Posts from the ‘Holy Week’ Category
Seeking Darkness to Scatter Light
Today is Palm Sunday. It is a day when we hear familiar readings about the Passion of Jesus – a story of his last days on earth – the days that led up to his crucifixion. We understand that Jesus walked willingly into the darkness.
I recently came across a lovely poem by Dan Turner entitled, What Kind of God. The last line of the poem expresses well Christ’s mission.
My God . . . seeking darkness . . . to scatter Light.
To scatter Light.
May we remember, when we find ourselves in the midst of darkness, that we, too, are called to scatter Light.
Morning light breaking though to scatter the darkness
In the Darkness of the Tomb, there Is Still Hope
Stained glass of the Pieta from the Vatican Library in Vatican City
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.
– Anne Lamont
Good Friday Hope
Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.
– George Iles
Let us reach together today
Prayer Is an Act of Hope – An Act of Faith
May our spirits be lifted with our prayers, no matter the season
A Holy Thursday Prayer
Pray, even if you feel nothing, see nothing. For when you are dry, empty, sick or weak, at such a time is your prayer most pleasing to God, even though you may find little joy in it. This is true of all believing prayer.
– Julian of Norwich
Spy Wednesday
One can’t murder murder through killing
On “Spy Wednesday” – so called because it is the day before Judas, the traitor, sold Jesus out for a bag of silver, these words from Martin Luther King, Jr., are most appropriate.
Through violence you may murder a murderer but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.
– Martin Luther King
Prayer is Hope in Action
To clasp hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.
– Karl Barth
Yesterday’s photo, but with a suggestion of just how we might redeem our cities. Hope in action!
Recover the Gifts of Faith, Hope, and Endurance
How shall we redeem our streets?
We do not have to sit around immobilized, waiting for help to come. We can learn to care for our society. If our streets are to be redeemed we will have to commit our own human and financial resources to that goal. We will have to recover our gifts of faith and hope and endurance, evoke the gifts of other persons, and thus develop leaders and facilitators for the building of a global network of small, disciplined, self-critical groups whose reflection will issue in purposeful action. This is a way to join in the liberation movement that is going on in all the poor countries of the world. We are not the initiators of this movement. Even the suffering ones of the earth are not the initiators, though they are the genuine leaders. The movement is God’s.
– Elizabeth O’Connor, Source: Servant Leaders Servant Structures
