Dear Friends,
The attachments today remain on the Easter theme. Susan Kambalu uses the natural growing cycle in what she writes rather effectively I think – it is the time of the year when we cannot be unaware of being surrounded by growth in nature.
Gerry Hughes reminds us of the inextricable link between pain & suffering and the joy & hope of Easter – if we think back to Good Friday – how quickly we land in Easter Sunday! There must be a significant connection experienced not just by Christ but by all of us.
‘The Repose Blessing’ from New Dawn is this week’s blessing. Again, this week, let’s pray the blessing for all those dealing with conflict at the moment – global conflicts & ones closer to home.
With our love
Mary Magdalene
I walked. I ran,
Sorrow tapped the fleeting swiftness of my feet,
Breaching the Holy City walls
To where our ancestors slept entombed,
Tears held the light from my eyes,
I fumbled – felt my stumbling steps
To where they had laid him, my Beloved:
Better a dead body to wash with tears
Than that void his absence left;
Better his wounds to pierce my heart,
Than wistful memories that melt in the air.
But where? Where? Where? Where are you?
Where? Oh! Where are you?
The vacant slab, the empty tomb!
My heart stands still in the aching day,
While a gentle breeze plays in the trees.
‘Why do you weep? Oh, why do you weep?
The winter is past, flowers appear;
The fig tree has put forth its fruits’.
Listen! Listen! The Beloved calls;
(His voice in the scents of the vine blossom)
‘Mary! Mary!’
He opens my heart
And the sun breaks the day into a myriad pieces,
As the voice of the turtle dove announces the Spring.
Source unknown
An Easter Feast
Taste and see that the Lord is good
Help us to plant the seeds
of fairness, hope and equality
God of Life, you invite us to the banquet.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Help us to water the plants
to bring change, growth, empowerment.
God of Inspiration, you invite us to the banquet.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Help us to weed the fields
of doubt, despair and injustice.
God of Power, you invite us to the banquet.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Help us to harvest the crop
of abundance and transformation.
God of Joy, you invite us to the banquet.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
We eat the feast
of solidarity, dignity, plenty.
God of All, you invite us to the banquet.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Susan Kambalu
A Reflection on the Risen Christ by Fr Gerry Hughes SJ.
Christian experience confirms that we can only come to know the Risen Christ when we have undergone some kind of death, some disillusionment with ourselves and others, some loss or bereavement, some sense of fear, hopelessness or meaninglessness, and have not tried to anaesthetise ourselves against it. The answer is in the pain, which is revealing to us in our poverty our need for God.