Daily Prayer :: Wind

First steps on the journey of faith and community

April 17 – Resurrection!

Today’s Bible reading

Read Luke 24:1-12 –  On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

More thoughts for meditation

After a year full of grief, violence and isolation, how do we celebrate resurrection?

Follow the women. That morning they came together for a common purpose. They rose early to go to the body. They made their way, spices in hand, heavy with all that they had witnessed and experienced, for one last touch to anoint him. 

Follow the women. They took action to move towards Jesus even when their hopes were crushed. With so many unanswered questions, they went. And through their action they found a boulder moved, an empty tomb and an angel with a message. 

Follow the women. They remembered and they shared the story. They had walked with Jesus. They had the memory of his words in their hearts. They had love for him in their bones. They remembered who he was and they believed. They ran to share the news, to tell the others. He had not left them. He had risen!

Suggestions for action

He is risen! He is risen indeed! 

Celebrate Christ’s resurrection today by following the women. You are not alone. Just by praying here, you are knit together with Circle of Hope and friends across the country who are rising with Christ to the life he brings through death! You might also want to take action by joining in our online meeting at 5pm circleofhope.net/onlinemeeting to hear real stories from people who are finding life through death with Jesus. You may have a story too. Come share it at the Zoom afterhang with others who may need to hear it. Together we say “Resurrection is here. We see your life in our life.”

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day! The nation honors him as a great American. On his death day we honor him as a notable spiritual ancestor.  Go to Celebrating Our Transhistorical Body. You can also read more about the history and significance of Easter on the blog here.

April 16 — In the Grave

 

Holy Week is the annual opportunity to simply live your life in the light of Jesus’ story more than you usually do. We know more about this one week of Jesus’ life than any other part of his life. All of the gospel writers thought it was the most important part. All throughout March and February we’ve been turning away from death and toward life, Jesus’ life—a life that goes through death—the only life that goes through death. So let’s live that life with him. Let’s live the whole week with Jesus.

Start here on the Daily Prayer each morning. Every day will offer a way to experience the story, on your own and in community.

Today’s Bible reading

Read Luke 23:50-56

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man,  who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.  Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

More thoughts for meditation

XIV Jesus is laid in the tomb

Here at the centre everything is still
Before the stir and movement of our grief
Which bears it’s pain with rhythm, ritual,
Beautiful useless gestures of relief.
So they anoint the skin that cannot feel
Soothing his ruined flesh with tender care,
Kissing the wounds they know they cannot heal,
With incense scenting only empty air.
He blesses every love that weeps and grieves
And makes our grief the pangs of a new birth.
The love that’s poured in silence at old graves
Renewing flowers, tending the bare earth,
Is never lost. In him all love is found
And sown with him, a seed in the rich ground.

by Malcolm Guite

From ‘Sounding the Seasons; seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year, Canterbury Press 2012′ 

Suggestions for action

It could be a restless day, full of preparation for a feast. It might be easier to be still this year since feasts are more subdued, but maybe then another sort of restlessness sets in. A restlessness of heart and mind, a bitter rejection of how things are. That could be appropriate—but not all day. Can you find the time to be still—body, mind and heart?

Ideas for being still:

Turn off your phone, still your scrolling thumbs
Read a spiritual book, sit down
Take a nap
Set a timer, close your eyes and breathe the Jesus Prayer until you lose track of how many times you’ve prayed it. Then try to stop wondering when the timer will be up.
Play a game with your family
Go on a leisurely stroll
Put off the things on your to-do list
Go to bed early

This is THE in-between. Wait for the dawn. In the morning the tomb will be empty. Join your congregation to celebrate at 6:30 (the sun rises at 6:39).

April 15 — Good Friday

Holy Week is the annual opportunity to simply live your life in the light of Jesus’ story more than you usually do. Today, on this Good Friday, we live our life and die our deaths with Jesus.

Today’s Bible reading

Matthew 10:38-­39 – Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. 

More thoughts for meditation

Today we spend the last hours with Jesus on his way to the cross. There are so many ways we might be tempted to skip this part, to get distracted and tune back in for Easter morning. But today is the fulfillment of his love. Don’t miss it. In his suffering, he identifies with us – every part of us, every one of us. So we stay with him to learn his way; to know the depths he goes, to follow him. He brings life through death. Don’t be afraid; he will show us the way too. Stay close. 

Suggestions for action

Take a meditative journey to walk with Jesus to the cross using our Way of the Cross guide. If you are able, do this sometime between 12­-3pm: the last three of the six hours Jesus suffered for us on the cross when darkness covered the land. At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour (Mark 15:33). ​To experience the full three hours, spend time in prayer at the beginning and the end, so your journey is bathed in prayer and centered with our community. 

The way of the cross is a means to engage our whole being: body, mind and spirit, in meditation. Most Roman Catholic buildings have replicas of these “stations” on their walls — people take this prayer walk in the quiet of the sanctuary, contemplating the Lord’s sacrifice for them and entering into his death. We have our own version. We are taking this journey wherever we are to help ourselves see the way of suffering love moving into our present reality and to see how we can enter into it with Jesus in our time and place.

You are invited to Tenebrae tonight at 8pm Live Zoom Event Link. Let it be an extension of station 14. You are not alone to enter your grief. We do this together.

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