EASTERTIDE ALPHABET (H) HEARTS When Jesus speaks to the disciples and tells them that their ‘hearts will be full of joy’, I wonder how they understood it. John sets this lengthy discourse around the table of their last meal together.

EASTERTIDE ALPHABET (G) GLORY The opening of John’s Gospel weaves together in poetic prose the major theological themes that we will encounter in its pages: life, light, love and glory. It’s hard to explore one without exploring all three.

EASTERTIDE ALPHABET (F) FILLED When our parents and godparents presented us for Baptism they did so in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. As the water was poured over of heads and the chrism anointed our foreheads the Holy Spirit made a home in us.

EASTERTIDE ALPHABET (E) EMMAUS I don’t think I’ll ever tire of hearing the Emmaus story. I almost know the text by heart. I’m struck today as I sit to write this reflection just how healing a long walk with a friend can be.

EASTERTIDE ALPHABET (D) DORCAS 'Peter went back with them immediately, and on his arrival they took him to the upper room, where all the widows stood round him in tears, showing him tunics and other clothes DORCAS had made when she was with them.'

EASTERTIDE ALPHABET (C) COMMON ‘The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in COMMON.‘

EASTERTIDE ALPHABET (A) AWE ‘Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples.’ I am struck today at how this text conveys a mix of emotions as it couples ‘awe and great joy’.

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER John 20:19-31 There’s nothing worse than being with a group of people who are talking about an experience that you haven’t had. There’s only so far that you can go in trying to understand what they are saying and feeling.

EASTER SUNDAY John 20:1-9* I’ve always loved the early morning. I was usually the first up at home and loved to be in school extra early. There is something about the quiet and the dark that prepares me for the day.

HOLY SATURDAY Holy Saturday is often spoken about as a day of ‘emptiness and numbness’. On one level this is true, but since entering the monastery I have discovered another dimension.

GOOD FRIDAY Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9 Every piece of text in the Good Friday liturgy is heavy with meaning. Pieces of scripture that I may have heard throughout the year have a whole new resonance today. I found it hard to pick just one text. I settled on the text from Hebrews.

WOMEN OF HOLY WEEK (5) JOANNA'S STORY turveyabbey.org.uk/blog/?p=4669

MAUNDY THURSDAY Exodus 12:1-8,11-14 John 13:1-15 Each year I am stuck by how much the liturgy invites us to engage our senses during Holy Week. We wave a palm branch, we hear the story of the anointing and can imagine the smell of the perfume filling the house,

WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK Isaiah 50:4-9 Matthew 26:14-25 Today we have Matthew’s telling of the Last Supper. Once again Judas is in full focus and his actions seem inevitable. Those thirty pieces of silver are lodged in our collective imagination through art, poetry and hymnody.

These stories are beautiful: www.churchofengland.org/faith-life/w...

Women of Holy Week | The Church of England

Women of Holy Week is a series of nine stories about nine different, but interlinked, women written by Paula Gooder, originally as Holy Week, Easter and Ascension Day reflections for Southwark Cathedr...

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TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK Isaiah 49:1-6 John 13:21-33,36-38 While at supper with his disciples, Jesus was troubled in spirit and declared, ‘I tell you most solemnly, one of you will betray me.

MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK Isaiah 42:1-7 John 12:1-11 The anointing at Bethany stops me in my tracks each year. For much of the liturgical year the lectionary leads us through the teaching and miracles of Jesus.

PALM SUNDAY Isaiah 50:4-7 Philippians 2:6-11 Luke 22:14-23:56 'Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear.' As we begin Holy Week the Church invites us on a journey. This week is like no other in the year.

FIFTH WEEK OF LENT SATURDAY Ezekiel 37:21-28 John 11:45-56 'I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I shall resettle them and increase them; I shall settle my sanctuary among them for ever.'

FIFTH WEEK OF LENT FRIDAY Jeremiah 20:10-13 John 10:31-42 As we get closer to Holy Week there is a sense of growing tension in every encounter that Jesus has. He is challenged on every level and his responses only add to the confusion of his hearers.

FIFTH WEEK OF LENT THURSDAY Genesis 17:3-9 Psalm 104(105):4-9 John 8:51-59 'The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.' Using the responsorial psalm verse as a repeated prayer or mantra can often be a very helpful way into the Liturgy of the Word.

FIFTH WEEK OF LENT WEDNESDAY Daniel 3:14-20,24-25,28 John 8:31-42 In much of John’s Gospel Jesus speaks to people who struggle to understand him. He speaks figuratively and his hearers assume he is being concrete.

FIFTH WEEK OF LENT TUESDAY Numbers 21:4-9 John 8:21-30 Each year as we get closer to Holy Week I find that the readings are a little more complex than those we read in the early weeks of Lent. The texts from John’s Gospel ask a little more of me.

FIFTH WEEK OF LENT MONDAY JOHN 8:12-20 As we move towards Holy Week there is a sense of growing tension in our Gospel texts. Jesus’ actions are being watched very closely and every word of his teaching is being scrutinised.

FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT (C) Isaiah 43:16-21 Ps 125 (6) John 8:1-11 As we get closer to Holy Week the liturgy builds in intensity. We have journeyed with Jesus from desert to mountain top and we have heard his invitation to turn our hearts to God, to bear fruit for his Kingdom.

FOURTH WEEK OF LENT SATURDAY Jeremiah 11:18-20 John 7:40-52 Where you come from seems to matter a great deal in the Bible. It’s not just your town or village that is under scrutiny, but your parents too. In its best light this is about being able to trace the path of God’s promise.

FOURTH WEEK OF LENT FRIDAY Wisdom 2:1,12-22 John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 As we move closer to Holy Week tension begins to mount in our Gospel readings. Today this tension is mirrored in the First Reading from the Book of Wisdom and the Psalm.

FOURTH WEEK IN LENT WEDNESDAY Isaiah 49:8-15 John 5:17-30 Each year in Lent the Church gives us the opportunity to revisit the story of our salvation. It’s a story of faith and great ideals, of times of bitter disappointment and the utmost courage.

FOURTH WEEK OF LENT TUESDAY Ezekiel 47:1-9,12 John 5:1-3, 5-16 'Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary.