RESURRECTION MAGAZINE EASTER 2020 VOL. 1:1
A SECOND CHANCE, NOT BY CHANCE A RESURRECTION PARISHIONER’S STORY OF SUFFERING, HEALING, AND RENEWED FAITH.
MISSION DRIVEN
EDUCATING
FOR DISCIPLESHIP
ISOLATED BUT CONNECTED
RESURRECTION SCHOOL DRAWS FROM THE PAST AND BLAZES NEW TRAILS IN THE PRESENT TO FORM THE NEXT GENERATION OF DISCIPLES.
CONNECT GROUPS ARE GETTING CREATIVE AND STILL FINDING WAYS TO STAY IN TOUCH DURING THESE DIFFICULT TIMES.
AUTHENTICALLY CATHOLIC
SUPPORTIVE OF FAMILIES
WHO WE ARE Located in the heart of the city of Lansing, the Church of the Resurrection exists to help everyone in our parish family live in the light and hope of the resurrection.
A PRAYER TO OUR LADY DURING PANDEMIC Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of the Angels and Mother of the Americas. We fly to you today as your beloved children. We ask you to intercede for us with your Son, as you did at the wedding in Cana. Pray for us, loving Mother, and gain for our nation and world, and for all our families and loved ones, the protection of your holy angels, that we may be spared the worst of this illness. For those already afflicted, we ask you to obtain the grace of healing and deliverance. Hear the cries of those who are vulnerable and fearful, wipe away their tears and help them to trust.
In this time of trial and testing, teach all of us in the Church to love one another and to be patient and kind. Help us to bring the peace of Jesus to our land and to our hearts. We come to you with confidence, knowing that you truly are our compassionate mother, health of the sick and cause of our joy. Shelter us under the mantle of your protection, keep us in the embrace of your arms, help us always to know the love of your Son, Jesus. Amen. - From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Knights of Columbus.
Please take a moment to offer your THE SUPPER AT EMMAUS FRONT COVER:
This early 17th century piece by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, depicts the Resurrected Christ revealing himself through the Eucharist: “He took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him,” (Lk 24:30-31). It can be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and online at www. metmuseum.org.
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IN THIS ISSUE LIVING RESURRECTION LIFE A SECOND CHANCE, NOT BY CHANCE
FR. STEVE MATTSON
4
BEN POHL 6
HEALING MINISTRY LIZ O’NEILL 8 GOING HIGHER AND DEEPER SEAN O’NEILL 10 SCHOOL VISION JACOB ALLSTOTT 12 ISOLATED BUT CONNECTED MAUREEN BUDD 14 ON GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS BRIAN FINK 15
Are you new to Resurrection? Check out our welcome page for all sorts of resources to get connected. Though we cannot greet you in person, we extend a warm, Resurrection welcome!
EDITORIAL TEAM EDITOR SEAN O’NEILL MANAGING EDITOR
BEN POHL
After reading the inaugural issue of Resurrection Magazine, please take a moment to offer your feedback. You will find a link to a feedback form on the back cover. Also, a special thanks to Brian Fink, Mary Gates, and Jim Owens for helping proof this issue.
