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A Prayer for the Feast Day of Frances Perkins
Loving God, we bless thy Name for Frances Perkins, who in faithfulness to her baptism envisioned a society in which all may live in health and decency: Help us, following her example and in union with her prayers, to contend tirelessly for justice and for the protection of all, that we may be faithful followers of Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
10 April 1880: Labor Secretary Frances #Perkins is born in #Boston, Massachusetts. She was the first #female cabinet member and is the longest service #Labor Secretary, having served from March 4, 1933 until June 30, 1945. #history #OTD #HappyBirthday #ad https://t.co/ShRi75iIoJ pic.twitter.com/jyzWRhB7Tv
— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) April 10, 2022
A prayer for the day from E. W. Benson
Almighty Father, Lord of heaven and earth: Of thy great goodness, we beseech thee to give and preserve to our use the fruits of the earth, the treasures of the mines, and the harvest of the sea, so as in due time we may enjoy them with thanksgiving; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Robert de Mowbray, rebel earl of Northumbria, refused to attend the Whitsun court of William II, Rufus, king of the English, at Windsor #OTD in 1095. William ordered a siege castle named Malveisin, ‘bad neighbour’, be built before Bamburgh. Robert was later seized. 📸Ian Capper pic.twitter.com/g2dRPfQztp
— North Ages (@NorthAges) May 13, 2026
From the morning Bible Readings
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
–Ephesians 1:1-10
Tussen de buien door kans op wat zon. Fijne woensdag😀 #zonsondergang pic.twitter.com/8GXAZMPYnM
— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) May 13, 2026
More Music for Easter–How Great Thou Art
Listen to it all (and enjoy the inside of the Cathedral).
More Poetry for Easter–Pied Beauty
GLORY be to God for dappled things,
For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow,
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls, finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced, fold, fallow and plough,
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange,
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim.
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change;
Praise him.
–Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
Good morning everyone wishing you a lovely day 😀last week’s wonderful wander along beautiful Burbage Brook to see the Pied Flycatchers in Padley Gorge 💚 pic.twitter.com/N96ttTAHrQ
— doristhehat (@doristhehat) May 12, 2026
More Hans Urs von Balthasar on Easter: ‘He it is who walks along paths that are no paths, leaving no trace behind’
What links them together so that, all the same, they are the history of a single being, dying, dead and now rising again? A single world meaning, which has passed away and gone, to acquire new, eternal reality, presence and future in God? This is a problem of theological logic; perhaps it is the problem that the theologians have never attended to and that, if it were taken seriously, would threaten to throw into confusion all our beautiful Archimedean drawings on paper. And yet it is what is called the Logos tou staurou, the word and the message of the Cross, by Paul, who, in Corinth, renounces all other worldly and divine wisdom because God himself “will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever. . . . Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? . . . I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Risen too, of course, the “firstfruits of the dead”. Yes, he, he is the continuity for which we have been looking, the connecting thread linking ruin and rising, which does not break even in death and hell. He it is who walks along paths that are no paths, leaving no trace behind, through hell, hell which has no exit, no time, no being; and by the miracle from above he is rescued from the abyss, the profound depths, to save his brothers in Adam along with him.
And now there is something like a bridge over this rift: on the basis of the grace of the Resurrection there is the Church’s faith, the faith of Mary; there is the prayer at the grave, the faithful watching and waiting. It is a lightly built bridge, and yet it suffices to carry us. What it spans, however, is not some indifferent medium but the void of everlasting death. Nor can we compare the two sides as if from some higher vantage point; we cannot bring the two together in some rational, logical context by using some method, some process of thought, some logic: for the one side is that of death in God-forsakenness, and the other is that of eternal life. So we have no alternative but to trust in him, knowing, as we walk across the bridge, that he built it. Because of his grace we have been spared the absolute abyss, and yet, as we proceed across the bridge, we are actually walking alongside it, this most momentous of all transformations; we do not observe it, but can only be seized and pulled into it, to be transformed from dead people into resurrected people. May the sign of this transformation be found on our Janus destiny. May its mark be branded on each of our works, those that come to an end inexplicably and those that, inexplicably, are resurrected through grace. Their two faces can never meet; they can never behold each other, and we can never link up the two ends because the rope across the chasm is too short. So we must put it into God’s hand: only his fingers can join our broken parts into a whole.
Design for the Fugger Chapel in Augsburg resurrection of Christ, 1510 #dürer #durer https://t.co/6ZI85LNZhH pic.twitter.com/UTiEVaDpox
— Albrecht Dürer (@artistdurer) February 18, 2023
Bernard of Clairvaux on Easter–It behooves us “to fill our hearts with faithful meditations” on His Passion and His Resurrection
….the bridegroom rejoices to revisit the heart’s chamber when He finds it adorned with fruits and decked with flowers””that is, meditating on the mystery of His Passion or on the glory of His Resurrection.
