Lent, Day Fifty-Three, Easter Saturday

Lent, Day Fifty-Three, Easter Saturday
Somehow joy is much harder to express than sadness. It seems that we have more words for sickness than for health, more for abnormal conditions than for normal conditions. Does this mean there is less joy in life than sadness? Perhaps. But it is also possible that joy is in fact a deeper, more intimate, more "normal" condition than sadness, and pain and therefore harder to articulate.

For Jesus, joy is clearly a deeper and more truthful state of life than sorrow. He promises joy as the sign of new life...

Jesus connects joy with the promise of seeing him again. In this sense, it is similar to the joy we experience when a dear friend returns after a long absence. But Jesus makes it clear that joy is more than that. It is "his own joy," flowing from the love he shares with his heavenly Father and leading to completion.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective, pg 109

Scripture:
⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.John 15:5-11

PRAYER
Loving God, our Father, let my life be a witness to your commandments, let me not be as a withered branch that is thrown into the fire and burned. May I pray to you in joy and in times of adversity. Amen.

EASTER ACTION
No greater gift of love could be demonstrated than the death of our Lord on the cross in reparation for our sins. Perhaps then Eastertide is a better occasion for giving gifts than Christmas. In celebration of Christ's resurrection, give small gifts of commemoration.

Lent, Day Fifty-Two, Easter Friday

Lent, Day Fifty-Two, Easter Friday
In prayer, God's presence is never separated from God's absence and God's absence is never separated from God's presence. The presence of God is so much beyond the human experience of being together that it quite easily is perceived as absence. The absence of God, on the other hand, is often so deeply felt that it leads to a new sense of God's presence. This is powerfully expressed in Psalm 22. [My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?]

This prayer not only is the expression of the experience of the people of Israel, but also the culmination of the Christian experience. When Jesus spoke these words on the cross, total aloneness and full acceptance touched each other. In that moment of complete emptiness all was fulfilled. In that hour of darkness new light was seen. While death was witnessed, life was affirmed.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, pg 106

Scripture:

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.^[b]

³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.^[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
⁸ “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
    “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.”

¹⁶ Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce^[a] my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
¹⁸ They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.

Psalm 22:1-8, 16-18

PRAYER
God of presence and absence, I know that no matter if I feelyour nearness or remoteness, you have never forsaken me. I, however, have alienated you through sin. Somehow I hope that these sins will not be fruitless, but will be transformed through your forgiveness. Amen.

EASTER ACTION
Collect small stones for each person whom you need to forgive. Keep these stones in your pocket or purse as reminders of your intent to seek and grant forgiveness. Remember an old Welsh proverb: «Love flows out of every act of forgiveness:'

Lent, Day Fifty-One, Easter Thursday

Lent, Day Fifty-One, Easter Thursday
Life is... a short moment of waiting. But life is not empty waiting. It is to wait full of expectation. The knowledge that God will indeed fulfill the promise to renew everything, and will offer us a "new heaven and a new earth," makes the waiting exciting...

The "little while" is a precious time. It is a time of purification and sanctification, a time to be prepared for the great passage to the permanent house of God. What is my task during my "little while"? I want to point to the signs of the Kingdom to come, to speak about the first rays of the day of God, to witness to the many manifestations of the Holy Spirit among us.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Sabbatical Journey: A Diary of His Final Year, pg 104

Scripture:
¹⁶ Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
¹⁷ At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 
John 16:16-18, 20, 22

PRAYER
Eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, though I am here for "a little while;' keep me ever aware that my earthly weeping and mourning will be replaced by rejoicing when I see you in your heavenly glory. Amen.

EASTER ACTION
Give up nursing grief over past mistakes and instead find a reason to plan and participate in one joyful·celebration.

Lent, Day Fifty, Easter Wednesday

Lent, Day Fifty, Easter Wednesday
To follow Christ means to relate to each other with the mind of Christ; that is, to relate to each other as Christ did to us--in servant-hood and humility. Discipleship is walking together on the same path. While still living wholly in this world, we have discovered each other as fellow travelers on the same path and have formed a new community... We have become a new people with a new mind, a new way of seeing and hearing and a new hope because of our common fellowship with Christ. Compassion, then, can never be separated from community. Compassion always reveals itself in community, in a new way of being together.

Henri J.M. Nouwen, Donald P MacNeil, and Douglas A. Morrison
Compassion: A Reflection of the Christian Life, pg 102

Scripture:
¹³ Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles^[a] from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶ but they were kept from recognizing him.
²⁸ As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. ²⁹ But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
³⁰ When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³² They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
³³ They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together

Luke 24:13-16, 28-33

PRAYER
Great God of the entire human family, give me the ability to recognize Jesus in all whom I meet. Help me to give up my self-centered blindness and open my eyes so that I can acknowledge that we all are one in you. Amen.

