Dear All,
We wish you a good finale to Lent today & great joy & peace as you celebrate Easter tomorrow & over the next weeks of Eastertide. The attachments straddle Holy Saturday & Easter.
The blessing for this week is a Celtic blessing from ‘Light in our Darkness’ – we will pray it for all of you, and for those in conflict areas across our world. Below you will find information about our zooming over the next days.
Easter time:
Today, Holy Saturday, we will be ‘zooming’ a reflection at 10am. Do join us – length no more than 30mins.
Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88496408183?pwd=VU9vWENhMFFBVXJaN2VkVXE0eGY2dz09
Meeting ID: 884 9640 8183
Passcode: 637731
If you don’t choose to ‘zoom’ on Holy Saturday we are also leading a ‘live’ reflection at 11.30am, (again no more than 30 minutes), in Blessed Sacrament Church, Melbourne Av. CM1 2DU. Anyone is very welcome.
Also, although we don’t usually ‘zoom’ Evening Prayer on a Saturday, on Holy Saturday we will have Evening Prayer at 5.30pm. The link is:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87386676086?pwd=N2FLZmdnUkVqcTRuT2IyV2NvZWg2UT09
Meeting ID: 873 8667 6086
Passcode: 173662
For those who enjoy Evening Prayer:
From, & including, Easter Sunday, we won’t be ‘zooming’ Evening Prayer. Beginning again on Sunday 15th April.
After Easter:
WAY OF LIGHT (Stations of the Resurrection)
Reflections on S. Mary Stephen’s Paintings – ZOOM
Part 1 – Monday 17th April: 6.45pm
Part 2 – Monday 24th April: 6.45pm
To purchase a copy of the booklet (optional) ‘Way of Light’ please go to our online SHOP
Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85809303949?pwd=QjAyZmZaQVZqTVFnb3Y0cVh6SUJrZz09
Meeting ID: 858 0930 3949
Passcode: 261554
Wishing you well & with our love
Holy Saturday
Joan Chittister
For the most part, we are simply left on our own on Holy Saturday. And yet every human beings who has ever walked the earth has known what the emptiness of Holy Saturday is about.
Everyone who has ever lived, who will ever live, will someday undergo a Holy Saturday of our own. Some day we will all know the power of overwhelming loss when life as we know it changes, when all hope dies in mid-flight. Then, & only then, can we begin to understand the purpose of Holy Saturday.
The importance of Holy Saturday lies in its power to bring us to the kind of faith the spiritual masters call ‘mature’. Holy Saturday faith is not about ‘counting our blessings’; it is about dealing with darkness & growing in hope.
Without the Holy Saturdays in life, none of us may really grow up spiritually. How do we deal with the God of darkness as well as the giver of light?
Holy Saturday
Michael K. Marsh
Most people will ignore and skip the Church’s remembrance of Holy Saturday. No one, however, gets to ignore and skip the reality of Holy Saturday in life. Holy Saturday is the inbetween time. The tragedy of the crucifixion is past but the glories of the resurrection are not yet here. We are neither here nor there. We are stuck in the middle. What was is no more and what will be is not yet clear or known. It feels as if there is nowhere to go and nothing to do.
Holy Saturday comes to us in many ways but it always seems to involve death; the death of Jesus, the death of a loved one, the death of a relationship, the death of hopes and dreams. In the church calendar Holy Saturday is one day once per year. Not so in life. Those of you who have suffered the death of a loved one know that you do not move from Good Friday to Easter Sunday in just one day. Holy Saturday can last months, years, even a lifetime. Holy Saturday calls us to the tomb. Where else is there to go?
That’s where Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are today. Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, laid it in the tomb, rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and went away. He left. Some will do that in the Holy Saturday of life. They will close up the tomb and walk away as if there is nothing there, no possibilities for anything new. The two women, however, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, are sitting opposite the tomb. They are silent. There is not much to say on Holy Saturday. What can be said? There are no easy or satisfactory answers.
Holy Saturday is a day of silence and stillness, waiting and wondering, remembering and hoping. Perhaps that is what faithfulness looks like on Holy Saturday. There is not much to do except be present to the reality of what is, to sit opposite the tomb.
