Reflections for May 2025

The beginning of the Easter story is very personal and individual. Each of Jesus’s close companions, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Thomas, has to discover, or rediscover, the risen Lord in their own way. As the ripples spread, this process becomes less of an individual quest – people are coming to Jesus in larger groups. It’s necessary […]

As the Easter story moves forward, we hear how the church is now needing structures and organization beyond simply following the original disciples. Paul and Barnabas are appointing “elders” for their new groups of believers, using a framework familiar in Jewish life anywhere away from Jerusalem and its temple rituals.  But there is more to

The Easter stories we have heard so far are stories of joy, stories of discovery, of discovery of something that was thought lost, discovery of something even better than what went before. This week we hear how there is also a dark side to these stories. Or, if not exactly dark, that there are challenges

This week we continue with readings illustrating three very different types of Easter experience.  For John of Patmos his mystical experience now extends from the personal and individual that he started with, to encompass “everything in the universe” (Revelation 5:11-14). This is a common feature of mysticism in all religious traditions, combining the intensely personal