LIVING
RESURRECTION LIFE Fr. Steve Mattson
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
T
oday we celebrate the Octave of Easter. On this Divine Mercy Sunday, I am excited to share with you a new parish initiative. In the midst of this strange season of struggle, uncertainty, and grace, we are pleased to introduce Resurrection Magazine. We hope this will be the first issue among many more. We have chosen to introduce this magazine now because we want to bear witness to what the Lord is doing in our midst. Our Risen Lord is blessing us richly, and we want to take this opportunity to share some of those blessings with you. Even in these difficult times, when we might be tempted to wonder why all of this has happened, it is well to remember that God is love and has created us for love. He has created us for union with Himself. St. Ignatius of Loyola tells us that God is constantly trying to break into our lives with that love that is beyond our comprehension. He is doing that right now. The fundamental truth is that each and every one of us is a beloved son or daughter of the Father, and we are invited every day to open ourselves more fully to love. As we do so, God will give us the desire (and the grace) to love one another in personal and practical ways. One of the graces of our Resurrection Life is a real and growing sense of community that can only be the result
of the action of the Holy Spirit. One of the places where we can see this community is in the “Connect Groups” that have formed over the past two years. Maureen Budd shares her experience of connect-group life in her article on page fourteen. On page eight, Liz O’Neill writes about the wonderful healing ministry that has developed at the parish, based on the methodology taught to us by the John Paul II Healing Center. In addition to the prayer teams who have received indepth training in prayer ministry, many of us are regularly praying over each other for healing, and our bi-monthly Healing Encounters provide a powerful focus for the Lord’s healing power to be dramatically made manifest among us. The article on page six describes the experience of Mike Ball, who was blessed with a miraculous recovery from a major heart attack. Mike describes how his own suffering changed his life, renewed his relationship with God, and has given him new direction, increased faith, and greater dedication to doing the Lord’s work. Our principal, Jacob Allstott, shares his vision for Resurrection School on page twelve, highlighting how the introduction of the Catholic liberal arts tradition at the school has been ideally suited to fulfilling the mission to create disciples among the students, in partnership with committed families. On page ten, Sean O’Neill describes our new outreach and formation programs. These programs include
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the Resurrection Life course, in which participants get to hear the good news of the Gospel and are equipped to live life in the Holy Spirit, and the four-year formation program which covers many aspects of how to live out the life of a committed and growing disciple in the world of today, through loving God and our neighbor. On the back cover you will find a beautiful Easter poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, with a biographical introduction on page fifteen by Brian Fink. There are many more ways that the Lord is blessing us and we hope to be able to share those with you in future issues. Our desire
at this point is to produce this magazine three or four times per year. In this period of “cloister,” we are only offering it in an online format, but in the future we hope to have printed copies as well. We hope you enjoy it. As we celebrate this Easter Season and look forward to gathering again, God-willing, at Pentecost or before, let’s keep praying for each other, trusting that the Lord has allowed this season out of love for us. And let’s all strive to notice the grace of our Resurrection Life, and share it with others. Amen. - Fr. Steve Mattson is Pastor of Church of the Resurrection.
E-NEWSLETTER During these challenging times, Fr. Steve is communicating through our parish e-newsletter. Take a moment to sign up and stay connected.
A SECOND CHANCE, NOT BY CHANCE Ben Pohl
“W
e’ve got some work to do.” These were the first words Mike Ball heard when he came out of the coma. If they had come from his nurse or doctors, they would have been an understatement. On January 13, 2019, Mike suffered a major heart attack at his home, and was unresponsive for thirty minutes. Finding him shortly after the onset of the heart attack, his wife, Pico, tried to administer CPR, while their son waited at the front door for paramedics. She “tried,” because, at the time Mike was 290 lbs. and incredibly fit. He ran “Mike Ball Fitness” and loved spending time in the gym with his clients. Mike was one of the last people you would imagine being on the floor that night, his life hanging
by a thread. But nearly two weeks later, as he awoke from the coma, the Lord of life spoke to Mike a word of mercy: “We’ve got some work to do.”
