FIRST MONDAY OF EASTER
APRIL 1, 2024
DAILY SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 16
John 20:1-9
This past Sunday, Pastor Clark preached from John 20. This week we will have a daily Psalm to pray and a passage from John 20 along with a daily discipline, reflection, meditation, poem, or prayer.
REFELCTION ON SCRIPTURE:
There are three key lessons that follow from the disquieting fact of the Resurrection.
First, this world is not all there is. The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead shows as definitively as possible that God is up to something greater than we had imagined. We don’t have to live as though death were our master and as though nihilism were the only coherent point of view. We can, in fact, begin to see this world as a place of gestation toward something higher, more permanent, more splendid.
Second, the tyrants know that their time is up. Remember that the cross was Rome’s way of asserting its authority. But when Jesus was raised from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit, the first Christians knew that Caesar’s days were, in point of fact, numbered. The faculty lounge interpretation of the Resurrection as a subjective event or a mere symbol is exactly what the tyrants of the world want, for it poses no real threat to them.
Third, the path of salvation has been opened to everyone. Jesus went all the way down, journeying into pain, despair, alienation, even godforsakenness. He went as far as you can go away from the Father. Why? In order to reach all those who had wandered from God. In light of the Resurrection, the first Christians came to know that, even as we run as fast as we can away from the Father, we are running into the arms of the Son.
Let us not domesticate these still-stunning lessons of the Resurrection. Rather, let us allow them to unnerve us, change us, and set us on fire.
Reflect: How does the Resurrection imbue your daily life with hope?
by Robert Barron
FIRST TUESDAY OF EASTER
APRIL 2, 2024
DAILY SCRIPTURE:
PSALM 33
JOHN 20:10-16
DAILY MEDITATION: FROM THE COMMUNITY
IMMEASURABLE, UNLIMITED, AND SURPASSING
Lonetta Key
John 20:10-16
In verses 1- 9 John relates the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene and Peter and John. But what follows is the focus of our consideration. It begins with a fascinating and rather startling comparison between reactions to the same event.
The two disciples took a look into the tomb and “Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.” (verse 10) How easily their curiosity was satisfied. How quickly their interest waned. It would appear their priority was returning to their routine lives, while leaving the happening of a life time for Mary. Rather mind boggling when one considers the enormity of what they had just witnessed.
Mary, on the other hand, was moved to tears and went back to take one more look. What a blessing she received. It resulted in a conversation with two angels, asking her why she was crying. An encounter which Peter and John completely missed out on in their rush to get on with their day. Mary’s experience was enlarged and magnified because she was so deeply involved in her need to know where her Lord was.
In the process of answering their question—“They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him”—she turned around. What a pivotal move that was. There stood Jesus. But in her grief she did not recognize Him. As did the angels, He also asked why she was crying.
Here is an interesting reflection. Mary, thinking He was the gardener was so determined to find Jesus she willingly volunteered to go get His body wherever it was. And now we read the ultimate reward that came to such a devoted follower of Christ. He spoke her name and immediately Mary realized it was Jesus. So in tune was she with the voice of her Master she immediately recognized Him. She was the first to see and interact with the risen Lord. What an awesome privilege. Just think what the other two missed.
There are several applications to be derived from the text. How well do we know the voice of Jesus? Are we immediately cognizant when He speaks to us—when He calls our name? Are we even listening to hear His dulcet tones?
How much of an effect does the resurrection have in our daily living? Even though it occurred over 2000 years ago it has not lost any of its potency. The New Testament is resplendent in its depiction of the exorbitant power the resurrection should have in the life of a Christian.
Paul tells us in Romans 8:11 that the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead also lives in our mortal bodies. That Spirit is alive in us.
In Philippians 3:10 Paul expresses his desire to more “deeply and intimately come to know the power outflowing from the resurrection which it exerts over believers.” (Amplified translation; emphasis added)
Once again, in Ephesians 1:20, Paul speaks of the immeasurable, unlimited, and surpassing greatness of the power that raised Christ from the dead.
Oh my dear brother and sister do we respond to the empty tomb like the two disciples? if only our reaction would emulate Mary’s—if only we could begin to grasp what resurrection power can do. We would be propelled into spiritual heights heretofore unimagined.
May each of us be so absorbed and saturated with that power that with total confidence we can say, “I know He is alive. I have seen Jesus and I know He saw me too.” God has spoken through the resurrection. Let the church say amen and sing Alleluia.
FIRST WEDNESDAY OF EASTER
APRIL 3, 2024
DAILY SCRIPTURE:
PSALM 105
JOHN 20:17-22
DAILY DISCIPLINE: MEDITATION ON SCRIPTURE
Today we will provide a Meditation and Reflection during the Lenten Journey.
