Liturgies

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

If Christ did not rise for us, then Christ did not rise at all, since Christ had no need of it just for Christ’s self. In Christ the world arose, in Christ heaven arose, in Christ the earth arose. For there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

St. Ambrose of Milan, as quoted in  John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Sexton Crossan, 

Resurrecting Easter, p.1

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

I often notice that there’s a real difference between saying I have enough and actually experiencing the truth of it. But I don’t want the beautiful sufficiency I’ve cultivated in any area of my life to simply be a declaration — I want to feel that enoughness way down in the depths of my body, my nervous system, my spirit, my every day life.

 — Nicole Antoinette, Wild Letters blog, Jan. 13, 2025 (https://nicantoinette.substack.com/)

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION
Blessed are you
who bear the light
in unbearable times,
who testify
to its endurance
amid the unendurable,
who bear witness
to its persistence
when everything seems
in shadow
and grief.
Blessed are you
in whom
the light lives,
in whom
the brightness blazes—
your heart
a chapel,
an altar where
in the deepest night
can be seen
the fire that
shines forth in you
in unaccountable faith
in stubborn hope
in love that illumines
every broken thing
it finds.
Jan Richardson,
“Blessed Are You Who Bear the Light”
in Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons, p 47.
LIGHTING THE ALTAR CANDLE

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

Hope is not wishing: no, not that tentative.

Hope is not wanting: no, not that self-centered.

Hope is trust in grace unseen,

already there, already unfolding,

the seed beneath, the child within.

Hope is surrender to a greater movement,

acceptance that I am the thread

and the tapestry is vast.

Hope is confidence in spring as winter approaches.

Hope is belief in the fullness of time.

Hope is knowing in death and suffering

there is a healing presence.

Hope is patience, letting grace take its time.

Hope is planting ourselves in a future

that exists only in our acting:

raising children, loving enemies, planting trees.

Hope is awaiting the One Who is Here.

— Steve Garnaas-Holmes, “We Live by Hope,”
 https://unfoldinglight.net/2019/12/09/gjylxrs66zw2w78jgp8jb93j85spj7/

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

You can’t get to any of these truths by sitting in a field smiling beatifically, avoiding your anger and damage and grief. Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth. We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in – then we will be able to speak in our own voice and to stay in the present moment.
And that moment is home.  Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p. 200