Easter Morning

Early in the morning, Mary comes to the grave of her friend… Today we lift up those who like Mary are  in grief, pain,  trauma, injustice, turmoil or distress. Those whose belief in change and possibility is dashed.  Let these be the first to glimpse hope, to feel grace– the grieving, the oppressed, those who have given up, those for who life has stopped. Let us proclaim, insist, celebrate, that unexplainable grace, unimaginable new life, unbelievable  transformation, comes first to these ones and flows across our aching troubled world.  Christ is risen. Alleluia

Words and image: Jennifer Henry

Easter 2022

Thinking tonight about how grief lingers, sticks to each bone and sinew, presses into our flesh and whispers in our breath. Never ends, really. Never leaves. And while this is the sad essence of life, it is also the most powerful testimony of our capacity to love.

While I am thinking about my own love list of losses, I also linger today on all those who have died whose stories have left the front pages and yet, for their families and friends, the loss has only deepened. If, over this last year, at the time of the tragic uncovering of graves or other devastating deaths, we have said some version of “thoughts and prayers,” if we have raised our hands in honour, if we have spoke or acted in consolation as the person or people have passed through the news reels of our consciousness, can we spend another moment now?

Words: Jennifer Henry

September 8 2021