If hope is a gift and not a feeling, something that comes from God and not from my own strength, I can trust that hope is in me even if I don’t feel it. I might cover it with other flavors, like discouragement, fear, worry, or self-reliance, but it doesn’t matter. Hope is still there, permeated all through me.

Maybe prayer is what enables me to still be in the dwelling place of my house right now. Maybe it’s what helps me to be still in the dwelling place deep within my heart, too.

We can’t hack the kingdom of God. We have to be ourselves and allow God to transform us along the way. You do you. God will love each of us and invite us to be more.

It’s easy to be slow of heart now, and yet, there are moments when my heart burns within me. God is present here. I hope I can be like the disciples on the road to Emmaus – honest, present, perceptive, and responsive to the presence of Christ.

God always wants to be close to me, and doubt can be an opening for God to come closer and show me who God is. Profound, deep, gut-wrenching doubt can feel like a locked door, but as we’ve seen, a locked door is no match for the risen Christ. Sometimes my doubt is so great that God is going to have to go ahead and grace me with a whole new experience. So, that’s what God does.

This year Christ will have to meet me where I am – in a locked room with a little bit of fear and a lot of mourning. And Christ always does that, always meets people where they are. This Easter I unite myself with the loved ones of Jesus on the first Easter, and I trust that I will receive what they did: the joy, hope, peace, and presence of Christ risen in our midst.

Maybe it’s fitting that the well-choreographed grandeur of these days just got messy and chaotic. Our suffering is not a scripted Passion Play but an unfolding bit by bit of uncertainty, growth, helplessness, and trust. Maybe this year more than ever before we’ll be able to bring the Passion events to heart and see how they unfold in our own lives.

After the health crisis has subsided, we might, like Lazarus, come stumbling, bound and bleary-eyed, out of the tomb of our seclusion. We may not know what to make of the new life that emerges, but how we respond is up to us.

God always shelters in place. God goes out to the far reaches of the universe, but God also dwells within each of our hearts. As we shelter in place, we can look within ourselves and see how God is doing the same thing – sheltering in the place within us.

God is present to the reality of who we are. God is certainly in our midst. When we are present to reality instead of resisting, we catch a glimpse of who God is.

Before going forth translates to a step forward, it’s an opening of the heart. It’s an energetic movement, one that opens us to others in love and relationship, one that calls us beyond what’s comfortable to risk something new.

Humans are made to care for the earth and they are made from the earth. Hear more about the creation story in Genesis and care of creation in this beautiful audio reflection by Sister Fidelis Tracy.

The love that God calls us to is a holy, gritty kind of love that encompasses neighbors and enemies, as well as ourselves.

No choices we make are beyond God’s redemption. Even when we make bad decisions, God loves us.

The light that we each set on a lampstand is not perfect; in fact, our light tends to be fractured in places. But it’s ours, and it shines well enough. Likewise, the favor of our faith may not always be impeccable, but it’s in good taste.

God calls each of us beloved and doesn’t need a spectacle to let us know that God loves us. God uses the events of our daily lives to nudge us, to let us know that we’re in the presence of holiness.

Like the Magi, we have each other as travel companions. Community at its best stands together beneath the night sky, gazing at signs from God, and following where they lead. So together let’s discern the way we should go So together let’s discern the way we should go.

This family is holy because they’re like us, living in insecurity and fear and circumstances beyond their power. They’re holy because they kept going, trusting God and loving each other.

The birth of the vulnerable, needy Christ child is the most profound, important sign that God has given humanity. God became finite and shows us infinite love; God became needy and shows us God’s Providence; God became poor and shows us abundance.