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Posts tagged ‘Easter’

Apr 6

The Wilderness

“I believe in God – not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.” – Pope Francis

“When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord.” – Pope Francis

The three-day journey to Easter begins with Holy Thursday.
Resurrection Sunday, calling to spring and new life.
Don’t rush to Sunday.
Take the entire journey, no shortcuts.
Enter the wilderness for a few days.
Last supper, washing of feet, communion, the garden, denial, 30 silver coins, Pilate, the Cross, Simon, Veronica, Mary, the women who stayed to the end to witness and remain.
It is finished.
Holy sacred days through the wilderness.
Walk with hope, held in grace, do not fall asleep.
Wilderness to Easter.
The journey to Easter.

“Hope does not tell us that soon life will be the same again as it was before the loss. No, hope tells us that life will go on, differently, yes, but go on nevertheless. Hope tells us that the pieces are there for us to put together, if only we will give ourselves to the doing of it. When Jesus dies on the cross, something entirely different rises. And that something is the call to us to make the best in life live again.” – Joan Chittister, The Way of the Cross: The Path to New Life

Apr 3

When to Stop

“Blessed are we who are learning to hope. And how to let go. When to act. And when to stop.” — Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days

“Things have changed. And it would be silly to imagine you haven’t been altered along with them. You are not who you once were. Bless that old self. They did such a great job with what they knew. They made you who you were—all the mistakes and heartbreak and naivety and courage. And blessed are you who you are now. You who aren’t pretending things are the same. You who continue to grow and stretch and show up to your life as it really is—wholehearted, vulnerable, maybe a tiny bit afraid. Blessed are you the changed.”— Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days

This week is a week to not merely pause, but to stop.
No doing. No rushing. No fear.
Hope. Let go. Act. Stop.
Framework and foundation.
In the process, unfolding of change, of a new day.
May each of us be blessed, present, wholehearted today, this week.
To keep trying, coming up short, starting again and again.
A resolve, a promise kept.
Winter lingers longer, spring, resurrection coming soon.
Love, trust and faith to you in this moment and each step on the journey ahead.

“But bring me back to this moment, God. The gratitude that rises up within me lifts my eyes and settles my soul. Resurrection has happened again today—you made the sun rise, and brought love to the world already, in the shape of a cross. The hardest work is already done. The work that remains is simply more of it: more love, more trust, more faith in the unseen pleasure you take just gazing at us, sitting here.”— Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days

Apr 2

Ashes to Palms

“When the world caves in
Still my hope will cling
To Your promise
Where my courage ends
Let my heart find strength
In Your presence”― Hillsong

“On this Palm Sunday, time is marked as one small donkey plods toward Jerusalem. One with a face set like flint, feet almost grazing the ground, walks forward toward the eastering of all sorrow—not in the power of horses and swift victory, but in small, steady steps toward the mystery that through suffering, healing comes, that through shame, dignity is restored, that through the cross, powers are disarmed, and death done away with forever. Blessed are all those walking forward into the great, small work they do: in hospitals, homes, grocery stores, classrooms, churches, and cubicles. And blessed are we joining the crowds waving palm branches to shout ourselves hoarse: ‘Hosanna! Save us! Save our world!”— Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days

A story of sticking, staying, love.
A love beyond comprehension, fathoming, understanding.
Requiring trust, imagination, faith, grace, expansion, mercy, peace.
To die for a good person is big, massive.
To die, suffer excruciatingly, be humiliated, denied, deserted and hated, carrying others sins not your own.
Unbelievable, and true.
That’s love to fall down for, to pause, to kneel, to revere for at least one week.
Can we do that?
That’s what Holy Week invites us to partake in, to participate in, to stop our busy lives for.
To wait in the garden and not fall asleep.
To not accept 30 silver coins to give up a friend.
To not deny your best friend three times, run away, and still become the cornerstone of the church.
Stay awake, accept no bribe, deny nothing.

From Ashes to Palms.
8 days to Easter.
Sacred holy ground.
Walk with reverence.
Watch with rapt attention.
Hope is in reaching distance and demands a lot this week.
Take up a cross to witness The Cross.
Transforming souls still to this day.
Get in line.
No religion. No rules. No regulations.
An invitation to everyone, not just some, self-righteous, rich, church-goers.
All are welcome.

