As we sit in Easter Saturday, a reflection is offered on the moment between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Good Friday – the death of Jesus, the body broken out of deep, deep love for us.

The pause between that death and the resurrection to come.

Jesus’ friend, family and disciples didn’t know that there was a coming a resurrection on its way. For them this day marked a day of sorrow, grief, perplexity and confusion.

Today we’re going to take a pause to reflect on those places of death within ourselves, those deaths that make a way for resurrection.

I invite you to be here and now knowing that this moment is all there is. In this moment everything else can be laid aside. All that’s needed is to be here.

Turn attention to breath taking a few deeper breaths. Be aware of your body within this space, perhaps being held by a chair or sofa, be aware of being supported, your breath being sustained. Allow rest and peace to come as a gift.

On Easter Saturday we remember the cold darkness of the tomb and the death of the Saviour.

Are there any places within you that feel weighed down with sorrow?

Allow these places to open up within yourself.

Allow the sorrow to surface.

Allow the sorrow to be seen. Not with judgement or opinion simply notice and give it space to speak.

Are there any places within that feel dead or decaying and yet are still being held onto.

Do you notice the grasp of your hand onto things that no longer are?

Do you sense an invitation to loosen that grasp?

Are there any places within that feel hopeless as if resurrection will never come?

Allow those places to surface – notice and acknowledge them.

Are you able to surrender these parts of yourself to God, to let them go and in letting them go surrender them to God as prayers.

If you’re struggling to let go know that grace and love are present and can help you surrender.

In this place of surrender does God speak or show you anything?

May love come as a healing balm in this place of surrender.

As we think about Easter Sunday, can you sense the glimpse of the resurrection for yourself? Can you see the stone being rolled away from the empty tomb?

Death couldn’t hold onto Jesus, it let go making way for new life.

In this moment of great love and tenderness from God are you able to accept that the death contained within your sorrows will not remain?

Do you sense an invitation to any new life that’s being offered to you in your own resurrection?

In these moments allow Jesus to open a door of hope, to roll away the stone, to give you the glimpse of the resurrection he has for you.

As way to finish a poem…

The Magdalene’s Blessing

For Easter Day

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.

Jan Richardson

from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons