Almighty and everlasting God, who hast willed to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King and Lord of all: Mercifully grant that all peoples and nations, divided and wounded by sin, may be brought under the gentle yoke of his most loving rule; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end.

Wishing you a fabulous Friday from North Yorkshire 😊 pic.twitter.com/DTptYwQ8ss

— Nicky (@NickyJohnsonNY) May 15, 2026

Hannah also prayed and said,

“My heart exults in the Lord;
my strength is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in thy salvation.

“There is none holy like the Lord,
there is none besides thee;
there is no rock like our God.
Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
The Lord kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low, he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
and on them he has set the world.

“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones;
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
for not by might shall a man prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces;
against them he will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king,
and exalt the power of his anointed.”

–1 Samuel 2:1-10

Errigal / Thanks to @onlymccoyle/instagram for the shot #donegal #ireland @wildatlanticway @Failte_Ireland pic.twitter.com/DS99t0N6lx

— iDONEGAL (@idonegal_) May 15, 2026

Additionally, early Christians were not, as is commonly assumed, bound to a three-tier vision of the universe, i.e., heaven, hell, and earth.

[W]hen the Bible speaks of heaven and earth it is not talking about two localities related to each other within the same space-time continuum or about a nonphysical world contrasted with a physical one but about two different kinds of what we call space, two different kinds of what we call matter, and also quite possibly (though this does not necessarily follow from the other two) two different kinds of what we call time.

So heaven and earth, understood in this way, are two dimensions of the same reality. They “interlock and intersect in a whole variety of ways even while they retain, for the moment at least, their separate identities and roles.” Combine this with the doctrine of the ascension and we do not have a Jesus who floats up into a heaven “up there” but disappears into a reality we cannot yet see. Because heaven and earth are not yet joined Jesus is physically absent from us. At the same time he is present with us through the Holy Spirit and the sacraments, linkages where the two realities meet in the present age.

Read it all.

29th May is the feast of the Ascension#AscensionDay
BnF MS 1186; Psalter of St Louis & Blanche de Castille; 13th century; f.27v @GallicaBnF pic.twitter.com/fNjARyEuBq

— Ennius (@red_loeb) May 28, 2025

Ascension theology turns at this point to the Eucharist, for in celebrating the eucharist the church professes to know how the divine presents itself in our time, and how the question of faithfulness is posed. Eucharistically, the church acknowledges that Jesus has heard and has answered the upward call; that, like Moses, he has ascended into that impenetrable cloud overhanging the mountain. Down below, rumours of glory emanate from the elders, but the master himself is nowhere to be seen. He is no longer with his people in the same way he used to be. Yet he is with them, in the Spirit.

–Douglas Farrow, Ascension Theology (New York: T and T Clark, 2011), p. 64

L'#Ascension, à S. Jean de Latran (photo en septembre dernier). #HdA pic.twitter.com/GAJo92oSav

— Martin Dumont (@MDumont75) May 14, 2026

The readers may learn out of our Institutions what profit we reap by the ascension of Christ. Notwithstanding, because it is one of the chiefest points of our faith, therefore doth Luke endeavor more diligently to prove the same; yea, rather, the Lord himself meant to put the same out of all doubt, when as he hath ascended so manifestly, and hath confirmed the certainty of the same by other circumstances. For, if so be it he had vanished away secretly, then might the disciples have doubted what was become of him; but now, sith that they, being in so plain a place, saw him taken up with whom they had been conversant, whom also they heard speak even now, whom they beheld with their eyes, whom also they see taken out of their sight by a cloud, there is no cause why they should doubt whither he was gone. Furthermore, the angels are there also to bear witness of the same. And it was needful that the history should have been set down so diligently for our cause, that we may know assuredly, that although the Son of God appear nowhere upon earth, yet doth he live in the heavens. And this seemeth to be the reason why the cloud did overshadow him, before such time as he did enter into his celestial glory; that his disciples being content with their measure might cease to inquire any further. And we are taught by them that our mind is not able to ascend so high as to take a full view of the glory of Christ; therefore, let this cloud be a mean to restrain our boldness, as was the smoke which was continually before the door of the tabernacle in the time of the law.

