As we prepare to enter into the great Easter season of fifty days, we invite you to make this time especially rich by taking time each day to stop, even for a few moments, to bring God’s new life into the ordinary moments of your day. We are calling this an Online Retreat.
We invite you to reflect on the Sunday readings during the Easter season, and to hopefully find in them a source to link your faith and your daily living. Each Wednesday following Easter, there will be a reflection and a few questions for your prayer. You can participate by yourself, or gather with a few others during the week to help each other notice how God is at work in your lives. Author Barbara Kingsolver offers us a clue on how to do this, when she says that “God is in the details, the completely unnecessary miracles sometimes tossed to us as stars to guide us.” We can often help each other see those stars.
So much of our interaction with the world is shaped by our own perspective, or point of view, as we interpret experience. Much of what we read calls us to reflect on the large historical events that are unfolding around us. Some of that can lead us to despair and at other times, by some people’s determination and strength, call us to hope. This very practice may tempt us to dismiss the modest efforts each of us make to respond to life unfolding around us daily. But if we take time to notice, we can begin to find hope, as we see how God is revealed in the very small details and familiar people and events of each day. After all, if the disciples who walked with the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus didn’t recognize him immediately, then we can be encouraged to stay open to surprise awaiting us when we stop to “break bread” with each other. May this Easter season open for us the gift of noticing the small and humble ways God is with us. This will truly be a cause for hope and celebration. Please consider joining us during this Easter season.