Transforming in to the people of The Resurrection

Empty Tomb- He Qi

The Good Friday altar is bleak

three crosses, rough with nails,

we are mean to think

of someone in pain, approach

a cross, each step a prayer,

and take a nail to lighten

the burden. I think of you,

John O’Donohue- for Good Friday – Echoes of Memory

We don’t typically have to wait for much nowadays, we can tell when its going to rain in the swipe of a finger, the probability of a sports score in a mater of seconds, the sex of an unborn child in an afternoon. We can choose to exile the pain and suffering of those around us, to hide those we don’t agree of worse embarrass us.

The women on that first Easter morning - who didn’t have the luxury of choice in waiting - rushed to the tomb in garden in hope and reality, with words of Jesus ringing in their ears, along with the mutterings of doubters. But they waited, trusted and believed.

They hadn’t lived through Triduum after Triduum, years of vigils, but rather; the death of a friend, son and brother; 3 days of agony of questions; exiles- friends disappearing. 

And then as they hear the whispers of past, of their Friend our Christ, they see the unimagined the stone moved the tomb empty.  

As I sit with these women some 2000yrs on I remember that I to am able to wait to discover the unimagined, to question, to open my ears and my heart to the words of past beloveds, to let my soul speak to that of the son, friend, brother which dwells in those around me. And with this comes a newness, like the birdsong in that garden with those women,  as I do every morning with the hearts that shape my day.

We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts and when we find it, we are meant to give it away generously.

The dawn that is rising this Easter morning is a gift to our hearts and we are meant to celebrate it and to carry away from this holy, ancient place the gifts of healing and light and the courage of a new beginning.”

John O’Donohue Easter Sunrise at Corcomroe

O Adonai

O Adonai- O Lord

Sr. Ansgar Holmberg, CSJ

O Lord and Ruler of the house of Israel, Who didst appear unto Moses in the burning bush, and gavest him the law in Sinai, come to redeem us with an outstretched arm.


The name we give God, the names we give each other, help us deepen our relationships. We are know not only by those we love by our names, but by God. 
As we deepen our understanding of what it is to embrace God in our lives God has ver time given us opportunities to experience The One. 


Moses and The burning Bush a way of experiencing God,

There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned." Is. 3:2

For early Christians this bush, full of the fire of God’s presence, yet still itself and unconsumed, was a sign of the Lord Christ who would come, who would be fully God and yet also fully human.

With the coming of God in Jesus, we are reminded of how God calls us to be close to God, and that we are people who need to be guided, we are offered a new beginning. 

For a New Beginning

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.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the gray promises that sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this.

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.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~ John O’Donohue ~