Foster your freedom in all you do and feel.

May you find words full of divine warmth
To clothe the dying in the language of dawn.

May the slow light of the Eucharist
Be a sure shelter around your future.” – John O’Donohue

Walk, witness, partake.
Holy.
Sacred.
Awe.
Winter to spring.
Grief to grace.
Fear to love.
Death to Resurrection.
The invitation is to all, not the select few.
Though few enter.
Enter.

“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”― A.W. Tozer

Apr 12

Pause, reflect, respond

“Lent comes providentially to awaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.” – Pope Francis

“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.” – Vaclav Havel

Pause.
Reflect.
Respond.
Reverence and awe.
Desert. Cross. Resurrection.
No shorts to the Third Day.
Relationship not religion.
Winter to spring.
Desert to life.
Love, hope, grace, peace in all moments, days, weeks, seasons.

“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.” – St. Francis de Sales

 

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