This week, in the lead-up to Easter, my personal thoughts about the Resurrection found themselves expressed in the form of a sourdough starter that I was growing from scratch. Each day I wrote a five-line reflection on the process. While Jesus’ death and resurrection is of a scale far bigger than anything growing in aContinue reading “Resurrection Bread: A Holy Week Poem”
Tag Archives: resurrection
Rise (Easter Morning)
Other Ways to Practise Resurrection, Or, How to Beat a Pandemic: After Wendell Berry
When others horde, share. When others sneeze, do not be startled. When the numbers rise, take heart. For your life is more than your days on earth and your planet is more than a virus. When the shops are packed with people and the shelves are emptied of products, do not push and shove andContinue reading “Other Ways to Practise Resurrection, Or, How to Beat a Pandemic: After Wendell Berry”
Unless I See: After Caravaggio’s “Incredulity of Saint Thomas”
No need to touch the scars; Caravaggio got that detail wrong. The sheer force of His presence made Thomas crumple, doubt ceasing where belief gained life, the parched taste, hesitant like salt, exultant like wine, as loosened lips croaked, My Lord and my God. Yet I am comforted to see both the outstretched hand andContinue reading “Unless I See: After Caravaggio’s “Incredulity of Saint Thomas””
Resurrection Day
Nothing should compare to this:our singularity that, with earthquake force,shakes stones, baffles Rome, turnsthe mourners from the tomb with lightning conviction. And day on day this truth remains,though I have dishes to washand the ever-turning of the presentmakes me more a sullen Peter returning to his net than a Mary, fleeing the dead, for dearContinue reading “Resurrection Day”
Silent Day
“So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.”(John 19:42) This in-between space is our home ground:the time after glories and horrors alike,the time before or after sleep –and sometimes, sometimes it is a stretch, sometimes a quest, or a rest.Yet the tomb is crackingContinue reading “Silent Day”
Damascus 1
Something ends here: paused mid-threat, flung groundward, the man called Saul can breathe no more murder while the horse kicks up its hooves and he points his arms half-desperate at heaven. Something begins here yet it looks altogether like dying: the fall, the pervasive dark, the eyes failing to see, and yet the spirit cognisantContinue reading “Damascus 1”
Chiaroscuro
To Cleopas and his friend, the revelation and its impact no doubt stuck. Their paradigm, irremediably shifted, could hardly go back. Such things as resurrections we don’t forget in any hurry. Yet for those serving at table, I wonder: did the light dawn so quickly, so decisively? More or less a normal night’s work, andContinue reading “Chiaroscuro”
Open
And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. (Luke 1:64) No good unless used for you: only death, only a swallowing tomb. No sweet grapes from a rotten vine; no figs budding from a cursed tree. When speaking, we curse; when silent, bones waste… Until the words, HeContinue reading “Open”
Catechism 50
What does Christ’s resurrection mean for us? Christ triumphed over sin and death by being physically resurrected, so that all who trust in him are raised to new life in this world and to everlasting life in the world to come. Just as we will one day be resurrected, so this world will one day be restored. ButContinue reading “Catechism 50”
The Consolations of Writing 