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Easter People in a Wounded World
Dear Beloved in Christ,
This week has been heavy.
The headlines have carried the weight of suffering, threats, conflict, and fear. Many of you have reached out, some with words, some with silence, all carrying that quiet ache that comes when the world feels unsteady. As your priest, I feel it too. I carry you in prayer, and I carry the sorrow of what we are witnessing together.
And yet, we are Easter people.
That is not a denial of the world’s pain. It is a proclamation in the midst of it.
Resurrection does not arrive after everything is fixed. Resurrection breaks in while wounds are still visible, while grief is still fresh, while the world is still trembling. The risen Christ appears not as untouched, but as one who still bears the marks of violence, and yet stands in peace.
“Peace be with you,” he says, into a room full of fear.
That is the word for us now.
Peace, not as passivity. Peace, as a holy resistance to hatred. Peace, as a refusal to let war and violence have the final word. Peace, as the steady work of love in a fractured world.
We are called to be that peace.
As Easter people, we do not look away from suffering. We draw nearer with compassion. We pray with intention. We speak truth with courage. We choose love when it would be easier to harden. We hold fast to the dignity of every human life, even when the world seems to forget it.
This is the work of resurrection in real time.
I invite you this week into a simple, faithful practice:
- Pause each day and pray for peace.
- Name those who are suffering.
- Ask God to soften what has grown hard within us all.
- Offer yourself, even in small ways, as an instrument of Christ’s reconciling love.
We may feel small in the face of such vast pain, but the Gospel has always begun in small, faithful acts. A stone rolled away. A voice speaking peace. A community choosing love again and again.
You are that community.
You are the Body of Christ in this time and place.
And so we will keep showing up. We will keep praying. We will keep loving. We will keep proclaiming with our lives that death and destruction will never have the final word.
Resurrection does.
A Prayer for Peace
Risen Christ,
you entered a wounded world and spoke peace into fear.
Come to us now,
in every place where violence reigns,
in every heart that trembles,
in every life that has been shattered.
Gather the broken,
comfort the grieving,
and turn the hearts of those who choose destruction.
Make us instruments of your peace,
steady in compassion,
courageous in love,
and faithful in hope.
Let resurrection rise even here. Amen
With you in hope, in grief, and in the fierce love of Christ,
Mo. Allison+
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