After the weeks of preparation through Lent we have arrived at the glories of Easter and Eastertide. We have a whole 40 days of celebrating the Resurrection of Christ, when we sing or say 'Alleluia!' at every service.
Easter is a time to rejoice because it is the time in the Christian year when we are specifically reminded of the hope our faith can give us. Jesus' resurrection gives us hope of new life in so many ways. We hope that one day we will all rise in Christ and be reunited with each other. We hope that the things in our lives and in our world that need to change will change and change for the better. We hope that the light of the resurrected Christ will shine into those dark places we try to shun or forget; those things that can pull us down and hijack us when we least expect it. When illuminated by Christ's light we hope that we can change those places of darkness into places of light.
Our prayer this Eastertide is one of the hope of transformation. Changing things for the better and beginning to live life anew.
O Lord, of life and power,
who, through the mighty resurrection of your Son,
have overcome the old order of sin and death,
and have made 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;
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen.
from the Collects of the Scottish Episcopal Church