“There was a sequence of things that were not just chance. It had to be divine intervention.” In a world charged with the advances and successes of modern science and medicine, we are tempted to consider as factual or relevant only those things that are material or physical, things that are testable by the scientific method. To a secular mind, providence is an antiquated way of understanding the survival of people like Mike who, in their mind are simply “lucky.” But the experience of the Ball’s that night, and in the weeks and months that followed, challenges that assessment. As Mike says, “There was a sequence of things that were not just chance. It had to be divine intervention.” Pico recalls that while doing CPR, desperately trying to save her husband, “Some guy comes running in; the paramedics hadn’t even arrived yet.” Marty, an offduty paramedic with the Lansing Fire Department, happened to be in the area, and responded to the call before any other emergency personnel arrived. When help did arrive, their CPR machine failed. Marty continued to help with chest compressions and was, as Pico puts it, the Ball’s “guardian angel.” Pico vividly recalls the scene, which seemed to reflect our Lord’s Passion: “He was lying in between our bathroom and the hall, and I had this huge mosaic cross that I had bought when my daughter was in sixth grade at Resurrection’s auction...he was basically laying at the foot of the cross.” Later, when he awoke from the coma,
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Mike relayed to those gathered in the hospital room that though unconscious and without a heartbeat, he had a faint memory of that night: “I wondered why all those people were there…I couldn’t move or help them.” After arriving at the hospital, Mike was placed in a medically-induced coma, and his body was cooled in an attempt to prevent brain damage. He had to be intubated twice. “If I did survive,” the medical team later told Mike, “there was a pretty strong likelihood I’d have total brain damage, or at least a lot.” He was given only a 3-5% chance to live.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20)
Throughout this time, the Ball’s were supported by faith-filled prayer warriors and many who came to visit and pray for Mike’s healing. Pico found comfort from, to name just a few, her niece, Guine, who came to see her nearly every day, her siblings, especially her sister who works at Sparrow, and Mike’s brother and sisterin-law, who came up from Tennessee. Fr. Steve, as well as Liz and Sean O’Neill, visited frequently to pray over Mike and with Pico. “The support from Resurrection was wonderful…and the whole medical staff was outstanding,” Pico shared as she remembers all the people God put in their life. “His intensive care unit doctor…I find out she’s Catholic and she tells me that she had prayed the rosary for Mike the night before!” One day, a woman who knew Mike from Lansing Community College and the fitness center came to see him. “I didn’t even know who she was and I told her, ‘Oh no, he’s not taking visitors.’” As they spoke in the hallway, the woman said to Pico, “I just felt this calling by God that I need to come today and pray with you.” Not with Mike, but with Pico! “And I did [need prayer]. I was so stressed and worried that day about him… she came over and we were just praying in the hall.” A member of the facilities staff at Sparrow, who also knew Mike by way of LCC, would stop by and pray with them every night after his shift. “Without fail! He would make us all hold on to hands and he would just pray…and he would print off prayers for me to pray and say, ‘Here, pray this.’” The road to recovery, though miraculous and charged with the Lord’s healing and providential care, is still
filled with challenges. “He’s had to do speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy,” Pico shared, noting all that Mike has gone through in the past year. Yet his physical recovery is not the only recovery he is experiencing. Before their life was turned upside down, Pico tried to get Mike more involved in the faith: “I was trying to do Alpha, and I was trying to get involved with all these things and I would ask him, ‘Would you please come to this, would you please come to this?’ and he just did not want to go to anything.” Mike now sees things more clearly: “I had a milquetoast relationship with God…I was busy, I was working a lot, and I didn’t feel like I CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
MAKING ROOM FOR THE HEALER Liz O’Neill
M
any years ago, I asked Sr. Briege McKenna, a Saint Clare sister who has a gift of healing, a question which you may have pondered in one form or another: should we ask God to heal someone? Underlying this question are many other concerns about faith, raising false hopes, and more. Sr. Briege responded with her own question: If you knew someone who was in desperate need of healing and you met Jesus in the street, would you ask him to heal them? It seemed to me that the answer hinged a lot on how much I cared for the person. The more I loved the person, the more likely that I would directly ask Jesus to heal them. I would probably pour out the whole story and beg him to act! In the Gospels, all of the people who came to Jesus seeking healing on behalf of someone they loved did just that. I had my answer. We ask Jesus for what we see the person needs, and then we leave it up to him to respond as he sees best. Each of us needs healing in one form or another. When we think of sickness, we usually think
of its physical, or possibly emotional, manifestations. But all of us, if we are honest, know that we also need healing in our spiritual lives. Sin wounds others and it wounds us. In St. Mark’s Gospel, Jesus talks about helping sinners like a physician coming to help the sick.
