ST. PAUL'S
Episcopal
CHURCH
Generous Community · Enduring Worship · Gracious Welcome
Monday in Holy Week
Prayer: Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; in Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Lessons: Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 36:5-11 John 12:20-36
As my only sister was dying of cancer, I tried to visit her as often as I could, driving the five hundred miles each way over a weekend. With my work and family pulling at me, I struggled to get to her once or twice a month. Winter snows turned into the green of Spring, which I hardly noticed in my long drives to visit her as she lay dying. On my last visit, as we talked quietly, she told me of her love for her Lord. I could sense that she was close to her final hour.
The next day, being Sunday, I stopped to worship before my drive home. I was surprised that it was Easter Sunday. Never had the words of the Easter story meant more. Never had the light of the resurrection shined brighter in my heart. Never had the hymns of the church lifted higher my soul. The promise of Easter was a personal promise of God to my sister and to me. I never saw my sister again in life, but that promise abides.
We are the Easter people, who live in the light of the promise of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. We walk in the light of the resurrection, the light that shines on all our paths through this life. No matter what happens to us, our God is with us in Christ Jesus, in this life and the next. This is the joy, the light, the glory of Easter, and the promise of God to each of us. We are the sons and daughters of the Easter light.
George Pejakovich+
Grace Cathedral