The tokens of the Passion we recognize as the fruitage of the ages of the past, appearing in the fullness of time during the reign of sin and death (Gal. 4.4). But it is the glory of the Resurrection, in the new springtime of regenerating grace, that the fresh flowers of the later age come forth, whose fruit shall be given without measure at the general resurrection, when time shall be no more. And so it is written, ‘The winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth’ (Cant. 2.11 f); signifying that summer has come back with Him who dissolves icy death into the spring of a new life and says, ‘Behold, I make all things new’ (Rev. 21.5). His Body sown in the grave has blossomed in the Resurrection (I Cor. 15.42); and in like manner our valleys and fields which were barren or frozen, as if dead, glow with reviving life and warmth.
The Father of Christ who makes all things new, is well pleased with the freshness of those flowers and fruits, and the beauty of the field which breathes forth such heavenly fragrance; and He says in benediction, ‘See, the smell of My Son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed’ (Gen. 27.27). Blessed to overflowing, indeed, since of His fullness have all we received (John 1.16). But the Bride may come when she pleases and gather flowers and fruits therewith to adorn the inmost recesses of her conscience; that the Bridegroom when He cometh may find the chamber of her heart redolent with perfume.
So it behoves us, if we would have Christ for a frequent guest, to fill our hearts with faithful meditations on the mercy He showed in dying for us, and on His mighty power in rising again from the dead. To this David testified when he sang, ”˜God spake once, and twice I have also heard the same; that power belongeth unto God; and that Thou, Lord, art merciful (Ps. 62.11f). And surely there is proof enough and to spare in that Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification, and ascended into heaven that He might protect us from on high, and sent the Holy Spirit for our comfort. Hereafter He will come again for the consummation of our bliss. In His Death He displayed His mercy, in His Resurrection His power; both combine to manifest His glory.
–Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), On Loving God, Chapter III
I don't know if Rembrandt saw the resurrected Jesus or if he dreamed about him, but a look like this can't be made up.
— MaaikeDx 🖌 (@RembrandtsRoom) April 1, 2024
Rembrandt, the resurrected Christ, 1661 pic.twitter.com/3jbEsMfvX6
A prayer for the feast day of Saint Brendan of Birr
O God, who in your mercy called your servant Saint Brendan and gifted him with the courage and the wisdom to act as a peacemaker at the Synod of Meath, help us and bring reconciliation to your church and our troubled world., through Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit ever liveth and reigneth in glory everlasting, Amen (moved from earlier in May).
9 May, 29 Nov: St Brendan "the elder" (d. 565-573) of Biorra/#Birr #Offaly. 1 of 12 Apostles of Ireland! Studied under St Finian of Clonard. Prophet; at synod of Teltown spoke on St Columba's behalf. Birr later produced 8/9th C MacRegol/Rushworth Gospels, now in @bodleianlibs! pic.twitter.com/RtR4Jodqo6
— Irish History Bitesize! (@lorraineelizab6) May 9, 2026
A prayer for the day from B F Westcott
Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth, in whom we live and move and have our being: We beseech thee to send thine abundant blessing upon the earth that it may bring forth its fruits in due season; and grant that we, being filled with thy bounty, may evermore give thanks unto thee, who art the giver of all good; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Een stuk kouder opeens, een gure wind en plaatselijk buitjes. Fijne dinsdag😀 #zonsondergang pic.twitter.com/MO2Rr3bd7Y
— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) May 12, 2026
From the morning Bible Readings
“Hear then the parable of the sower. When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Matthew 13:18-23
Striking sunrise across the Cannon's at the Black Castle 🌅🏰
— This is Ireland 🇮🇪☘️ (@ThisIsIreland3) May 12, 2026
📍County Wicklow – Ireland 🇮🇪
📸 Pat Davis
#Wicklow #Ireland #Sunrise #BlackCastle pic.twitter.com/N8UcJooXV9
Emil Brunner on Easter–It ‘represents the inbreak of the eternal world of God into our temporal sphere’
“But it is putting things the wrong way round to assert, as has been recently done, that the faith in the resurrection is ‘nothing other than faith in the Cross as a saving event’ (4). The event of Good Friday left the disciples in a state of indescribable sadness and disillusionment. Had nothing further happened, faith in Christ would have collapsed, no ecclesia would have arisen, the knowledge of Jesus would not have reached us, the event ofJesus would have merged as an unimportant episode ofJewish sectarian history into the darkness of world history. That this did not in fact happen, that, rather, the tiny flock of Christ’s disciples filled and conquered the world with their knowledge of Christ, took place solely and exclusively because Jesus Christ showed Himself to them as the Risen One, and, as the living present Saviour, founded in them a new life.” Eternal Hope, p. 143
“For our part we would prefer to interpret the manifold discrepancy of the Easter reports as an indication that the fact to which they bear witness is in the strict sense of the word eschatological; that is, the beginning of the advent of the eternal consummation, of the life of the world to come, which cannot be grasped in the categories proper to this space-time world (6) . The resurrection of Jesus is as an event the utterly incomprehensible and transcendent, the beginning of the Parousia, of which the one might say obvious characteristic is its incomprehensibility, its non-coordinability (7), the utter impossibility of expressing it in the terms of our thought and ideas.