“Easter was when Hope in person surprised the whole world by coming forward from the future into the present.”― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

Apr 17

Hope Realized

“It is the hour to rend thy chains, the blossom time of souls.” – Katharine Lee Bates

“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.” – Mahatma Gandhi

The other side of the threshold;
In between over;
Beyond the finish line;
A new start line;
Forever changed;
Restoration, reconciliation, resurrection;
Past, present and future tense;
Hope realized, faith completed, trust assured;
As alive today as when Mary saw Jesus Christ for the first time as the gardener;
Imagine the relief, the awe, the reverence, the moment of no return;
May the seeds of hope, faith, trust be planted in your heart and bloom in your life each day;
For all people, not just some, not by denomination, no membership card required;
The only rule is love;
Easter Sunday Joy available to you;
Accept the invitation.

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” – Saint Augustine

“Sink your generosity deep into our lives that your muchness may expose our false lack that endlessly receiving we may endlessly give so that the world may be made Easter new,
without greedy lack, but only wonder,
without coercive need but only love,
without destructive greed but only praise,
without aggression and invasiveness.
all things Easter new
all around us,
toward us
and by us
all things Easter new.” – Walter Brueggemann

Apr 10

Love

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” – Saint Augustine

“No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.” – William Penn

As Palm Sunday begins the most holiest of weeks, may we know that love was and is the reason for the Cross. And may we offer but sliver of that kind of love to others each day.

“God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.” – Pope Francis

Make this week holy, sacred and filled with deep gratitude for a love that carries us each day, if only we would recognize and receive it. Seek His mercy, accept His love.

“Remember finally, that the ashes that were 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

Apr 8

Plant, Abide, Bloom

“Let Him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east.”― Gerard Manley Hopkins

A Blessing for You Who Are Being Planted
by Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“Blessed are you who are buried. You who feel stuck in the depths of grief and despair or who sit in the pit of unknowing. You who are learning to trust the timing of a tender Gardener.

Blessed are you who are growing, you who burst with new life, fresh creativity. Who understand the pain that sometimes comes with stretching and changing, pruning and being cut back.

And blessed are you in your season of fruitfulness. You who are learning to abide in the vine, and who taste the sweetness of God’s loving-kindness. The God who was there all along—planting, waiting, watering, pruning, delighting. The God who pays careful attention to God’s garden.”

Whether a seed buried fresh in the dirt or burst open in full bloom or somewhere in between, may you know loving-kindness in all stages, seasons and cycles.
Blessings each day in the variety, stuck-ness, chaos and calm.
Gratitude amidst grief.
Grace holding your hand.
Joy that anchors, sustains and propels you to continue on in hope and anticipation.
Plant, abide, bloom.

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”― Gerard Manley Hopkins

Apr 2

First Day

“No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.” – William Penn

“Hidden life under the sea, under the ground, under the skin. The buried marrow in my bones and the secret stories in my heart. What are we supposed to see and hear, show and tell? Are things hidden for our own good, or is the human journey about going into the shadows and searching for the deeper truths about ourselves and each other, about life itself?”— Marrow: A Love Story by Elizabeth Lesser

We want to get to the Third Day and bypass one and two, to our Easters, victory, light, spring, joy, peace, butterflies. The only way to the Third Day begins with Day One – our Good Fridays, the crosses we bear, the struggles, the angst and pain. But darkness is not the end of the story. We must push through the middle to get to the other side. Hope is both the flashlight and lighthouse for our journey.

“NO DANCES There are no dances for dark days. There is no music to bellow the pain. The best we can do is to remain still and silent and try to remember the face of God… and how to kneel and how to pray.”— Kneeling in Jerusalem by Ann Weems

In our Good Fridays, we are not alone because of the Cross that Jesus bore for us all, not only Christians, for all humanity, every person. Lay down the labels, divisions, constraints of religion and rules that humans create to consider the immensity of the Cross in a new light for your own life. Open to what this day does and can mean to how you live daily. Read the story, allow it into the realm of possibility.

“LOST AND FOUND As we approached Jerusalem the crowd stood at the gate and cried in tear-choked voice: “We are lost in his death.” Upon the hill the angels sang: “We are found in his rising.”— Kneeling in Jerusalem by Ann Weems

In the process of transforming from caterpillar to butterfly, the chrysalis turns to liquid before it is rebuilt and transformed into a butterfly. The same matter in a new form is recreated and made new. Today, choose to die to old thinking and ways, melt and release the struggle, the burdens. Invite God into your heart to do His butterfly work in you. Moving from the cocoon and the tomb to the redemption and resurrection of the Third Day.

