Category: Speaking to the Soul

“I suspect that many of us who are church members are even more eager to find a new normal. I am sure many of us have suffered a tragic loss of loved ones and friends. Many of us know people who have lost their jobs or are in danger of losing their homes. Thankfully, growing numbers of us are getting vaccinated and looking forward to moving from isolation to having people over again.”

“Easter is a gradual awakening.  We do not need to fear death, because Christ has conquered death.  But how does that work?  The things of this world have no hold on us, for we belong to the Good Shepherd whose kingdom is not of this earth.  But what does that mean when we really take it on board?”

“May we take the time on this Holy Saturday to reflect deeply on what Holy Week represents, especially Good Friday. In what other ways can we show our submission to Christ, emulate his life, illustrate his teachings, and devotion to God?”

“Good Friday has never reached into me the same way. I cannot fathom how or why people intentionally choose to perpetrate such inhumane torment on one another. Nor can I bear to watch that level of suffering in any living being, particularly in someone so compassionate and good.”

‘The Maundy Thursday liturgy moves us from a celebration of servanthood to, as in the conversion scene in John Masefield’s great poem of redemption and repentance, “The Everlasting Mercy.”’

“Guide us to the cross,
to sit in the darkness,
to cry out in pain. 
Let us not shield our hearts from the brokenness.
Train our eyes to see in the dark.” 

“Love—self-emptying, other-affirming, self-sacrificing love– IS the most powerful magic in the universe, as even the Harry Potter books pointed out. And the most potent magic of love is found in the fact that we ALL are borne up by the grace of it, and be changed forever by that self-giving, no-holds back love that Jesus offers.”

“But Christ has been here before us.  He teaches us the way into and through the transition of death.  As we face our inevitable end, with the prospect of pain and fear we cannot, as humans, avoid, let us look to him.”