Spirituality for Beginners

Fr. Bede's almost-daily reflections. When it comes to the spiritual life, we're all beginners. I also send these out by email. Contact me at bcamera@anselm.edu. God bless!





Thursday, July 9, 2015

Joy after Sorrow


Good Friday leads to Easter Sunday.

Death leads to Resurrection.

 

This cycle is repeated throughout our lives, beginning with Baptism where we are baptized into Christ’s death so that we may rise with him in Resurrection.

 

Look at your life and see whether or not this is true. Have you suffered “little deaths” along the way that led to a new life for you? Have you found, as I have found, that there is often a divine “gift” buried inside so many of our losses and disappointments, our failures and even our tragedies? I know this to be true not because I read it or someone told it to me; I know it because my experience has showed me time and time again just how true it is.

 

This is what Olivier Clément has to say: “The baptismal sequence of death and resurrection is repeated throughout our pilgrimage . . . When everything seems lost, baptismal grace, if we pay heed to it, can convert a situation of death into one of resurrection, an apparent deadlock into a necessary breakthrough.” (The Roots of Christian Mysticism, p. 106)

 

Sometimes it takes the passage of time and a good deal of patience to experience the completion of the process. It also takes faith and hope. Pray for an increase of these in your spirit.

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