“My Lord and My God”

Happy Easter! Alleluia Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

I am aware that I started last weeks Easter email with the same greeting. Yet I am often struck by how quickly I am to “move on” after Easter. To see it as a day, rather than a season. One of the wonderful things about Easter is that it is a season in the church which is as long as Lent and so stretches ahead of us for the next 5 weeks until we reach Pentecost. We can sing, dance, dwell, sit and rejoice in the Easter message of resurrection, new life and hope for a few weeks to come. In this season we have some of the most intimate and beautiful passages of scripture to read and reflect on, as the disciples recall their own resurrection encounters with Jesus and how we hear from the Acts of the Apostles about the very beginnings of the Church.

This weeks gospel has the story of Thomas, and the words that he utters as he sees the wounds of Christ are ones that have always had a significant spiritual strength for me. “My Lord and My God”. They are the words that run through my head and heart when I receive the chalice at communion. A statement of belief. A definite commitment time and time again to faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

This Sunday we worship in the following ways across the benefice:

Sunday 16^h April

10am Sung Holy Communion – St Marys

10.30am – Holy Communion with Hymns – All Saints

This week ahead we have the following:

The Week Ahead

Wednesday 19^th April 9.00am – Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints

Thursday 20^th April 10am Holy Communion – St Marys

Saturday 22^st April 12.00 – 2pm –Saturday Lunches – St Marys

Sunday 23^th April 8am Holy Communion – All Saints BCP

10am Holy Communion– St Marys

10.30am Café Church – All Saints

I leave you with a poem that I found online and fell in love with – by Fr Jim Schmitmeyer

Ask anyone who has ever shoved aside the rock of life
And uncovered the light of God
They’ll tell you a story
About the power of hope, the power of faith, the power of love
A story about transformation
A story of what its like to die of suburban boredom
Or body addiction
Or emotional dismay
Only to be born again, be new again, live life again
A resurrected life
An eternal, neverending life.
All because of Christ.
Hear their stories
And think of your own.
The event that changed you.
The influence that formed you
The sacraments that save you
Because, somehow, someway
You too have brushed up against Christ
And, somehow, learned the truth about God
Somehow, someway,
Christ has called your name
You’ve seen his face
You’ve heard his voice
You’ve touched his scars.

Happy Easter! Alleluia Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia

Revd Lizzie