What a privilege to join our pastoral team in leading a small band of pilgrims through the different stages of Holy Week and Easter animated by the scripture readings and embodied by marking the principal events in relevant ways :
The Passover meal with ‘pesach’, ‘haroset’, ‘maror’, ‘matzos’ etc; all the meals shared together over the week; vigil fires around the firepit which became the fire to light the new paschal candle; the grounds for walking and praying and sitting at the foot of the cross in the meadow; the labyrinth for pondering our experiences; and of course the chapel with the transformation of the centre piece as the week progressed. The remarkable exhibition of stations at the cross by different artists. The emptiness, waiting and watching of Holy Saturday .The huge cross lying on its side being stood up with a cover of white and gold to which Bield companions had contributed panels is such a powerful image of …..
Goodness is stronger than evil, Love is stronger than hate;
Light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death;
Victory is ours, Victory is ours
through God who loves us.
Desmond Tutu
And nature sings its song of greening and new life all round. It’s stunning . For our Easter Dawn service, a heron took off as we walked to the site of the renewal our baptismal vows, a babbling stream, the sun broke through on clue, our cattle, ever curious, all came as near as they could to follow. We felt blessed.
The potential for Holy Week and Easter or let’s say all spiritual experiences to really be embodied and to be experienced on the levels of Body, of Mind, and Spirit is one of the special gifts of the Bield. After all these years, I am still grateful for the God who meets me like that, who leads me on towards wholeness, in faith, love and life.
It is a particularly poignant time for me, as , after close to 25 years, I step down from daily Bield work at the end of Easter week. Although I have mixed emotions, I can think of no better time to set out on a new journey with Christ than now.
May the risen Christ fill you with his life and love.
How do you experience resurrection wherever you are?
Marianne
There was no cross cross enough
To nil me
To still me
I hung as gold that bled, and bloomed
A rose that rose and prised the tomb
Away from Satan’s wilful doom
There was no cross, death, grave
Or room
To hold me.
Excerpt from Stewart Henderson’s poem , “There was No”
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