The resurrection is an incomprehensible event because it represents the inbreak of the eternal world of God into our temporal sphere. Thus it is something which no man can understand or describe, because it is the cancellation of space-time existence. But it is also quite plainly the self-testimony ofJesus Christ, of the Crucified, as the Living One. The New Testament reports emphasize in different measure and in different ways this twofold factor: The Risen Lord is recognizable as the same Jesus whom we knew in His earthly life and He is also quite other than He was in His earthly life.”
–Emil Brunner Eternal Hope, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954). p.144.
Raffaellino del Garbo 1466 1524 Studio per una Resurrezione e mani pic.twitter.com/k5Gy46gPtl
— Ugo Ramella (@RamellaUgo) May 11, 2026
More Music for Easter–Easter Song, 2nd Chapter of Acts
Watch and listen to it all from the original writers of the song.
Yes, yes, it is dated, but still wonderful.
Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion? Then I thought, "…I will remember your miracles of long ago … and meditate on all your mighty deeds."
— John Bell's Bible Verse Art Gallery (@jrbellArt) May 10, 2026
Psalm 77:9-12https://t.co/bLJuYVmzPY#bibleverse #easter #cross #crucifixion #poppy #poppies pic.twitter.com/sRMoaH63XI
(Commonweal) B D McClay–You Can’t Earn Easter Finding Joy as Real as Sorrow
Does our response to Easter reflect poorly on us? There’s not a simple answer. Easter is simply a more challenging subject than Christmas; in that sense, it’s only to be expected. It could also be that there’s some amount of modern unease with enthusiastically declaring you think somebody, historically, did really come back from the dead—that, while Christians still live in expectation, they believe some of their expectations have already been fulfilled in history. Christianity is more easily lived as a sort of everlasting Ingmar Bergman film: better to expect and expect and never have to deal with the realization of expectation—to enjoy, even prioritize, uncertainty, doubt, and anguish.
Another reason, I suspect: Christianity, or at least American Christianity, has a difficult relationship with joy. (Though given that the most recent papal exhortation is called “rejoice and be glad,” perhaps it’s a global problem.) For those American Christians whose faith has been shaped—inevitably—by a reaction to the various feel-good Christianities that abound, the safest thing to do is simply to avoid any occasion of happiness. Focusing on anything other than the cross feels like cheap grace, a concession to the facile optimism all around us. We don’t deserve Easter, the general upbeat nature of the culture makes it impossible to celebrate properly anyway, and as soon as is humanly possible we should retreat back into the shadows.
It would certainly be foolish to claim that American culture is overly penitential, or that we aren’t ridden with cheap grace. But all grace, by definition, is undeserved; that applies no less to the brooding intellectual than it does to the flagrantly wicked. And what distinguishes cheap grace from grace isn’t the extremity of our penance or devotion to suffering (read: brooding), but recognition of sin and a contrite heart—not, precisely, the same thing. Avoiding cheap grace may mean avoiding grace altogether.
Andrea Mantegna
— Solas (@solas_na_greine) March 31, 2024
The Resurrection (detail)
c.1459 pic.twitter.com/Zkuc4KH3DJ
More Poetry for Easter–Christopher Smart’s Easter Day
O GLADNESS! that suspend’st belief
For fear that rapture dreams;
Thou also hast the tears of grief,
And failst in wild extreams.
Tho’ Peter make a clam’rous din,
Will he thy doubts destroy?
Will little Rhoda let him in,
Incredulous with joy?
And thus thro’ gladness and surprize
The saints their Saviour treat;
Nor will they trust their ears and eyes
But by his hands and feet.
These hands of lib’ral love indeed
In infinite degree,
Those feet still frank to move and bleed
For millions and for me.
