Midday Meditation: Today’s gospel reading is when Jesus meets Mary Magdalene outside the tomb. Spend some time here, with Jan Richardson’s “The Magdalene’s Blessing” today. See what it speaks of the both/and of this Easter season for you, what is opening and closing, what life you are hearing, even in places of death. ::: You hardly imagined standing here, everything you ever loved suddenly returned to you, looking you in the eye and calling your name. And now you do not know how to abide this hole in the center of your chest, where a door slams shut and swings open at the same time, turning on the hinge of your aching and hopeful heart. I tell you, this is not a banishment from the garden. This is an invitation, a choice, a threshold, a gate. This is your life calling to you from a place you could never have dreamed, but now that you have glimpsed its edge, you cannot imagine choosing any other way. So let the tears come as anointing, as consecration, and then let them go. Let this blessing gather itself around you. Let it give you what you will need for this journey. You will not remember the words— they do not matter. All you need to remember is how it sounded when you stood in the place of death and heard the living call your name.

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2023-04-11 17:30:16 UTC