Image: Easter II © Jan Richardson
Reading from the Gospels, Easter Sunday:
John 20.1-18 or Matthew 28.1-10
Risen
For Easter Day
If you are looking
for a blessing,
do not linger
here.
Here
is only
emptiness,
a hollow,
a husk
where a blessing
used to be.
This blessing
was not content
in its confinement.
It could not abide
its isolation,
the unrelenting silence,
the pressing stench
of death.
So if it is
a blessing
you seek,
open your own
mouth.
Fill your lungs
with the air
this new
morning brings
and then
release it
with a cry.
Hear how the blessing
breaks forth
in your own voice,
how your own lips
form every word
you never dreamed
to say.
See how the blessing
circles back again,
wanting you to
repeat it,
but louder,
how it draws you,
pulls you,
sends you
to proclaim
its only word:
Risen.
Risen.
Risen.
—Jan Richardson
2016 update: “Seen” appears in my new book, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons.
P.S. For a previous reflection on Easter Sunday, see Easter Sunday: Out of the Garden. I am also offering daily reflections throughout Holy Week at the Sanctuary of Women blog and would be delighted to have your company there as well. And if you haven’t seen the videos that Garrison Doles and I recently released for Lent and Easter, I welcome you to check them out here: Listening at the Cross and The Hours of Mary Magdalene. Know that I’m holding you in prayer throughout this Holy Week, and I wish you a joyous Easter!
[To use the “Easter II” image, please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]
April 20, 2011 at 12:45 PM |
Beautiful poem, Jan. “Hear how the blessing /breaks forth /in your own voice.”: so gorgeous a sentiment.
April 21, 2011 at 10:27 PM |
Thank you, Maureen!
April 20, 2011 at 9:07 PM |
Hi Jan – GRATEFUL! These are the words for this week I have been struggling to find, and you found them already. Thanks for sharing them!
April 21, 2011 at 10:29 PM |
Hi, Juniper–Oh, yay! Thank you! Very grateful for your words. Many blessings to you in these holy days, and a joyous Easter!
April 19, 2014 at 7:43 AM |
Again, your words say exactly what is needed to be said. Even in the midst of all that you have gone through, thank you for being a voice of the resurrection. Peace. Easter blessings!