“We ask Jesus for what we see the person needs, and then we leave it up to him to respond as he sees best.” Our parish Healing Ministry grew out of our pastor’s desire to see people receive healing in every part of their lives. In 2017, inspired by his own experience of healing through the ministry of Dr. Bob Schuchts and the John Paul II Healing Center, Fr. Steve began sending parishioners to the Center to be trained in the ministry of healing prayer. The John Paul II Healing Center draws its view of the human person from St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.” They focus on the whole person, asking God to heal in whatever way He wishes, be it physical, emotional, psychological or
HEALING ENCOUNTER Though we could not open our April Healing Encounter to the public, it was broadcast on our Resurrection Church YouTube channel. Our next Healing Encounter will be on Saturday, June 6 at 7:00 pm. Godwilling, you will be able to attend in person. If this is not yet possible, we will broadcast the event online.
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spiritual, recognizing that each of these realms are not separate but intimately connected. Every two months, we have a Saturday evening Healing Encounter that is open to anyone who wishes to attend. We describe it as “An Encounter with the Healing Lord.” The evening is both an opportunity to enter into prayerful and reverent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and a chance to receive prayer either during or after the service through individual prayer ministry. We have also set up a system to offer individual prayer ministry appointments with teams of two people trained in this ministry. Several days a week, it is possible to make an appointment where you can receive prayer for healing. We have been blessed to pray over many people who have come for prayer for every sort of distress that human beings experience. Many times we have seen God respond in a way we did not anticipate. We have seen dramatic physical healing, gentle emotional healing, and the healing of trauma
and neglect from childhood. We have witnessed remarkable breakthroughs in spiritual growth and in relationship with God. We encourage those who come for prayer to enter with the same spirit as those who approached Jesus in the Gospels: expectant faith and a willingness to go where He wants to take us.
Click here to schedule a prayer appointment. Online sessions are now available. Speaking personally, as one who has both received and given prayer for healing, I can say that I am constantly surprised and delighted by God’s response to our prayers. Jesus wants us to come to him with our problems, and he enters into our lives when we ask him to. If you think you would benefit from healing prayer, please step out in faith and make an appointment or attend one of our Healing Encounters. - Liz O’Neill is Coordinator of Healing Ministry at Church of the Resurrection.
ABOVE: CHRIST HEALING THE SICK Arguably one of the finest etchings ever made, this work of Rembrandt is also known as “The Hundred Guilder Print.” The work depicts the events of Matthew chapter 19, casting them in the light of verse 2: “And large crowds followed him, and he
healed them there.” Characters from throughout the chapter can be seen: the multitudes, pharisees, children, unbelievers, the rich young man, and disciples. It can be viewed in greater detail and description online at Galerie Michael.
GOING HIGHER AND DEEPER SEAN O’NEILL
T
he main goal of the Church of the Resurrection is to provide an environment in which our parishioners can become intentional disciples, and ultimately, saints. In addition to the sacramental life, we aim to provide opportunities to personally encounter the Lord, beginning with our Resurrection Life course. The Resurrection Life course lays out the wonderful good news of salvation through a presentation of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and introduces participants to the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts.
finding new relationships in our parish, what’s next for someone who wants to go even deeper? We have been developing a fouryear formation program which will equip our brothers and sisters in the parish to love God in a more profound way, and spread
“But once they have heard the Gospel message proclaimed and are finding new relationships in our parish, what’s next for someone who wants to go even deeper?” that love to those around them. The formation program consists of fifteen courses, each with three talks. The courses are divided into two types: Love of God and Love of Neighbor.
At the end of the course, attendees are invited to join a Connect group, in order to benefit from the authentic community we are working to foster in the parish. But once they have heard the Gospel message proclaimed and are
Over the past two years, we have offered three courses focused on prayer. In November 2018, a member of our formation team, Brian Fink, gave an overview of the Catechism’s wisdom about prayer, including: The Revelation of Prayer; The Tradition of Prayer; and The Life of Prayer.
