The Seventh Week of Eastertide

The Seventh Week of the Easter Season

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Great is the mystery of faith.
Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

Continued joy and blessings as we come to the end of this Eastertide.

How was your experience of the 50 Days of Easter? I hope it was a blessing and perhaps you engaged in some of the Easter ideas I suggested at the beginning of the Easter Season.

More importantly I hope these ‘Moments of stillness, reflection and prayers’ helped keep the spirit and celebration of Easter alive and brought the mystery of our faith more in focus for us: Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

This Easter will be different, last year our church doors were firmly locked, there was no public, communal celebration of Easter. This year there is a tentative move towards celebrating Easter but still subdued. Next year let’s celebrate with gusto.

The 50 days of Easter does not come to an end like a damp squib, oh no! It ends with Pentecost, a big bang, the birth of the Church. In the months ahead many local churches will be facing the challenge of being the Church in these days following the ‘Lockdowns’ and changes in how Dioceses are structured and staffed. It will be challenging but working together in faith and hope, we can find a way or ways of being the church for our communities.

 

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Our ‘Moments of stillness, reflection and prayers’ for the week are overleaf with a sentence or two for each day from the Gospel of John and the first letter of John. Read them slowly and let them, so to speak, hang in the air for you to think about during the day.

I also suggest that you read through the Acts of the Apostles during the 50 days of Easter. Read at your pace, re-read verses if you wish, just slowly engage with the story of the early Church and how the Good News, the Easter story, was shared.

At the end of the daily prayers there are suggested readings from Acts for the week. I have used the Revised Common Lectionary as a source.

Moments of stillness, reflection and prayers

Alleluia. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit Amen

O God, make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us.

If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I make the grave my bed, you are there also. (Psalm 139:7)

Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I am glorified with him.
Yesterday I was dead with Christ; today I am sharing in his resurrection.
Yesterday I was buried with him; today I am waking with him from the sleep of death. (Gregory of Nazianzus (389)

Words from Psalm 117
Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.
For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and shall be forever. Amen

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Alleluia, alleluia, read and hear words from our sacred texts:
Slowly read these words, let them become special words for today.

Wednesday
Jesus said … I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
(John 17.6)

Thursday
While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
(John 17.12-13)

Friday
When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
(John 15.26-27)

Saturday
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness.
(John 17.7-10)

Sunday
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
(John 17.13-15)

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Lord, you have promised to hear those who pray to you in faith:
Lord, hear now the prayers we offer…

Risen, ascended Lord, as we rejoice at your triumph, fill your Church on earth with power and compassion, that all who are estranged by sin may find forgiveness and know your peace, to the glory of God the Father.

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Canticle
Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right. (Northumberland Community)

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Intercessions may be offered for friends and family, our church and for the leaders of Church and nation.

Merciful Father, you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd, and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again: keep us always under his protection, and give us grace to follow in his steps; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, …

May God fill us all with hope, joy, patience and enthusiasm at this time so we can continue to be a follower of Jesus who has suffered, died and has risen’ and the peace of the Lord Christ go with us, wherever He may send us.
May He guide us through the wilderness,
protect us through the storm.
May He bring us home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown us.
May He bring us home rejoicing
once again into our doors. (adapted from the Northumberland Community)

May the souls of departed through the mercy of God rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen. Alleluia. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

I took the firework photographs in Madeira on 31st December 2018 while acting as a Locum at Holy Trinity, Funchal, the Anglican Church in Madeira

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Easter Readings from Acts – The 50 days of Easter – (Day’s 43 – 50)

Wednesday (46) Acts 20.28-end
Thursday (47) Acts 22.30;23.6-11
Friday (48) Acts 25.13-21
Saturday (49) Acts 28.16-20,30 end
Pentecost (50) Acts 2.1-21