“ROOM IN THE HEART Death abides not on a hill called Golgotha, but in every heart that makes room. Life abides not outside a garden tomb in Jerusalem, but in every heart that makes room.”— Kneeling in Jerusalem by Ann Weems

Make room. Start with Day One but do not stop and linger there because it is not the ending but the beginning that gives meaning to the suffering. Day Three ahead.

Mar 29

Streams of Light

“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.”— Kneeling in Jerusalem by Ann Weems

We look for shortcuts, ways around, a clear path, sunny days. Daily life is about going through, both the light and the dark, woven together. Seeing the streams of light in the clouds, trusting the sun remains, that it will rise and set.

This past year, the world has carried a heavy cross of a pandemic, of politics, of racism, of hatred. Darkness is a dead end, hatred begets more of the same, an abyss. Hope pulls us from despair and carries us to the other side.

Light, redemption, resurrection are real, overflowing and calling to each one of us. Light is the only sustaining choice to live in joy, equanimity and peace in an unrelenting world that keeps calling us to our worst selves. Choose light, life over death.

Streams of light are everywhere. Choose to be a beam in a world that longs for light yet still chooses to see the clouds alone. Cast light!

THE FEAR AND FEEDING OF THE SHEEP — Kneeling in Jerusalem by Ann Weems

“We have nothing against Jerusalem; in fact, it’s the place to be on a sunny Easter morning.
It’s Golgotha that we fear; and yet, we’ve been to church enough to know that the way to Jerusalem leads through Good Friday.
Keeping covenant means keeping covenant under a cross as well as by an empty garden tomb.
What we’d like to do, of course, is wave palms and shout Hosanna and then rest up for the Hallelujah Chorus. We dismiss the others as religious fanatics, who wallow in the woe of Holy Week!
O Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God, feed us!”

Apr 13

Go Fly a Kite

”True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher.” – John Petit-Senn

“You will find truth more quickly through delight than gravity. Let out a little more string on your kite.” – Alan Cohen

It was a quiet, foreign, snowy Easter. And yet, it was still Easter, no matter our current circumstances. Truths, seasons, cycles, the sun, the moon, the earth remain in place. When everything else is uncertain and unsure, we must ground and plant ourselves in these unchanging foundations, roots. I am not perfect. Not even close. But I anchor myself in God, in Easter, in the resurrection of Jesus. Full disclosure and well aware of my imperfections, I am eternally grateful for the gift of grace and mercy that allows me on God’s playing field.

There is so much more than right now and yet we only have right now, hence the dichotomy, complexity and simplicity of life. It is both abstract and concrete. Complicated and simple. We are a mix of opposites and complementary at the same time. So when we attach our reality and who we are to passing circumstances, to other people, to our jobs and not to the fundamental truths of life and our very soul, we are like a kite flying in the wind aimlessly with no string attached to ground us.

We need strings, threads and anchors to secure and embrace us. Strong enough to hold and flexible enough to let us fly and dance in different directions with delight and ease.

Perhaps that is why fear is more prevalent when we are not anchored and secure in the fundamental truth that we are not God and God still remains with us in our arrogance and ignorance to walk beside us through the journey of grace, love and home, despite the chaos.

If we have no string that binds us to earth and heaven at the same time, we will flounder and drift aimlessly. For me (no preaching, just personal fact), God is my string to my kite. We are called to invite the air beneath our wings, to dance in the wind with delight fulfilling our purpose, to choreograph our life into a beautiful expression of love, joy and awe, despite our circumstances.

Trust, let go and dance knowing that the string is being held and will not be let go.

Apr 12

Over

Hope over fear.
Love over hate.
Joy over despair.
Light over darkness.
Peace over turmoil.
Kindness over spite.
Empathy over self.
Generosity over hoarding.
Ease over struggle.
Silence over noise.
Confidence over questioning.
Awe over indifference.
Deep over shallow.
Us over me.
Mystery over understanding.
Gratitude over complaint.
Rest over tumult.
Acceptance over shame.
Sweet over bitter.
Wonder over knowing.
Awake over sleep.
Slow over rushed.
Heaven over hell.

Present over past.
Present over future.
Just Present.

All is overcome today.
Resurrection over the Cross.
The playbook for living today already written.
The last word.
Knees to ground.

Happy Easter.

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