In March 2019, Fr. Steve gave an introduction to the Christian discipline of mental/contemplative prayer. He addressed the theology and practice of mental prayer, and gave “homework” to help us open our hearts and minds to the Lord in prayer. In May of 2019, Jeannette Barbacane and Tesa Fleming, founders of the Heart of Christ Spiritual Direction Program, explained the valuable lessons found in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Jeannette and Tesa discussed the basic movements of consolation and desolation as developed by St. Ignatius, including his fourteen rules for discernment of spirits. In January of this year, it was our honor to welcome Ralph Martin to give our fourth formation course entitled “The Journey to God.” Ralph is president of Renewal Ministries, director of Graduate Theology Programs in Evangelization and professor of Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, and consulter to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. Ralph’s three
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ST. JOHN PAUL II ON CONVERSION AND DISCIPLESHIP “The proclamation of the Word of God has Christian conversion as its aim: a complete and sincere adherence to Christ and his Gospel through faith. Conversion is a gift of God, a work of the Blessed Trinity. It is the Spirit who opens people’s hearts so that they can believe in Christ and “confess him’’ (cf. 1 Cor 12:3)...Conversion means accepting, by a personal decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ and becoming his disciple.” - Redemptoris Missio 46
sessions were based on his book “The Fulfillment of All Desire” and described the three stages of the spiritual life according to the wisdom of the doctors of the church: The Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive Ways. The course was very well attended and provided an excellent introduction to the life of the Spirit. Our next course will begin at the end of April and is entitled “Holiness and Wholeness.” In this course, we will explore the kind of life God wants for us, and identify potential barriers to living that life. God wants us to be holy as He is holy and yet, as we grow into union with Him, the wounds and hurts of the past can create obstacles. The talks in this course will explain how to address these difficulties, how to find relief from the distress they cause, and how to find healing as we grow in wholeness, holiness and, ultimately, sainthood.
We are hoping to offer two further courses this year: one, “Love of God and Neighbor,” during the summer; and another, “Family Part One - Building Family According to the Church’s Vision,” in September. Our prayer is that these courses will encourage our brothers and sisters in the parish to enter more deeply into the life of prayer and a lived relationship with God through the practice of heroic virtue, sacrificial service, and love of each other. We look forward to offering further courses over the next few years and developing a catalogue of video presentations that will be available on YouTube and on our parish website: corlansing.org. - Sean O’Neill is Director of Outreach, Formation, and Ministry at Church of the Resurrection.
LUMEN VERITATIS LECTURE SERIES Begun in 2016, this parish lecture series exists to enrich the mind and love of the good, true, and beautiful through the study of art, literature, architecture, the human person, and more. The Lumen Veritatis YouTube channel is home to over twenty high quality recordings of lectures from the series, including “The Battle for True Education,” by Joseph Pearce, “Rebuilding American Culture,” by Dr. Anthony Esolen, and most recently, “The Psychology of Healing,” by Resurrection parishioner Jim Owens.
EDUCATING FOR
DISCIPLESHIP JACOB ALLSTOTT
A
t Resurrection School, we strive to partner with our parents to form the next generation of disciples of Christ who seek virtue and a love of learning. To achieve this lofty goal, we have begun to draw deeply from the sources of the Catholic liberal arts tradition in ways that help our students develop wonder and curiosity for the created world. This approach is imbued with a virtue curriculum, developed by the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Education in the virtues helps students to know not only when they are doing something wrong, but more importantly, it gives them a desire for what is good, true and beautiful. This type of integrated learning is enabled by our liberal arts curriculum. For example, we have a combined History and Religion class which allows for a greater illumination of theological truths and their application in ecclesial life. Similarly, Math and Science are paired so that students can apply the mathematical skills they learn and better come to know the coherence of the created order. But a coherent understanding of our world would be incomplete without a deep formation in discipleship. In addition to Mass three times a week, participation in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and opportunities to grow in holiness, one of my favorite aspects of our school’s spiritual formation is education in the healing power of prayer. Our students carry spiritual and emotional hardships just like the rest of us. Prayer for healing takes place most often within the normal
