From the Vicarage - May

I write this having returned from our first flurry of Eastertide celebrations at St Oswald’s. All the waiting and preparing of Lent followed by our more focussed Holy Week journey brought us, as expected, to the threshold of Easter.

Those that know me well enough, know there are 2 aspects of this season in which I particularly delight. One is the word ‘Alleluia’ – which knows no bounds in Eastertide (Easter Day is just the beginning of that). The other is the opportunity I get to ‘sprinkle’ or ‘shower’ those present on Easter morning with water from the font as we renew the promises made by us, or for us, at baptism and reconnect with the promise of our Christian faith. That action, I like to think, also reminds us that we cannot spend too long standing on the threshold when it comes to the journey of faith – if we truly want to experience it and to express it, that is. We need instead to at least dip our toe in if we are still cautious, and jump in if we are braver, and to enjoy finding ourselves showered in the love and grace of God!

If those ‘churchy things’ are still not for us then it seems to me that all around us, all creation is “Alleluia-ing” in a myriad different bright and beautiful ways. Martin Luther, a man of many words and much academia, back in the 16th century pointed out…

“...the promise of resurrection (is written) not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime….”

The 19th century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote…

“Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –

when weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;

Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing…”

We are in the main blessed to live in a part of the world and country where we can stop and look and listen; where we can see and hear all that energy, all that vibrancy, all that ‘springing up’ of life and promise. This ‘springing up‘ of our present season is doing what it is made to do all over again. It is doing it even in a troubled world, even in disturbing times, even when there are those less lovely sounds and sights which try to drown our springing and alleluia-ing out!

What are the sounds and senses of the season of Spring, or 50 days of Easter, which you delight in? The greenness of the leaves, or the fragrance of the blossom? The frolicking and bleating of the lambs, the song of a thrush, or the touch of a returning sun on your skin? The hope of your own faith, or the dogged faithfulness and liveliness of nature in a season when even the ‘weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush’? Take some time to delight in and ‘sense this season’ with your body, mind and soul, and say ‘Thank You’ - or even ‘Alleluia’!

Love & Prayers

Carolyn

The Reverend Carolyn A James