EASTER ACTION
Think back and meditate on when you may have "passed by" our Lord as did the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Lent, Day Forty-Nine, Easter Tuesday

Lent, Day Forty-Nine, Easter Tuesday
I know that [listening to the Church] isn't a popular bit of advice at a time and in a country where the Church is often seen more as an obstacle in the way than as the way to Jesus. Nevertheless, I'm deeply convinced that the greatest spiritual danger for our times is the seperation of Jesus from the Church. The Church is the body of the Lord. Without Jesus there can be no church; and without the Church we cannot stay united with Jesus. I've yet to meet anyone who has come closer to Jesus by forsaking the Church. To listen to the Church is to listen to the Lord of the Church.

Specifically, this entails taking part in the Church's liturgical life, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost: these seasons and feasts teach you to know Jesus better and better and unit you more and more intimately with the divine life he offers you in the Church.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
Letters to Marc About Jesus, pg 100

Scripture:
³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. ⁴ For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Romans 12:3-5

PRAYER
God of all power, you who left me in the freedom of my own human will, let me dispense with what overfills my life and leaves no room for God and his works. Help me to jettison the idolatry of all that I clutch to so tightly: money, family, fame, other people, and so on. Let me roll away the rocks from in front of my own tomb, let me find a world of new possibilities in your joyful resurrection and in the fullness of your love. Amen.

EASTER ACTION
Now is not the time to be dismal. Smile at all those you meet today.

Lent, Day Forty-Eight, Easter Monday

Lent, Day Forty-Eight, Easter Monday
We often wonder what we can do for others... It is not a sign of powerlessness when we say: "We must pray for one another." To pray for one another is, first of all, to acknowledge, in the presence of God, that we belong to each other as children of the same God. Without this acknowledgement of human solidarity, what we do for one another does not flow from who we truely are...

To pray, that is, to listen to the voice of the One who calls us his "Beloved", is to learn that voice excludes no one. Where I dwell, God dwells with me and where God dwells with me I find all my sisters and brothers.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
Here and Now: Living in the Spirit, pg 98

Scripture:
 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, ² and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
³ But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
⁴ Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? ⁵ Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”
⁶ Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. ⁷ Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”
Genesis 20:1-7

PRAYER
God of ail, I am on this journey of life which is a cycle of life to life: I am born, I live, I die to be born to eternal life. As I pass through on this journey, let my own sinful self die and a new person rise to the challenges of praising you. I will keep the words of the liturgy ever in mind this Eastertide: "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again." Amen.

EASTER ACTION
The word liturgy means "work of the people:' Make a list of why the celebration of the Sunday liturgy is the most significant event of the week. You might take this opportunity to write a special thank you to the ministers of your parish.

Lent, Day Forty-Seven, Easter Sunday

Lent, Day Forty-Seven, Easter Sunday
Easter morning. A very simple, quiet Eucharist around the table in Madame Vanier's dining room... A small group of friends happy to be together.

We spoke together about the resurrection. Liz, who works with many anguished people, said, "We have to keep rolling away the large stones that prevent people from coming out of their graves." Elizabeth, who lives with four handicapped people... said "After the resurrection Jesus had breakfast again with his friends and showed them the importance of the small ordinary things of life.: Sue... said, "It is such a comfort to know that Jesus' wounds remain visible in his risen body. Our wounds are not taken away, but become sources of hope to others."

Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey, pg 96

Scripture:

³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.Romans 6:3-8

PRAYER
God of never-failing light, you who created the bright lights of the sky,you who have no hint of darkness, grant that your flame of hope will renew my intention to serve you and to inflame and purify my actions with your love and mercy. Amen.

EASTER ACTION
Observe this great day with prayers of thanksgiving and with actions symbolizing the significance of our salvation. Wear white on this joyful day in honor of your baptism and in memory of this verse from Revelation: "They stood before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands-(7:9). Spend some time by candlelight this day in honor of the paschal candle that is lit from the Easter Vigil fire and carried into the church to the words "Christ our Light." Or you may wish to create Easter baskets for the poor and needy.

Lent, Day Forty-Six, Holy Saturday

Lent, Day Forty-Six, Holy Saturday
Most of the day I spent preparing... for the Easter Vigil celebration... After the Gospel reading I reflected on the significance of our faith in the resurrection of the body. As a community of people conscious of our disabilities [at L'Arche Daybreak], we are held together not so much by the Word as by the body... It is the weak bodies of our core members that create community. We wash, shave comb, dress, clean feed, and hold the bodies of those who are entrusted to us and thus build a communal body. As we claim our faith in the resurrection of the body, we come to see that the resurrection is not simply an event after death, but a reality of everyday life. Our care for the body calls us to unity... to intimacy... and to integrity.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Sabbatical Journal: The Diary of His Final Year, pg 92

Scripture:
¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh^[a] was put off when you were circumcised by^[b] Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you^[c] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.Colossians 2:11-14

PRAYER
God of eternal wisdom, hear my call for help as I keep watch with Christ's disciples at his tomb. Inspire me, as you did Joseph of Arimathea, to find a place of burial for my Lord. I wait in anticipation for the Easter light to deliver me from the darkness of my sins. Amen.