“A coherent understanding of our world would be incomplete without a deep formation in discipleship.” context of the school day, but students have additional time for prayer during our Advent and Lenten retreats. These retreats are held during a school day and include Mass, guided prayer, sometimes healing prayer led by the parish’s healing ministry team, a presenter, and a service project. For one of our Advent service projects, students wrote letters to those in prison, putting into action one of the Works of Mercy. The feedback we received from those letters was deeply moving. Our spirit-filled familial culture is also noticeable from the moment we start the day at our morning assembly. Students learn about a saint of the day before praying together our Shamrock Pledge. This pledge serves to order everything that we do: our academics, virtue education, spiritual formation, and family culture, towards the two greatest commandments: love of God and neighbor. When I step back and consider what God has done at Resurrection School, I am filled with awe and reminded of the debt of gratitude that my own family owes to Catholic education. In Proverbs, we hear that “a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.” This is fulfilled in the partnership between Church and family through the gift of a Catholic education. Although I did not attend a Catholic school, I received that inheritance when a Jesuit priest responded to my
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uncle who told his teacher that he had never been to Church. The priest began visiting our family farm, and soon my entire family “Our spirit-filled familial culture is also noticeable from the moment we start the day at our morning assembly. Students learn about a saint of the day before praying together our Shamrock Pledge.” was converted. I would not be where I am today if not for that priest and so many others who put that proverb into action. Even as we stand on the shoulders of giants, we know that our success does not rest in human hands. Nor
does it come from our school’s vision, curriculum, formation, or amazing teachers, even though they are amazing! It comes from the gift of the Holy Spirit and our docility to His promptings and guidance. When our school faced closure, it was to the Lord that our community turned, and now we have classes so full of students that we need more rooms. Resurrection school is a testament to God’s great love, and it is to this love that we turn as the next chapter of Resurrection school is written. - Jacob Allstott is Principal at Resurrection School.
A SECOND CHANCE...CONT. FROM PAGE 7 needed that in my life.” But through the months of recovery, the “work” that the Lord had invited him into was becoming real. “My relationship started out, there was a lot more praying going on, spiritual reading. There were hours a day of this because I was making up for lost time. And I had time to fill.” Mike was given the time to reestablish not only his relationship with God, but also with his father who soon after passed away, as well as with his brother, wife, and children. Through it all, Mike has been filled with the desire to go out and spread the good news. But many physical challenges remain. Mike would often ask himself during this process: “Is God punishing me for my
sins?” “Is He trying to help me grow in faith through my pain?” Through prayer and contemplation, Mike has come to understand the concept of redemptive suffering. St. Paul said in 2 Timothy 9-10 that Jesus bore his sufferings for the sake of those who are chosen, so that, in the end, we may all have the salvation that is in Christ. Mike now feels that if we offer up our sufferings to God, we can grow in our love for Him through the peace, grace, hope and joy He brings to our lives every day. - Ben Pohl is a parishioner at Church of the Resurrection and Director of Campus Ministry at Lansing Catholic High School.
MORE FROM THIS STORY Listen to Mike’s Healing Encounter testimony or watch him and Pico share their story for Sparrow Cares.
ISOLATED BUT CONNECTED MAUREEN BUDD
O
ur last Connect Group on March 11 was a strange one. It was the day MSU announced it was sending its students and faculty home. We were all reeling from the realization that life was about to drastically change. So what did we do? We ate a delicious meal, shared authentic community, and we prayed together. As we said goodbye that evening, we were not sure what the future held for the world or our group. What does a Connect Group look like when we can no longer gather in person? As it turns out, during a global pandemic Connect Groups are still about food, community, and prayer. Two unofficial “bread clubs” spontaneously started during the quarantine. One group began making artisan bread using the same recipe, but experimenting with variations. They share the joys and outcomes with each other through texts and photos. The second group entered the world of sourdough, each creating sourdough starter at home. Using the Marco Polo video app, these bakers share the progress of the starters, problem solve questions, and capture the exciting moment of cutting into a fresh loaf. Who knew baking alone but together could be so much fun? Speaking of being alone, quarantine life isn’t easy. Not being able to gather with our Connect family every other week has left a noticeable gap in our lives. Nevertheless, we are staying in touch through email and recently held our first virtual Connect gathering
using Zoom. It was refreshing to see familiar faces, share our joys and struggles, and laugh together. We ended the call by offering prayers of thanksgiving and petition, just as we would in person. Every day our group receives an email of encouragement from Teresa Spalding in the form of scripture, beautiful images, or funny memes. Those daily emails are a reminder that we are all in this journey together. At Connect, part of our prayer is singing praise and worship together. During quarantine, Filomena Castriciano, who provides music for our group, emailed to everyone a YouTube video of her playing guitar and singing a praise and worship song. It was a joy to hear a song we have often prayed together.
