For all that has been- THANKS!
To all that shall be- YES!
Dag Hammarskjold
Practise resurrection.
Wendell Berry
God is not exterior evidence but the secret call within us
Olivier Clement
As you spend time reflecting on your life – become aware of those things in your life that are destructive, which lead nowhere, which are negative and deadening.
These are things, relationships, aspects of work, parts of your temperament which block, inhibit, rob or starve you of life. These are movements in you which are often characterized by fear or anxiety.
Now listen to another movement within – often unnoticed. Often it doesn’t find a voice – or is drowned out by stronger, more insistent, negative voices.
This is the movement towards life- that too often lies untouched, buried, forgotten and ignored – but if given room is actually full of life and promise and hope and energy and purpose.
Pay attention to what brings you to life – the (often) little things – that give you a sense of joy or purpose or well-being.
Practising resurrection is not about putting up with a bit of pain so we can then “live happily ever after”. It is about letting the cross shape resurrection faith in us so that we see always the cross as the tree of life. Being shaped by the cross of Jesus is about learning to live whatever we are living in the knowledge that “grace happens”.
I don’t know Who-or what- put the question, I don’t even know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.
Dag Hammarskjold
Life is not formed by chance, it is not random…life is not just a succession of events and circumstances, helpful though many of them are. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is to this end that we exercise our freedom….
Benedict XVI
If God so made us that only He himself can ultimately satisfy us, He does not withhold that gift of himself. It is ours already, but being too blind to recognize it, we have to discover it, not in religious theory, but in the warmth and sweetness and dryness and terror of actual living.
H. A. Williams
The images in this post are by Dutch artist Paul van Dongen (1958 – ). His work includes a series of etchings titled Crown of Thorns. Made in 2004–5, shortly after his return to the Christian faith, each of these pieces portrays a ring of twining briars that evoke the headpiece forced mockingly on Jesus prior to his execution. Each image shows intertwined briars, at first with no new growth and gradually transforming into a vine that has leaves growing out of the circlet of thorns.
The final image, with its translucent colours reflects van Dongen’s statement “Nature with its cycle of growing, flowering, dying and sprouting out again is symbolic to me of Christ and his resurrection.”
Source: ArtWay – Easter – Resurrection by Paul van Dongen
O Lord and Master of my life
Keep me from indifference
Keep me from discouragement
Lust of power and idle chatter
Will you grant to me your servant
The spirit of wholeness of being
Humblemindedness
Patience and love
O Lord and King of my life
Grant me grace to be aware
Of my sins and not to judge
My brother and my sister
For you are blessed
Now and forever
For you are blessed
Now and forever
released March 15, 2021
Vocals, guitar and piano: Samantha Connour
Backup vocals: Alec Watson
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