LENTEN ACTION
Mary, the steadfast one, stayed with her Son even through the sorrowful events of the crucifixion. Meditate on the melancholy occurrences of our Mother Mary's life on this day of silent waiting.

Lent, Day Forty-Five, Good Friday

Lent, Day Forty-Five, Good Friday
About a hundred of us walked from the meeting hall to the Dayspring chapel, each carrying a stone to symbolize our burden and our brokenness. We stopped three times to remember how Jesus is condemned to death, Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry the cross when Jesus falls, and Veronica wipes Jesus' face with her towel. Jesus is nailed to the cross.

Michael, Adam's brother, dressed in an alb and with a crown of thorns on his head is Jesus... We sing and listen to reflections on the passion of Jesus. In the cahpel we place our stones on or around the cross... Lorenzo hammers three big nails in the cross, piercing the silence.

Yes, it is goo Friday. In the midst of all the grief and mourning, there is sweet consolation. We are together, and there is love pouring out from our broken hearts and from the pierced heat of God.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Sabbatical Journey, pg 90

Scripture:
⁴⁵ From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶ About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,^[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).^[b]
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹ The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
⁵⁰ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
Matthew 27:45-52

PRAYER
God of all beginnings and endings, whose Son is your blessed image and who was nailed to the cross and crucified this day,let me nail my sins to your cross so that they may die with you. Like the Good Thief, let me pray: "Jesus, Son of God, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Amen.

LENTEN ACTION
Observe Good Friday, or Great Friday, as those in the Eastern churches refer to it, by preparing and eating Hot Cross Buns. Alternately, or in addition, prepare a soup with cabbage, lentils, and vinegar for Good Friday supper in honor of the sponge tinged with gall offered to Jesus on the cross.

Lent, Day Forty-Four, Holy Thursday

Lent, Day Forty-Four, Holy Thursday
The Lord is at the center of all things and yet in such a quiet, unobtrusive, elusive way. He lives with us, even physically, but not in the same physical way that other elements are present to us. This transcendent physical presence is what characterizes the Eucharist. It is already the other world presence in this one. In the celebration of the Eucharist we are given an enclave in our world of space and time. God in Christ is really here, and yet his physical presence is not characterized by the same limitation of space and time that we know...

Contemplative life is a human response to the fundamental fact that the central things in life, although spiritually perceptible, remain invisible in large measure and can very easily be overlooked... The contemplative looks not so much around things but through them into their center. Through their center he discovers the world of spiritual beauty that is more real, has more density, more mass, more energy, and greater intensity than physical matter.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Genesee Diary: Report From A Trappist Monastery, pg 88

Scripture:
¹⁴ When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
¹⁷ After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. ¹⁸ For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
¹⁹ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
²⁰ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.Luke 22:14-20

PRAYER
God of all grace, let the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, always remind me of the breaking of Christ's body and the pouring out of his blood for me and the forgiveness of my sins. Let me shed the false demeanor of Judas, let me always remember his kiss of evil, and never fail to acknowledge my part in this betrayal. Amen. 

LENTEN ACTION
Plan and celebrate a Seder, or Passover meal, today. Make it an ecumenical observance of reconciliation and unity.

Lent, Day Forty-Three, Wednesday of Passion Week

Lent, Day Forty-Three, Wednesday of Passion Week
To say with all that we have, think, feel and are, "God exists." is the most world-shattering statement that a human-being can make... Because when God exists, all that is flows from God... However, as soon as I say, "God exists," my experience no longer remains the center, because the essence of the knowledge of God reveals my own existence as deriving its total being from God's... I no longer let the knowledge of my existence be the center from which I derive, project, deduct, or intuit the existence of God; I suddenly or slowly find my own existence revealed to me in and through the knowledge of God. Then it becomes real for me that I can love myself and my neighbor only because God has loved me first.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
Gracias!: A Latin American Journal, pg_

Scripture:
⁴ By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
⁵ By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”^[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:4-6

PRAYER
Most high God, you who accepted the gifts of Enoch and Abel, accept also my gift of faith offered always and especially during this Holy Week. I believe with my whole being that you exist and have done so from before the beginning of time. Send me a realization of the magnitude of this belief and make this act of faith a life-changing experience. Let my life be rooted in you. Amen.

LENTEN ACTION
Today recite, renew, and meditate on your baptismal vows or the Nicene Creed.