A watch, to slavish duty train’d,
Was set by spiteful care,
Lest what the sepulchre contain’d
Should find alliance there.
Herodians came to seal the stone
With Pilate’s gracious leave,
Lest dead and friendless, and alone,
Should all their skill deceive.
O dead arise! O friendless stand
By seraphim ador’d—
O solitude! again command
Thy host from heav’n restor’d.
The Resurrection
— David Metcalfe (@davidbmetcalfe) December 9, 2018
Master of the Osservanza, tempera on wood panel, ca. between 1440 and 1445 pic.twitter.com/ZlFsVF0Lsw
A Prayer for the Feast Day of Johann Arndt and Jakob Böhme
Holy God, who dwellest with them that are of a contrite and humble spirit; Revive our spirits; purify us from deceitful lusts; and cloth us in righteousness and true holiness; though Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God now and for ever. Amen.
Johann Arndt (1555–1621) was a faithful German Lutheran pastor, who wrote ‘True Christianity’ deeply influencing Lutheranism. While some saw him as ‘too mystical,’ his Christ-centered devotion was rooted in Luther’s theology. Law/Gospel, repentance/faith. Arndt kept them together pic.twitter.com/yoQl2RIAS4
— Shepherds of Light (@YardenaNhura) January 29, 2025
A prayer for the day from the ACNA prayerbook
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Good morning! #SunsetBeach @EdPiotrowski @medwick @DylanHudlerWXII @jamiearnoldWMBF @LeeHaywoodWX @dogwoodblooms @marioncaldwx @JustinMcKeeWx @StarboardRail @ThePhotoHour @CMorganWX @Christina4casts @AndrewWMBF @ScottyPowellWX @jgreenhillwx @TimBuckleyWX @matt_wx @clairefrywx pic.twitter.com/y3YC7Bq2Dd
— Mark Moore (@MMoore_hoops) May 11, 2026
From the Morning Bible Readings
And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
–Colossians 1:9-14
The Firehole River. Yellowstone. A good day. pic.twitter.com/bAhWeKFYaK
— blueridgemountain_man (@blueridgem_m) May 10, 2026
A prayer for the day from the Canadian Prayer Book
Almighty and merciful God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Bless, we beseech thee, the labours of thy people, and cause the earth to bring forth her fruits abundantly in their season, that we may with grateful hearts give thanks to thee for the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God world without end.
"The poetry of the earth is never dead."
— Cian McCarthy (@arealmofwonder) May 10, 2026
~ John Keats
Flower Meadow in the North
🎨 Harald Sohlberg (1905) pic.twitter.com/0HyTKNMAwc
From the morning Scripture readings
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord.
–James 1:2-8
Sunday morning ❤️ pic.twitter.com/xZGp2lcwio
— Alison O’Neill ~ Shepherdess (@woolismybread) May 10, 2026
A Prayer for the Feast Day of Gregory of Nazianzus
Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who livest and reignest for ever and ever.
St. Gregory Nazianzen, Doctor of the Church (389)
— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) May 9, 2026
He was educated in Athens where he became friends with St. Basil the Great, by whom he was consecrated bishop of Nazianzus. He had a profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, and St. Jerome states that St. Gregory was his catechist. pic.twitter.com/M75UxI4vMe
A prayer for the day from Frederick B. Macnutt
O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst say that in thee we may have peace, and hast bidden us to be of good cheer, since thou hast overcome the world: Give ears to hear and faith to receive thy word; that in all the confusions and tensions of this present time, with mind serene and steadfast purpose, we may continue to abide in thee, who livest and wast dead and art alive for evermore.
“His mercies are new every morning.”
— Amanda Kunitza (@ponygirl345) May 9, 2026
— Lamentations 3:23
Every sunrise carries evidence that God has not stopped being faithful. pic.twitter.com/kDVjkYpuah
From the Morning Bible Readings
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
–Matthew 7:13-21
Grenoble #Grenoble #France #MagnifiqueFrance #actualite pic.twitter.com/ZUUaPJ4hnT
— Grenoble métait conté (@grenoblephotos) May 9, 2026
Jim Trainor on Easter–I believe the story and that is why I know that I will see my mother again
I believe the story. With my head, looking at the evidence and thinking logically as a person who was a research physicist for twenty-five years, I believe it. And after listening to the testimony of people–from beggars to kings–through all the ages who had concluded that the story is true, I believe it. And at the innermost levels of my heart, where the deepest truths reside but are not easily put into words, I believe it is true.
