Category: Easter

A Hallelujah sunrise

4/7/2021

Easter was comforting and exhausting for me. I started the day with two sunrise services, the first live-streamed by SSJE (Society of St. John the Evangelist) at 4:30. The brothers began chanting at the entrance to their chapel on Memorial Drive and then processioned in where they sang the psalms and read scripture—Genesis, Exodus, Ezekiel, Mary’s magnificat, all interspersed with psalms. They were in no hurry to get to the most important moment in Christian faith when we all shout Hallelujah.
I left before the Hallelujah to walk up the street to the sunrise service at my church (the sun had fully risen by then). About twenty of us stood in the church parking lot, worshipping for the first time together in over a year, shouting hallelujah.
By the time I got home, the brothers had shouted Hallelujah, and a magnificent postlude was concluding the service. Exhausted, I took a nap before putting on my Easter bonnet to return to my church, this time on-line, to shout Hallelujah one more time.

Meeting Jesus during Easter Week

4/19/2017

I love Easter Week, which begins Easter Sunday and ends the following Saturday, because Jesus feels especially present to me.
According to the Gospels, he was resurrected but hadn’t yet ascended.Jesus was still walking around, meeting two of the apostles on the Road to Emmaus, and showing Thomas his wounds in the Upper Room.
These stories encourage me to be attentive as I take a walk or sit in the Angel Room. Maybe I will meet Jesus, too. That’s what faith is.

No Easter without Good Friday—for Jesus, for us.

4/3/2015

Good Friday! Easter! My faith has grown exponentially in the past year and with that, no surprise, I notice myself deeply immersed in Holy Week. The experience is more prayerful than analytic. I find myself walking around with Jesus, not saying much, nor does he. We’re just together in all the sorrow, both his and mine, personal and worldly. We’re walking along, walking through it all, walking with God, walking toward God. In Scripture Jesus leads us to God. Jesus goes to God through prayer, but ultimately via the Cross.

We know God through our difficulties. When we face the truth on our cross, we meet God. It can happen to us again and again; many truth tellings, many crosses. There can be no Resurrection without a Crucifixion, no Easter without Good Friday—for Jesus, for us.

Easter flowers at Santa Maria dei Fiori

4/26/2014

The most holy time to visit Santa Maria dei Fiori (the Duomo) is early in the morning when, with prayerful intention you slip in the side door for Mass and prayer. Mass is said in one of the apses; the other two are available for prayer and mediation. Today the central one was filled with Easter flowers -- an aroma and visual feast to experience. No need to think: just be.

From Easter to Italy~

4/23/2014

Santa Trinita

I'm writing this on the plane to Florence after a busy Easter morning. It started with the sunrise service in our backyard with about twenty five people, including some kids. Oh, and three dogs. This was followed by a waffle breakfast at church. Easter service with all those ‘Christ the Lord has risen’ songs, and with everyone singing Mendelssohn’s Hallelujah Chorus, a tradition in my church,! Pastor Tom’s message was honest and simply: Easter helps us frame our sorrows and tragedies in hope.

When I arrive in Florence I’ll post this, probably just as is. Then I’ll enjoy a cappuccino, wander about and step into Santa Trinita and be grateful.

P.S. I meant to post this two days ago, but with the lack of sleep and excitement of being here, I forgot. So here it is. More later.

Good Friday vigil~

4/18/2014

I remember Good Friday growing up. We had the day off from school and from 12 to 3 my UCC church held a vigil. Just watch. No music, no program, no words. Just sit and watch. I like to think that I remember staying for the entire time, but I’m not at all certain that I did. I like to think that my experience was very profound, but I’m not at all certain that it was.

After all, except for this Good Friday vigil, my church upbringing centered on Easter.

Today I still can’t get my mind around what this day means. I’ve stopped trying to figure out the theology of it all, but this year I am aware that my heart is responding. The most I am able to say, or want to say, is that I’m feeling some holy embrace for all the suffering in the world. Knowing Jesus suffered gives me hope.

God will put us back together again~

4/15/2014

I been thinking about the people who have experienced heartfelt tragedy and sadness during this past year. Are they glad that Lent is coming to an end? Is this Holy Week and the anticipation of Good Friday too much for them to bear? Are they afraid that they will feel no Easter joy, that they won’t be able to sing Hallelujah?

These are the people that I will put on my prayer list. Their hearts feel broken and they may fear that, like Humpty Dumpty, they are powerless. I can’t fix them, but I can send the salve of God’s peace, which sooths. God will put them back together again. Don’t ask me how this works. I just know that, with faith, it does.

Every prayer is important~

3/19/2014

I’m in awe of the number of people on my prayer list. Friends, friends of friends, citizens of the world. Do our prayers turn the tide for them? Will my friend get an all clear report on her thyroid condition? My daily ‘top ten’ list is selective, but it doesn’t mean others aren’t on the list in my heart.

     I have to assume that those of you reading this blog have your own list of ten. Yesterday 882 different people click on here. That adds up to 8882 prayers offered from just this little sampling of praying diary people. And what about all of your friends who pray but who didn’t read this yesterday to get counted? One could get discouraged by the enormity of prayer needs.

      But God is bigger, more mysterious, more omnipotent, and more loving that anything we can even begin to imagine, which is a good thing. Then there is lent where suffering is held by God, which is another good thing. And then there is Easter where suffering is released. And that is a very good thing.

      Oh, one more good thing: 8882 prayers is better than none. Every prayer is important. Don’t give up.

Seasons of faith~

4/22/2013

I aware that catastrophic news events can detract from my prayer life. On one level I’m praying all the time, but on another I am distracted from my usual prayer and meditation routine. Maybe I need to remember that Christianity is a seasonal faith with the yearly church calendar of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, and Ordinary Time, Our lives, and surely our prayer lives, reflect this in an arbitrary and seeming random fashion—anticipation, birth, suffering, little deaths, resurrections, and all those time when nothing much seems to be happening.

Last week I discovered how easy it is for me to let go of my usual prayer practice. As I forgive myself (once again), I want to recommit (once again) to the stability that the monastic tradition that passed on through the centuries. We are told to stay in our cell, for it is there that we will come to know all that we need to know. The Rule of St. Benedict tells us, “Listen carefully with the ear of your heart.” That calls for attention to the seasons of my faith.

The story of Easter never ends~

4/2/2013

If Easter is the highlight of our Christian faith, I ought to be right there with the prayer, praying without ceasing. But since I’m not a sequestered religious, that is hardly the case. Family gatherings, meals to be planned, prepared, served and cleared up after seem to take precedence over the church services that I rush off to. Although once I arrive in the pew I remember and am grateful, I must admit that often the celebration aspect of Easter overshadows the worship.

But the story doesn’t end. Thank God for Easter Monday and all the ordinary days that follow, all the days of a lifetime. I have five days at the cottage before I clean up, lock the door and settle back at home-- five days to watch the sunrise and walk the beach, five days to read and pray about what Easter means for me this year.