–Commentary on Acts

The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Alleluia! Christ ascends into heaven as Lord. Come, let us adore him. Alleluia!

“Behold, I am with you always, to the very end of time”

JesusCaritas

(Image by the Indian Christian artist A.D. Thomas) pic.twitter.com/UZfAPS2Acm

— Barry Naylor ن (@KaJuror) May 14, 2026

The remedy for unprofitable spiritual stargazing lies in a Christian theology of history, an understanding of the order of events in the divine programme. First, Jesus returned to heaven (Ascension). Secondly, the Holy Spirit came (Pentecost). Thirdly, the church goes out to witness (Mission). Fourthly, Jesus will come back (Parousia). Whenever we forget one of these events, or put them in the wrong sequence, confusion reigns. We need especially to remember that between the ascension and the Parousia, the disappearance and the reappearance of Jesus, there stretches a period of unknown length which is to be filled with the church’s world-wide, Spirit-empowered witness to him. We need to hear the implied message of the angels: ‘You have seen him go. You will see him come. But between that going and coming there must be another. The Spirit must come, and you must go—into the world for Christ.’

–John R W Stott, The Message of Acts:To the ends of the earth (Downers Grove, Il.: InterVarsity Academic, 1990), p.2

The angels speak to the disciples, explaining their joy at Christ’s return and what it means for heaven and earth. But then the poem turns from narrative to reflection, following, in its most famous section, Gregory the Great’s exposition in a homily on the Ascension of the ‘leaps of Christ’:

Hence it is that Solomon has put into the mouth of the Church the words: Behold, He cometh! leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

These hills are his lofty and noble achievements. “Behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains.”

When He came to redeem us, He came, if I may so say, in leaps. My dearly beloved brethren, would you know what His leaps were?

From heaven he leapt into the womb of the Virgin, from the womb into the manger, from the manger on to the Cross, from the Cross into the grave, and from the grave up to heaven.

Lo, how the Truth made manifest in the Flesh did leap for our sakes, that He might draw us to run after Him for this end did He rejoice, as a strong man to run a race.

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, it behoves us in heart and mind thither to ascend, where we believe Him to have already ascended bodily.

Read it all.

'So the beautiful bird ventured into flight.
Now he sought the home of the angels above,
that glorious country, bold and strong in power.'

Today is Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter. A wonderful Anglo-Saxon poem about Christ's 'leap' into heaven: https://t.co/MfwI6d6GOC pic.twitter.com/gYJttcg5jM

— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) May 14, 2026

O Thou merciful and loving High Priest, who hast passed within the veil and art in the presence of the Father: Help us with thy mighty intercession, that, our unworthiness being clothed upon with thy perfect righteousness, we may stand accepted in the day of thy coming; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

'Hail the day that sees him rise'

Today is #AscensionDay, when we celebrate Christ's Ascension into Heaven, forty days after Easter.

Everyone is welcome to join us for Sung Eucharist at 5pm (BST), either in the Abbey or via our livestream. The service will be sung by… pic.twitter.com/R9hXxQIiig

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) May 14, 2026

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is thy name in all the earth!

Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted
by the mouth of babes and infants,
thou hast founded a bulwark because of thy foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars which thou hast established;
what is man that thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that thou dost care for him?

–Psalm 8:1-4

Bore da o St James’s Park wrtha i a’m ffrind🦢

Good morning from St James’s Park from me and my friend🦢

Have a good’n x pic.twitter.com/4Fjz6ILupm

— Aled Hall 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@AledHall) May 14, 2026

