Christ is Risen
He is Risen indeed!
We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ this Sunday.
Mary Magdalene stood crying outside the tomb. She was still weeping, when she stooped down and saw two angels inside. They were dressed in white and were sitting where Jesus' body had been. One was at the head and the other was at the foot. The angels asked Mary, “Why are you crying?”
She answered, “They have taken away my Lord's body! I don't know where they have put him.”
As soon as Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not know who he was. Jesus asked her, “Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener and said, “Sir, if you have taken his body away, please tell me, so I can go and get him.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him, “Rabboni.” The Aramaic word “Rabboni” means “Teacher.”
Jesus told her, “Don't hold on to me! I have not yet gone to the Father. But tell my disciples I am going to the one who is my Father and my God, as well as your Father and your God.” Mary Magdalene then went and told the disciples she had seen the Lord. She also told them what he had said to her.
John 20:11-18
If you’re in my part of the world, there are signs of autumn all around us. Even though Easter is moveable, the weekend tends to signal that autumn is beginning or is freshly underway. In the quirky way that works for us downunder, our seasonal celebrations get a little confused. We tend to borrow imagery from the northern hemisphere so we see decorations and packaging with baby chicks, small bunnies, spring flowers and other signs of spring. The signs in the garden are of marigolds, pansies and geraniums, pumpkins, courgettes and the last of the summer tomatoes. Perhaps this awareness of both seasons simulataneously helps me in my thought processes to see the connection between these seasons of growth and new life.
My calendar has a prompt around this time of year as reminder to me, “Plant bulbs for spring”. It’s a gardening ritual that I connect to Easter. Years of experiential prayers, mean bulb planting is as much a prayer activity as it is a garden task. It ties me to the moment that Mary finds the stone outside the tomb has been rolled away and then greets the gardener she mistakes for Jesus. Mary went to the tomb filled with grief and loss. If you didn’t know better when you hold a bulb you’d think it looks dead. If a hollow chocolate egg has the symbolism of the empty tomb in the northern hemisphere, I think planting a bulb carries the symbolism for us in the southern hemsiphere.
Despite appearances, the bulb isn’t dead. Contained within it is new life. Before the bulb can flower, it is planted in soil and and buried. The flowers that come in the spring are a sign of expansive and hopeful new growth. We like to think of spring as the beginning of the seasonal cycle, yet the signs of new growth are born out of autumn. This is our life experience.
This is the hope of the resurrection. Jesus gives us new life, fresh starts, second chances and beginnings that go around in a renewing cycle of beginnings and endings. Whether we’re in the season of spring or autumn, there’s an earthiness to tap into experientially and connect with the resurrection.
Here’s a bumper crop of prayers. There’s no paywall and you are welcome to click on the share button to send it out to others. I’ve included the Bulb Planting prayer that was previously published here a couple of years ago. It’s published in my first book of 5 Senses to Prayer. The rest of the prayers included in this bumper edition will be included in my next book in my 5 Senses to Prayer series. Some of the prayers are distinctly related to the resurrection and the rest speak to the hope and growth we find in walking with Jesus.
Wherever you are this Easter weekend, may you find hope in unexpected ways.
On the journey
Caroline
Bulb Planting Prayer
Sense of Sight (SP.SI.1)
Depending on your location and season, find suitable bulbs to plant for summer or spring. Prepare soil in a garden bed or in a pot to plant the bulb. Before you plant it, hold the bulb in your hand. Reflect on the potential held within the bulb to grow into something living and beautiful. Reflect on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As you bury the bulb in the soil, reflect on the way life sometimes buries us in difficulties and challenges. As you cover it with soil, reflect on the way God protects us and guides us in our daily living. Imagine and reflect on the day when green shoots will appear, and a later day when the bulb will flower. At each stage of your reflection offer a one sentence prayer to God.
Planting Prayer
Sense of Smell – Adoration & Praise (AP.SM.8)
Plant bulbs, seeds, or seedlings into a container of potting mix, compost, or garden soil. When you look at a flourishing plant, you don’t usually think about the soil, but instead you focus on the plant. Take notice of the earthy smell of the soil. The plant would not be alive without the potting mix or soil. Consider your life. Imagine yourself as a plant in a pot. We often focus on of all our outward successes and failures. We notice the plant not the soil we’re planted in. To be a beautiful plant growing in God’s Garden, we acknowledge the soil in which we’re planted. Pray with a focus on God as being like the soil in which you’re planted and offer your praise and adoration aloud to God.
Sand Saucers Prayer
Sense of Smell – Thanksgiving (T.SM.7)
God’s creativity is everywhere. A walk through a garden full of fragrant flowers, herbs and plants is an inspiring experience. Carefully select from the ground or from plants that you are allowed to pick, fragrant flowers, petals, leaves and herbs. Fill terracotta saucers with sand. Using individual petals, leaves and small flowers press a patterned design into the sand saucer, aware as you do, of the creativity of our God. As you press each flower, petal or leaf into the sand making your creative pattern, say a one sentence prayer of thanks to God.
Enlarging Hearts Prayer
Sense of Sight – Supplication & Petition (SP.SI.8)
Someone who has a small and shrivelling heart will find it harder and harder to show love. The opposite is true the more your heart enlarges, showing love to others becomes easier and easier. On pink or red coloured card draw the outline of a small heart shape in the middle of the page. Draw another heart around the first heart, leaving enough space to write between the two hearts. Draw a third heart outline. Write your own name in the middle of the small heart. In the space between this heart and the next, write your prayer to God for help with something that you can do to help you personally encourage your heart to grow bigger and to keep growing. Into the next space between the two hearts write your prayer to God to help you discover what actions you can take to help others to have enlarged hearts. Cut out the final outline and attach a hanging cord to your heart. You might like to hang it somewhere to remind you of your prayer to grow both your own heart and the hearts of those around you.
Squares of Chocolate Prayer
Sense of Taste – Combination (CB.TA.9)
Traditionally during Lent, people focus on their spiritual lives and relationship with God. In an experiential way, this often involved giving up food such as not eating fat throughout Lent. The concept encourages pause for reflection, a physical reminder of the season and a prompt to pray. In more recent times, some people give up chocolate for Lent. The tradition of eating chocolate on Resurrection Sunday is an acknowledgement of the end of Lent and a celebration of the resurrected Christ. Break up a few squares of chocolate onto a plate. Take time to look at them on the plate. Reflect on your spiritual life right now. Use the squares of chocolate as prompts to pray for things going on in your life. Taste each square and eat it slowly. Pause to reflect and give your thoughts to God in prayer.
Hot Cross Buns Prayer
Sense of Taste (R.TA.8)
Purchase or make Hot Cross Buns. Warm them and eat them on Good Friday or sometime over the Easter weekend and reflect on the Easter story and the influence of Jesus Christ in your own life. There are many traditions around the origins and history of Hot Cross Buns. Focus on what a Hot Cross Bun means to you. What symbolism in the Hot Cross bun resonates with you? What memories do you have eating Hot Cross buns in the past? How could you turn your thoughts into a prayer? As you eat, silently pray your response to God.