LET’S BEGIN:
SIT IN YOUR QUIET SPACE:
READ SCRIPTURE:
Read slowly and allow the words to penetrate.
JOHN 20:17-22
SILENCE:
If you would like to set a timer for 5 or 10 min. If you haven’t practiced mediation or it has been a while maybe start with 5 minutes.
Find a posture as you sit with a straight back; I like to think a tall back. Pretend a string is coming down from ceiling and is attached to the top of your head.
Not rigid and not too relaxed.
CENTERING PRAYER:
“Jesus, let me feel your love.”
Repeat 3-4 times.
SILENT MEDITATION:
Once you feel centered begin:
Sit in silence. If your mind begins to wonder don’t stress. Come back to the breath and the centering prayer 2 or 3 times.
If images or words come to mind. Don’t focus to hard on them just make a note of it and get back to the breath and centering prayer.
Once the timer has gone off you may open your eyes.
READ SCRIPTURE A SECOND TIME:
John 20:17-22
CENTERING PRAYER:
Eyes open or closed.
Begin Centering Prayer
Breathe in … “Lord have mercy,”
Breathe out… “Christ have mercy.”
Or whichever prayer you choose.
SOLITUDE AND SILENCE:
Sit in silence before the Lord another 5- 10 minutes.
CLOSING:
Pray the Lord’s Prayer
Amen.
FIRST THURSDAY OF EASTER
APRIL 4, 2024
DAILY SCRIPTURE:
PSALM 8
JOHN 20:24-29
DAILY DISCIPLINE: POETRY
The haiku is a Japanese poetic form that consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.
This haiku is Holy Spirit inspired from John 20
By Maria Monetta
Easter morning light,
Glorious resurrection,
Our Lord is alive!
Take some time and read through our scripture in John or the Psalm and write your own Haiku, or a poem on something that stood out to you, or just write freely what the Holy Spirit brings to you.
FIRST FRIDAY OF EASTER
APRIL 5, 2025
DAILY SCRIPTURE:
PSALM 118
JOHN 20:30-31
Dear FPCH family, it has been another one journey together through Lent and into our first week of Eastertide. May you continue to lean on and surrender to our LORD. This was a short piece I shared with many after Pentecost 2023, but I thought it would be good to share with you all this Easter 2024.
“We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our Song!”
by: Tom Hartshorn
We have moved out of the season of Lent and celebrate the resurrection of our LORD this Eastertide. During Eastertide Season, I close many conversations or emails with the phrase, “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our Song!”
I had a friend ask me, “When you use the term, ‘We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our Song’ , what does that mean to you? I love the expression and had never heard it before you used it. I have my own opinion as to its meaning, but I wanted to know your take.”
So here my take to that wonderful question…
I begin my thoughts on Easter people with our hope specifically tied and grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we do not believe that Jesus was raised there is nothing to proclaim Hallelujah! Which is “Praise ye the Lord!” This wonderful word hallelujah is used in our songs/hymns and is found in scripture when God’s people cried out for joy, thanksgiving, and adoration for the Lord most high.
With Christ’s resurrection God has begun his new creation. Through this new creation we are moved as Christ Followers into a new life. Not just personal salvation but of a HOLY new life, which not only fills us but spills over to others that we interact, work, and live with daily. We proclaim through faith that we are “resurrection people” thus we are Easter People. Not only praising God but giving others a taste of the Kingdom here and now and the one to fully come in Christ’s return.
The world is a dark place, and it wants to snuff out the light of the Good News of new creation; the new life we receive through Christ’s resurrection. As Easter people we are the light on the hill, the salt of the earth and the hope for the kingdom to come. This is the mystery and wonder of our new life with Christ that began that first easter morning. When the angels proclaimed, “He is not here. He is Risen!”
Below is a quote from Pope John Paul II, where he uses this joyous phrase, “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.” He is credited with the quote, but many believe it may have come from an early writing of St Augustine. Since as you will see in the quote below the Pope uses quotation marks around the “Easter People,” proclamation:
“We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery* – the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. ‘We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!’”
So, our Alleluia song is not just in the music, praise, and worship. But how we are transformed into radically “newly created” people who love the enemy, care for the poor, mourn with those in mourning, are peacemakers, who are agents of reconciliation, people of hope, ones who shine light in the darkness and are called to proclaim/live this out to the ends of the earth.
Easter People live out the commandment of our Lord:
Matt 22:37-40 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Amen.
* the term paschal mystery simply refers to the events of Christ’s death and resurrection and their significance for us, which we can only truly understand when our hearts are enabled to do so by God’s grace.