Where is Christ on Holy Saturday? Reread the Apostles’ Creed. Remind yourself that on this day “He descended to the dead” or as another translation says, “He descended into hell.” Holy Saturday is when Christ descends into the hell of your life, breaking the bonds of death, and setting the captives free.
Holy Saturday is a difficult day. We so much want joy to replace sorrow. That’s not what Jesus does. Instead, sorrow is transformed into joy, the tomb becomes a womb, and death gives birth to new life. Christ’s triumph is not apart from death but within death. Christ is trampling down death by death and giving life to those in the tombs.
The two women of Holy Saturday will become the first people Jesus greets on Easter Sunday. So trust the silence and the waiting. Be still. Remember, wonder, hope. Pray. It is Holy Saturday and your Lord who loves you is at work.
The Easter Day Story
Joyce Rupp
So they left the tomb quickly with … great joy, and ran to tell his disciples (Mt 28:8)
Risen One, Bringer of Joy, plant the seeds of great gladness deep in the soil of my being. May I enjoy life, begin each day with enthusiasm, and become ever more aware of you.
And the women came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him (Mt 28:9)
Risen One, Beloved, draw me ever nearer to you. I offer you my love and devotion. I embrace you and bow to your beauty. May I commit my entire life ever more fully to you.
Mary Magdalene went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it (Mk 16:10-11)
Risen One, Truth-Bringer, open my heart to hear your voice. May I listen deeply even when tears of sorrow moisten my heart. Erase my resistance to the surprising ways you choose to enter my life.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb … (Luke 24:2)
Risen One, Tomb-Opener, you are the power I need. Roll away the stones of unloving. Push back the rocks of discontent. Shove aside the boulders of worry. Untomb me and set me free.
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galiliee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words … (Lk 24:5-8)
Risen One, Carrier of Memories, you have revealed many things to me through events and people, in the pages of scripture, and in the quiet of my heart. Carry me back to savour your revelations.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened (Lk 24:12)
Risen One, Source of Amazement, I run to the tomb of life, I hurry to see for myself. When I look with eyes of faith, I am amazed at what I find. That which seems dead and forsaken fills with wisdom and teachings for my life.
Jesus himself came near and went with them … And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” (Lk 24:15-17)
Risen One, Full of Compassion, you are with me as I walk the continuing road of sorrow and joy. You listen to my longing. You fill me with the strength of your loving nearness.
He walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly saying, “Stay with us …” So he went in to stay with them (Lk 24:28-29)
Risen One, Trusted Companion, I desire to be with you. Stay with me. Your presence nourishes my hunger. Your love feeds my desire for goodness. Stay with me. Stay with me.
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread (Lk 24:35)
Risen One, Sacred Teacher, you send me forth with blessing. You bid me tell the powerful story of your risen life. May I tell this story again and again through the witness of my life, by the quality of my love, and by the courage of my words.
All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers (Acts 1:14)
Risen One, Core of Community, whenever we gather, you are with us. Whenever we gather, the ancestors are near. Whenever we gather, you make of our hearts one heart. Risen One, we welcome you into our midst.
O Dancer of Creation,
the earth awakens to an urgent call to grow.
In the hidden recesses of my wintered spirit
I, too, hear the humming of your voice,
calling me, wooing my deadness back to life.
My soul yawns, stretches, quickens,
as the energy of Spring revives my weariness.
I sit with wonder, observing the steady activity
of downy woodpeckers and newly yellowed finch.
I do so wait with the avid attention of a child’s first look,
savouring the colours and shapes of earth’s loveliness.
As the filtering patterns of early sunlight
lift the shades of green in every growing thing,
I enter into spring’s unlettered words of life.
For a while my doubts, anxieties, and worries
become like chapters in some ancient book
whose text no longer claims my full attention.
I am content to sit, watching Spring
turn the pages of this animated publication,
eager to discover the invigorating story
reflected in my own springtime revelation.
Tell me, Wise Awakener,
why is it easier to believe in a stem of new grass,
or the opening bud of a fresh purple crocus,
than it is to believe in the greening of me?
Joyce Rupp