resurrection, monday

Monday, April 6

Opening Prayer: Your most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory but first he was crucified: Grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace.  Amen. (Venite by Robert Benson)

Scripture: John 20:16-18

Journal: What are you clinging to these days that you need to let go of?

Reflection:

a longing
for genuine transformation
will always lead us
to death’s door
again and again

what a crazy design
we must die
in order to be raised
paschal mystery

the old
must be
out of the way
to make space
for the new
to take shape
within us

one cannot truly begin
without the other ending
release comes
before receive

after all
it is difficult
to receive the new
when our hands are still
so full of the old

and why is dying

such a necessary part
of this process

maybe because
without dying
there can be
no resurrection

and resurrection
is really the point
being raised, that is,
not raising ourselves

being raised

by the giver of life
breathing his breath
into our deadness
and bringing us
to life once again
in a new form

that is not new
at all 

to him

Prayers

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to cling not to the old patterns and old ways of being and seeing that I have become so used to and adept at, but help me to be made new each day, living your resurrected life, with your resurrection power.  In the name of the resurrected One—Jesus.  Amen.