Acts 3:11-26; Psalm 8:2,5-9; Luke 24:25-48

opening
our minds
we see Him
alive
among us
beyond
His wounds
and death
fulfilling
a promised word
from God
that we dare
to believe
as we share
His bread
with one another
nourished
on the joy
of God’s presence
we receive
and give
the blessings
of the day

Has He opened your mind?

Acts 3:1-10; Psalm 105:1-9; Luke 24:13-35

our hearts
are burning
and rejoicing
as we recognize
God among us
sharing
wisdom
life
and bread
that we
may not feel
abandoned
in a world
that often breeds
fear
He is
our beautiful gate
where we return
to health
and strength
faith
and love

Where is your beautiful gate?

Acts 2:36-41; Psalm 33:4-5,18-19,20-22; John 20:11-18

His words
come
through death
seeking
our soul
that hears
Truth
saving us
from
a corrupt
generation
transforming us
through the kindness
of the Lord
that fills
the earth
for those
who can see

Do you see God’s kindness?

Acts 2:14:22-33; Psalm 16:1-2,5-11; Matthew 28:8-15

beyond
our understanding
He lives
risen
from any bondage
of sin
and death
living
among us
His Presence
Holy Spirit
showing us
the path of Life
we leave
our fears
and live
in the hope
and joy
of this
Easter moment

Do you live in the joy of this Easter moment?

you are the one
He loved
at empty tomb
shroud fallen
your heart
awakened
by belief
for love
has risen
beyond this time
beyond this place
stone rolled away
his freedom
soars
from boundaries
and
we begin
anew
love reborn
into eternal
moments
He is known
He is seen
everywhere
each heart
His own
His heart
our own
the empty tomb
answers all
for what God
has given
cannot be put
to death
you are the one
he loves
and death is
no more

Gen : 1-1.1;Gen 1. 1-18;Exod 14.15-15.1; Isa 54 5-13;Isa 55.1-11;Ba3:9-15
Ba 3.32-4.4; Ezek 36.16-28; Romans 6: 3-11; Luke 24. 1-12

in our sorrow
we come to remember
who we are
made in goodness
made for goodness
we remember
the voice of God
whose desire is mercy
not sacrifice
who would save a son
and part the seas
whose enduring love
quenches
our desert thirst
from wisdom’s fountain
we remember
we are made
from eternal life
and light
entering
the darkness of His death
we arise anew
as sea of death
is parted
new heart
new spirit
we no longer seek
the living
among the dead
we live
as the one He loved

Do you remember who you are?
Have you risen with His love?

Holy Saturday

this day
of emptiness
confusion
and longing
his agony
turned
our own
no longer
to hear his voice
feel his touch
follow his step
where has love gone?

he was our Life
our hope
our light
our answer
and now
we are lost
who are we now?

my heart on fire
with grief
who will
console me
there are no words
for this
my sorrow

to see him
broken
bleeding
i cry
my God
why have you
forsaken me

this day
this Life
without Him
i cannot bear
day of poverty
when
i am nothing
i have nothing
filled
with the emptiness
for I have seen
all Love
and now
he is gone

wrapped in his tomb
embraced in darkness
i have died with him
no light
no thought
of life

Have you felt forsaken by God?

WHY THIS CROSS?

why this cross?
this ornament of human suffering
in our musings it can seem quite out of place
in comfort and complacency
yet let one moment of tragedy
need or desperation enter
and this cross is no longer a foreign land
but a shelter and home
a passage of power and transformation
is it magic–some talisman-
so it would seem as it is fashioned in gold
carved in wood and fashioned in beads
strung on necks and molded on rings
held up to vampires to send them rushing back to their graves—

yet kneel–
kneel before the cross
and experience the life
the whispers and struggle
and you will hear the world
the daily news
as the world wrestles with its horror and death
evil and cruelty
selfishness
politics and greed
ideological slaughter
it’s mass destruction
our grieving and loss
starvation and calamities
earths quake and worlds fall
within the cross

we are free to place our burden there
and leave as though it were some receptacle
some garbage pit or scapegoat
yet not for long
for His whispers, movement and life
are too compelling
He calls to us over and over
to visit this strange place of death
that calls us to Life

enter the suffering
the solitude and darkness of the tomb
and answer His call to “pray with me
pray with me
trust in me
the truth of me
the truth of here
and I will bring
you life”

how
long is
our suffering-

as
long
as
it takes
for
new life to begin–then there is no time
at all
no
need-
we
are
completed
resurrected
in His love

                                                                                                         -Susan Morse

Exod 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11: 23-26; John 13: 1-15

you are the one
he loved
gathered in
you followed
gathered round
you shared
reclined at table
you hear his voice
feel his breath
share his laughter
receive
his touch
holding on
to every word
you will remember
his cup
his heart
his wine
his love
he is every meal
your nourishment
every meal
your sustenance
all the miles walked
upon this earth
in time
are changed
within his hands
each step
renewed
with sacred touch
worn upon your feet
he cleansed
to serve
to heal
to love…
you are the one he loved

Is He your every meal?
Are you changed within His hands?

Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 69: 8-10,21-22,31-34; Matthew 26:14-25

faced
with inevitable
betrayal
He lets go
into a path
that many
will follow
as we carry
our cross
with Him
through
suffering
sin
and death
trusting
that the Lord
in great Love
will answer us
with new Life

Do you trust God with your suffering and death?