The Spirituality of the Paschal Mystery by Rosemary OToole CSJ Editor
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Paperback - 68 pages
This teaching on the Spirituality of the Paschal Mystery is a contemplative walking through the six clear and distinct moments within the one single organic Paschal Mystery. Each aspect of the mystery needs to be understood in relation to the others to make sense of the whole Paschal Mystery. You will be guided along your journey with reflections on our experiences of living through the mystery of our Paschal challenges. The mystery transpires as we undergo our sufferings and dyings; as we welcome new births; grieve losses; adjust to ever-new realities; and move forward with zeal and courage to do our mission in and for the world. In brief, the paschal cycle might be set out as follows: 1. Suffering: some sufferings are amenable to solutions; others are inevitable and insurmountable and require a spiritually healthy, detached state of mind to deal with them in a realistic way. 2. Good Friday: the surrender and trust in God as we endure the loss of our ego, life dreams, physical death. 3. Easter Sunday: the reception of a new life and a new hope beyond all our former ways. 4. The Forty Days: a time for grieving the old ways; learning new behaviors; practising new choices; and adjusting to a brand new lifestyle. 5. Ascension: we stop telling the old stories of pain and hurt and let them bless us. It is a refusal to cling to the past and a commitment to move on. 6. Pentecost: an inflowing of the Holy Spirit creating new life, energy and power for fulfilling our mission in the world. The liturgy of the Church, the celebration of the sacraments, and the seasons of Lent and Easter are particular times when we pay attention to what Jesus has done for us through his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Yet these are not the only times when we experience the Paschal Mystery. It is a part of our everyday life. It is the undercurrent of all that we do and all that we are. Let us be united and move forward with hope as a pilgrim People of God.