Spring is the season of renewal. Easter is the shedding of all that would hold our spirits down and keep us earthbound; it is the embracing of new life that transcends and ascends.
© Angela Kellogg
Spring is the birthplace of sacraments: the washing of feet, the breaking of bread, the draining of the cup. This is the season for pilgrimage: the preparation of Gethsemane, the gathering in the upper room, the cross-laden journey to Golgotha, the weighty walk to the tomb, the joyful run to “go tell.”
© Angela Kellogg
The process of the seed, fallen, buried in the earth, is spring: the shedding of protective coverings, the insistent unfolding in the quiet stillness beneath the surface of embryonic beginnings, the pull sunward of sprouting, living things. A newfound courage to grow, to become—this is spring!
This is the time for resolutions that began this new year/decade to become reality. This is the time for words to become deeds, for ought-to’s to become habit.
© Angela Kellogg
In this morning of the year, may the resurrection be more than a day in the ecclesiastical calendar. Deep in the veins of our souls, may life stir like the blood beginning to move in a man crucified. May living warmth work its way from the heart to the hands, and may we begin to move as one made alive who was dead!
It’s morning, Lord, and my senses are rested from yesterday’s assault of stimulation. I am aware of the delicious regularness of this day: the clean, cool sheets against my skin, the fragrant familiarness of this house, the sound of my husband’s much loved body breathing beside me, the white pine branch brushing against the window, the children talking and giggling upstairs in their parents’ childhood rooms.
© Angela Kellogg
Help me to savor the simplicity of today, Lord, to hold each tasty morsel on my tongue and enjoy its gift before I swallow it into the process of my life.
I would live sacramentally.
“This is my body...”
I hold this moment of Your Life and give transforming thanks. May these simple elements be changed into Your very self as I partake of them. May the life-blood of this scarlet morning move through my veins making me a part of this day…and of You.
I raise my chalice and toast the dawn. “Do this in remembrance…”
Prayer 67 from A Book of Simple Prayers by Gloria Gaither, © Gloria Gaither. 2008 Gaither Music Group, Alexandria, Indiana
In the light of the present pandemic, I want to share the attached 4 minute video from our friend Andy Andrews.