Eastertide

Easter Day begins the week of weeks--the joyous season of Eastertide. 

Many of us reaching Easter day think all is done; the long weeks of Lent are over; the resurrection of Jesus is real; so now we return to our regular way of living, of doing things, of being.  But wait!  The resurrection is too amazing an event to be comprehended in one day.  No way we can absorb what God has done in Jesus in a mere 24 hours.  Even if we have a lifetime of Easter days the incredible reality of life's continuity beyond death, of God's unimaginable love, of the unity of humanity and creator is more than we can make sense of in one short day.

So we begin a time of reflections and meditations.  We enter into a time of thankfulness and rejoicing.  For the next seven weeks, 50 days from Easter Day to Pentecost Sunday, we will observe this season.  How will you mark these days?  Give it some thought.  Will you continue a Lenten discipline of prayer and study?  Should you plan a weekly time of remembering?  Is there a special project or charity that calls you?  Take some time now to decide to make this Eastertide memorable!

A devotional booklet providing ideas for observing this season is available on the St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church website. (It can be accessed by www.saintb.org/Easter and can be downloaded to your computer or other device.)  You will find in it each week a meditation on a gospel passage and another meditation on a selection form Acts, both follow the lectionary topics for that week.  Various types of meditations are suggested--immerse yourself in the scene living the experience, reading the passage several times slowly letting it sink deeper and deeper, or studying the passage using questions and a commentary.  One of the meditations each week is recorded so you can close your eyes and meditatively enter the space.  Also each week are suggestions for a personal activity and a group/family activity.  For example in week 2 the suggestion is made that you plan with others how you would respond to a serious spring storm and in week 4 you alone might create a dialogue with your image of the Good Shepherd.  Each week a picture from the isle of Iona invites gazing and imagining and a hymn recorded by our organist invites singing and rejoicing.  Finally making seven sections a weekly reflection is offered for consideration and comment.

I invite you to look at this and use this space to comment and dialogue.  I look forward to hearing of your journey.

Blessings on a joyous Eastertide.