Patrick Comerford
This is Easter Day (31 March 2024). Throughout Lent this year, I took time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints. This week, my morning reflections include the daily Gospel reading, the prayer in the USPG prayer diary, and the prayers in the Collects and Post-Communion Prayer of the day.
Later this morning, I hope to be involved in the Easter Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.
But, before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
3, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 20: 1-18 (NRSVA):
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”.’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 31 March 2024, Easter Day):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Easter Day Reflection.’ This theme is introduced today by the Revd Dr Carlton John Turner, USPG Trustee:
Read Luke 24: 36-48
‘This is Easter Sunday, and for our reflection, we have Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances to His disciples. The word ‘appearance’ is important here. Earlier in the famous ‘Road to Emmaus’ walk, Jesus is unveiled or revealed as risen and alive. The language is vivid – “Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him, and he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24: 31). He then appears to his disciples, not as a spirit being, but an embodied risen Lord, showing them His physical body and eating with them.
‘Appearance can be understood in several ways. Firstly, those witnessing Jesus have their eyes opened. They got to see Jesus. However, deeper than seeing Jesus, they came to a deeper understanding of Jesus, as well as themselves. They had a radical shift in their experience – Jesus was not dead, but alive and present.
‘Secondly, it matters that Jesus was physically present. Luke goes to every length to demonstrate that Jesus was not a ghost. The resurrection of Jesus was about material change and transformation. He could be touched, held, embraced and eaten with.
‘This brings us to perhaps the deepest truth of all about Easter. The resurrection of Jesus is ultimately about concrete change and transformation in the world. Ministry and mission cannot simply be about conversation, but concrete action. Secondly, much of the change begins with our own perceptions. We have to change how we see the world, how we read the scriptures, and how we allow ourselves to recognise Jesus already in our midst.’
The USPG Prayer Diary today (31 March 2024, Easter Day) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
‘Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have’ (Luke 24: 39).
The Collect:
Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.
Post Communion Prayer:
God of Life,
who for our redemption gave your only–begotten Son
to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection
have delivered us from the power of our enemy:
grant us so to die daily to sin,
that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
you have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope;
for a new day has dawned
and the way to life stands open
in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Yesterday’s reflection (Julian of Norwich)
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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