Signs of Easter for Holy Saturday

C is telling me that in Michigan where her parents live - in true form - there has just been four inches of snow. That hasn't happened here, but it was 21 degrees this morning. However I had a few brief moments Tuesday night to go outside, smell the springlike air and take these two photos- one of the pansies my friend Charlotte gave me for Easter and one of the crocus, doing what they do best, pushing their way out and up into the light.

It has been a long Lent this year - in part because I threw myself into the job of doing some interior decoration and spring cleaning - not so much the house kind as the soul kind. Next facing very drastic changes in my work life, home life, economics and future vocational direction.

Lent is a remarkable time for all of this reflection and deliberate soul searching. The impression that stays with me is that the inside job I have been working on will continue... perhaps with less unflinching focus... but continue nonetheless. I will keep working on my own 12 steps toward a healthy life with a healthy focus. I am motivated to do so by the blessings that God has showered me with in terms of the fruits of the spirit that have been cultivated and already bourne fruit.

First the seed must fall to the ground and die..... and after it is reborn, it will produce much fruit.

Today the body of Christ rested, seemingly without life, on a hewn shelf in a tomb. Tomorrow, when the doors of your parish church, quiet as a tomb, will be flung open; there will be remnants of a tomb - the slab (an altar will remain)- but the body will no longer be there. Symbolically, the body will be broken again, the blood will be poured out again, and it will become transformative nourishment for each and every one of us who partake. We will become Christ's flesh and blood - here and now - to walk and teach and heal and pray and show compassion and mercy and forgiveness and joy..... joy everlasting. Thanks be to God!