First Week of Easter Reflection for April 14, from Give Us This Day Citations for readings: Acts 4:13-21; Mark 16:9-15 I Have Seen It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard. I know that feeling, and I am not even a dusty-footed Apostle with neither staves, nor scrip, nor sandals, nor a second coat, sent on a most amazing marketing trip by a most puzzling Manager.
Yet I have seen miracles and wonders, and it is impossible for me not to speak of them: I have seen children emerging mewling and shining from the womb of the woman I love; I have seen men forgive that which is unforgivable by the calculation of our time, and so reveal the extraordinary world that may yet be born; I have seen men climb into unquenchable fires to save brothers and sisters they did not know, and so reveal love beyond any definition of that holiest of words; I have seen beings so graceful and amazing, in so many shapes and forms, that I cannot begin to imagine the Imagination that set them in motion.
Also I have seen horrors, and loss and grief like endless mountains, and been harrowed myself, and wept at the ocean of pain to be endured, so often by the smallest and most innocent among us. Yet I know, beyond a doubt, this is a Gift beyond measure, a love greater than the universe; so I go daily into the world, and proclaim to every creature that we swim in the Love, we are granted it every instant like the most crucial food, we are the love . . . Brian Doyle, an award-winning author and essayist, is editor of the University of Portland’s Portland magazine.
From Give Us This Day®
© 2012 by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota Used by permission of Liturgical Press