Dear Friends,

Holy Week is many things. It is the human experience in its fullness. It is about power. It is about the ugly side of human nature. It is about our mortality and death. It is about fear and faith. It is about re-birth and hope.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he asked both directly and indirectly for us to look more closely at ourselves. He asked for us to examine our shadows, our default patterns of thought and behavior, our inertia, our resistance to change. He was brilliant. He saw us. He invited us to see everything differently.

So my question is a simple one: “What do you want to get out of Easter this year?” It may sound like a silly question. But I think not. Is Easter about family? Sure. Is Easter about a church service that feels obligatory? Maybe. Is Easter about dressing up and eating good food? I hope so (particularly if those things are good for your soul). Yet alongside of these considerations, our tradition tells us that Easter is a seminal event. It makes proclamations about ‘who we are’ and ‘what matters most’.

John O’Donohue writes poignantly about the journey into Easter:

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life's desire.

See you on Sunday morning,

Carter