And that is why I know that I will see my mother again someday. It’s not just wishful thinking, some little tale I’ve fooled myself with because I can’t face the cold hard facts of life. Yes, I will see Della Mae, and I am convinced that it will be a day of great victory and joy. St. Paul says that it will be like putting on a crown, and St. John says that it will be a time when every tear will be wiped away from my eyes. That’s what will happen someday to me. But what Jesus did affects me right here today also — I know that this Jesus who overcame death and the grave has promised not to leave me here twisting in the wind. He is with me every day, through his Spirit, to guide me, comfort me, embolden me, and use me for his glory and to serve his people, right here, right now.
La Resurrección de Cristo
— Amigo de Frodo (@bpdflores) May 25, 2020
Bartolomé Bermejo
c. 1475
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunyahttps://t.co/58WM9WSWkh pic.twitter.com/ghpUuNuxim
More Music for Easter–Casting Crowns – “Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)”
Among the lyrics are:
One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now is ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him
From rising again
Listen to it all.
Edith Humphrey For Easter–Seeing is Believing: The Witness of St. Thomas
Here, in their very midst was the author of Life, bringing to them the word of his peace. And that is not all: not just a mending, but something greater than they could ever think or imagine was about to happen. He gives to them a new commission. Adam and Eve had been told to govern and protect the created order as God’s custodians. But this one true human being, this Jesus, this One who is truly God, truly the Son of Man, calls a new family into his service: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” From now on the job would be not simply to care for creation, not just a work of maintenance. Rather, his disciples are enfolded, made part of the Father’s work of restoration. They are to go, to heal, to restore what has been lost, to seek those who have been lost.
Such a role may seem too great for humankind. After all, it is God himself who is the shepherd of the sheep. But here we are at the dawn of a new creation, a new era in which God’s people are being called no longer simply servants—though servants we are—but FRIENDS. Who is up for this task? The answer is, of course, not one of us. That is why Jesus does not simply give his disciples instructions. He also gives them his very life.
Think again about the Narnia chronicles. What is it that Aslan does as soon as he has won, with the stone table cracked, the bonds broken and the deep magic accomplished? Why, he visits the dungeon of the White Witch, and begins to breathe upon those who have been petrified, frozen by her evil. He breathes, and they are restored back to life. What Jesus does here on that first Easter evening is even greater: not only does he breathe to restore the disciples back to life. No, he does more. He says to them “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Back at Eden, God gave to humankind the breath of life. Now God the Son hands over to his disciples the One who is in Himself the Breath of new life, the very Spirit of God. Not merely a life force, but the Lord of Life comes to be with these frightened disciples: and they will never be the same. It is as though Aslan had breathed upon a stone cat and made him not merely a living creature but a little lion, bursting with the same vigor of the great Aslan himself, ready to do the work of freeing and bringing joy to those in darkness and in prison.
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (c. 1602), by Caravaggio pic.twitter.com/VPB4fjUdCR
— The Art Curator (@SeekAfterBeauty) April 5, 2026
(NBC) Friday pick me up story on Baseball, Chicago and Generosity
‘A Chicago Cubs fan who needed a kidney found a donor in a crosstown rival, a fan of the Chicago White Sox. Recently, the recipient and her donor threw out the first pitch at a Cubs game. NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas reports.’
A Prayer for the Feast Day of Julian of Norwich
Lord God, who in thy compassion didst grant to the Lady Julian many revelations of thy nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek thee above all things, for in giving us thyself thou givest us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The 14th Century mystic Mother Julian of Norwich is remembered today. She kneels with her cat in glass by Paul Jefferies at St Thomas, Norwich. Little is known about her, not even her real name, but in 1373 during a deadly illness she received visions she called Revelations of… pic.twitter.com/uyml39zcm1
— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) May 8, 2026
A Prayer to Begin the Day from Bishop Walter Frere (1863-1938)
O Lord, who hast called us to fight under the banner of thy cross against the evil of the world, the flesh and the devil: Grant us thy grace, that clothed in purity and equipped with thy heavenly armour, we may follow thee as thou goest forth conquering and to conquer, and steadfast to the last we may share in thy final triumph; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.
Morning everyone I hope you are well. The bluebells are in full bloom, so it's time to visit my local woods. Here near Clappersgate, not a bad start. Have a great day. pic.twitter.com/fBeiCXwOfx
— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) May 8, 2026
From the Morning Bible Readings
Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
that he might make known his mighty power.
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry;
and he led them through the deep as through a desert.
So he saved them from the hand of the foe,
and delivered them from the power of the enemy.
–Psalm 106:8-10
Avondrood mooi weer aan boord. Fijne vrijdag😀 #zonsondergang pic.twitter.com/MfyavBfeh5
— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) May 8, 2026
