Holy Week and Easter Week are always such a busy time in church life and yet it is busy precisely because it is a time when we set aside time to prepare ourselves for Christ's death and resurrection.
To enter into the mystery of Easter is to travel joyfully in the Palm Sunday procession; hesitantly through the darkness of Maundy Thursday, the deep sorrow of Good Friday, and the stillness of Holy Saturday, and to step with confidence into the beautiful dawn of Easter Sunday.
This year my Easter journey has been blessed by a special Eucharist with the Bishop and other ordinands on Holy Wednesday, an all night vigil with a group of teenage friends on Maundy Thursday, the privilege of leading a Good Friday meditative service at my home church and a wonderful Easter morning service full of life and gratitude at St Mary's where we welcomed two new members to our church family in Baptism.
But the journey is doesn't end when we reach the Bank Holiday, or even when I go back to work tomorrow. As Jerome Berryman would say, Easter is such a great mystery that it cannot be kept to one day or even one week, but spills over into the coming weeks as we continue to live in the light of the Resurrection.
"This is the resurrection, that in his death we have come to know life and can freely offer our life to God."
I hope and pray that whatever you are doing and wherever you are each of you is having a peaceful and blessed Easter.
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