Beloved Friends-
Christ is Risen- They are Risen indeed! Oh how glorious it was to gather for both Trinity@Home and then Trinity@316 last Sunday for our Feast of the Resurrection- aka Easter Sunday! Both services ushered in the love and excitement we collectively felt as we stood together at the empty tomb with the women when they arrived early in the morning.
We offered baptism to 4 beautiful individuals- Bailey, Josiah, Beonka and Chelsie, welcomed “home” 18 new members to this movement of revolutionary love- this path we follow walking the Way of Love, and called out the names of all those who have come “home” to Trinity during the past 2 years so that they too could be welcomed in person- 56 adults and 12 youth.
As we gather again this Sunday, we continue our Easter celebration with the 50 days of Easter- a season of new beginnings. And while much of the world around us is still so uncertain and feels fragile and vulnerable in the face of the on-going violence in Ukraine, we continue to have each other, God’s love is showing up in our lives through the connections we make every day, prayers, silence, laughter, tears and lives we faithfully attend to day by day. And for that I am so grateful.
I offer you this beautiful poem today by one of my favorites, John O’Donohue. It is a small gift to remind us all that Eastertide- this season of promised new and eternal life, is in fact a season of New Beginnings.
May you never forget that you are loved,
Lisa
For a New Beginning (by John O’Donohue)
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
where your thoughts never think to wander,
this beginning has been quietly forming,
waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
feeling the emptiness grow inside you,
noticing how you willed yourself on,
still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
and the grey promises that sameness whispered,
heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
and out you stepped onto new ground,
your eyes young again with energy and dream,
a path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
you can trust the promise of this opening;
unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
that is one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
for your soul senses the world that awaits you.