What I did not have that day was the strength of spirit to imagine that whatever the pain of the change, there was something in it that would call more out of me than I ever imagined was there. The kind of struggle that shocks us into new beginnings is the kind of struggle that gives us new life. It forces us down unwanted paths. It leads us stumbling through the rills and recesses of the dark sides of the soul—angry, fearful, resistant, and unbelieving. But it also prods us from task to task in life until, at the end, we find ourselves full-statured and full of grace.
Joan Chittister, aired on "30 Good Minutes" Nov 2007
My prayer for the congregation?
O God, on Holy Saturday, the disciples struggled. They struggled without the knowledge of Easter. They didn't have the spirit to imagine the changes to come. No one chooses to go down that unwanted path of struggle. We prefer to have the choices clear and the road leveled. But for those times when we struggle and we don't know, or have forgotten, that Easter comes in the morning, let us be made stronger in our reliance upon you. A new beginning is promised when we put down our life and turn it over to you. O God, we struggle between what we know, the darkness of uncertainty, and the promise of new life. Help us to focus and imagine the changes in the life of your church, rooted in the certainty of Easter life, because today, Easter is still a day away. Amen.
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