Written by Noli me Tangere by Antonio da Correggio
The NBCW wishes you and your families all the blessings of Easter. May it be a time of renewal, hope and peace within your hearts, amongst friends and families, and in the world. As Mary, disbelieving at first but then confirmed in faith on hearing the Lord, so too may we hear his voice this Easter and become like her, renewed in hope, love and discipleship.
This Easter we would like to share John O’ Donohue’s prayer of Easter renewal. A thoughtful prayer which simply, and in Celtic style and manner, captures the essence of the Easter message of re-creation, a message which is so badly needed in today’s fractured world.
Christus Vincit Alleluia
EASTER BLESSING
“On this Easter morning, let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given and let us let fall away the useless baggage that we carry — old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling — and let us have the courage to begin again. Life is very short, and we are no sooner here than it is time to depart again, and we should use to the full the time that we still have.
We don’t realize all the good we can do. A kind, encouraging word or helping hand can bring many a person through dark valleys in their lives. We weren’t put here to make money or to acquire status or reputation. We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts, and when we find it we are meant to give it away generously. The dawn that is rising this Easter morning is a gift to our hearts and we are meant to celebrate it and to carry away from this holy, ancient place the gifts of healing and light and the courage of a new beginning.”