Connect Groups usually meet in a host family’s home every two weeks and are made up of 20-30 people, including children. Interested in Connect groups? Visit our Connect webpage. As we move forward in these uncertain times, our Connect group remains isolated, but connected. We eagerly await the time we can physically gather again. Until then, we stay in touch the way we know best, through food, community, and prayer. - Maureen Budd is a mother and parishioner at Church of the Resurrection.
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ON GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS BRIAN FINK
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any have likely stumbled across the poetry of Gerard Manly Hopkins, perhaps in a high school or undergraduate English class. But if your experience was like mine, you may not have learned that Hopkins was a lifelong devout Christian who, at age 22, was received into the Catholic Church by St. John Henry Newman and, ten years later, became a Jesuit priest. One cannot hope to understand Hopkins the poet without understanding Hopkins the Christian. He lived until age 45, succumbing in 1899 to typhoid, after suffering for several years with the illness. He lived for 22 years as an Anglican and 22 as a Catholic. Hopkins was almost unknown as a poet during his lifetime, but because of his friend Robert Bridges’ efforts to promote Hopkins’ work after his untimely death, Hopkins is now considered to be one of the major innovative poets of the 19th century. With “Easter” -- a poem Hopkins’ penned in 1866, the
year of his conversion to Catholicism -- we see the foundational elements of poetry (things like poetic meter, simile, metaphor, nature imagery) employed with expertise to evoke by their use an experience for the reader of the Resurrection itself. The poem reads much like a triumphal Resurrection hymn with which Easter church-goers might be familiar. Hopkins draws upon images of springtime and new life; he includes biblical references to worship, homage, and both fasting and feasting, and concludes each stanza with direct reference to Easter morning, as a way to emphasize the singular significance of the Resurrection as the locus of both human history and the entire created universe. - Brian Fink teaches Middle School Religion and History at Resurrection School, and is a member of the Parish Formation Team at Church of the Resurrection.
BACK COVER: CHRIST WITH SINGING ANGELS This 15th century altarpiece by Hans Memling depicts a choir of angels singing and making music, surrounding Christ who raises his right hand in blessing. He is crowned as
King and his left hand rests on an orb, indicating his reign over heaven and earth. On his cloak are three gems, for the three persons of the Trinity. This vibrant work is paired with Hopkins’ Easter poem, drawing us into worship and an Easter joy that befits the saving work of Christ.
EASTER GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
B
reak the box and shed the nard; Stop not now to count the cost; Hither bring pearl, opal, sard; Reck not what the poor have lost; Upon Christ throw all away: Know ye, this is Easter Day.
Beauty now for ashes wear, Perfumes for the garb of woe, Chaplets for dishevelled hair, Dances for sad footsteps slow; Open wide your hearts that they Let in joy this Easter Day.
Build His church and deck His shrine, Empty though it be on earth; Ye have kept your choicest wine— Let it flow for heavenly mirth; Pluck the harp and breathe the horn: Know ye not ‘tis Easter morn?
Seek God’s house in happy throng; Crowded let His table be; Mingle praises, prayer, and song, Singing to the Trinity. Henceforth let your souls always Make each morn an Easter Day.
Gather gladness from the skies; Take a lesson from the ground; Flowers do ope their heavenward eyes And a Spring-time joy have found; Earth throws Winter’s robes away, Decks herself for Easter Day.
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