Next comes the resurrection from the dead. Without this what we have said so far would be incomplete. For since only weakness appears in the cross, death, and burial of Christ, faith must leap over all these things to attain its full strength. We have in his death the complete fulfillment of salvation, for through it we are reconciled to God, his righteous judgment is satisfied, the curse is removed, and the penalty paid in full. Nevertheless, we are said to ‘have been born anew to a living hope’ not through his death but ‘through his resurrection’ [I Peter 1:3 p.]. For as he in rising again, came forth victor over death, so the victory of our faith over death lies in his resurrection alone. Paul better expresses its nature: ‘He was put to death for our sins, and raised for our justification’ [Rom. 4:25]. This is as if he had said: ‘Sin was taken away by his death; righteousness was revived and restored by his resurrection.’ For how could he by dying have freed us from death if he had himself succumbed to death? How could he have acquired victory for us if he had failed in the struggle? Therefore, we divide the substance of our salvation between Christ’s death and resurrection as follows: through his death, sin was wiped out and death extinguished; through his resurrection, righteousness was restored and life raised up, so that–thanks to his resurrection–his death manifested its power and efficacy in us.

–John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.xvi.13 (emphasis mine)

Happy 2024 Easter to my friends with Ressurection by Mathias Grünewald. pic.twitter.com/B0PoGd4IxZ

— Sonia von Homrich 🔰 (@SoniavonHomrich) March 27, 2024

Done is a battle on the dragon black,

Our champion Christ confoundit has his force;

The yetis of hell are broken with a crack,

The sign triumphal raisit is of the cross,

The devillis trymmillis with hiddous voce,

The saulis are borrowit and to the bliss can go,

Christ with his bloud our ransonis dois indoce:

Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

Dungan is the deidly dragon Lucifer,

The cruewall serpent with the mortal stang;

The auld kene tiger, with his teith on char,

Whilk in a wait has lyen for us so lang,

Thinking to grip us in his clawis strang;

The merciful Lord wald nocht that it were so,

He made him for to failye of that fang.

Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.

Read it all.

🎨Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones – The Morning of Resurrection, 1886 pic.twitter.com/OmfglvN1SP

— Andre Wisniewski (@AndreWisniewsk2) May 5, 2024

The United States has the largest gap of any country in job market perceptions between younger and older adults, with the former feeling much less positive. In 2025, 43% of Americans aged 15 to 34 said it was a good time to find a job locally, 21 percentage points lower than for Americans aged 55 and older.

It is rare for younger adults to be significantly less positive about local job conditions than the oldest age group. In only five other places — China, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Norway — does this pattern hold, in which younger adults lag by at least 10 points.

Globally, a median of 48% of adults aged 15 to 34 said it was a good time to find a job locally in 2025, compared with 38% of adults aged 55 and older, a gap of 10 points in the other direction.

Read it all.

Young Americans' job market optimism falls as older adults stay upbeat, new Gallup poll finds https://t.co/FoXt6CXwKa

— Drmikemyers (@drmikemyers) May 11, 2026

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

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

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

Listen to it all (and enjoy the inside of the Cathedral).

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

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.

Read it all.

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

….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.

Rembrandt, the resurrected Christ, 1661 pic.twitter.com/3jbEsMfvX6

— MaaikeDx 🖌 (@RembrandtsRoom) April 1, 2024

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

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

“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 🌅🏰

📍County Wicklow – Ireland 🇮🇪

📸 Pat Davis

#Wicklow #Ireland #Sunrise #BlackCastle pic.twitter.com/N8UcJooXV9

— This is Ireland 🇮🇪☘️ (@ThisIsIreland3) May 12, 2026

“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

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."
Psalm 77:9-12https://t.co/bLJuYVmzPY#bibleverse #easter #cross #crucifixion #poppy #poppies pic.twitter.com/sRMoaH63XI

— John Bell's Bible Verse Art Gallery (@jrbellArt) May 10, 2026

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.

Read it all.

Andrea Mantegna
The Resurrection (detail)
c.1459 pic.twitter.com/Zkuc4KH3DJ

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) March 31, 2024

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.

Read it all.

The Resurrection

Master of the Osservanza, tempera on wood panel, ca. between 1440 and 1445 pic.twitter.com/ZlFsVF0Lsw

— David Metcalfe (@davidbmetcalfe) December 9, 2018

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

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

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