Stations of the Resurrection: Station One

Stations of the Resurrection

By

Raymond Chapman

Opening Praise

And

Station One

Almighty God, whose blessed Son appeared in his Risen Body to many who believed in him, give us grace so to meditate on the mystery of his Resurrection that we may see him with the eyes of faith, and be united with him in eternal life, where he reigns in the unity of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen

A hymn may be sung; the following are suitable:

“Christ the Lord is risen again”

“Come, let us join our cheerful songs”

“Lord enthroned in heavenly splendor”

“Love’s redeeming work is done”

1

Earthquake

V         We adore thee O Christ and we bless thee

R.        Because by thy glorious Resurrection thou has given life to the world.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. (Matthew 28:2)

They had sealed the stone and set a watch, thinking that they had seen the last of Jesus. God broke through their strongest guard with the power of his love. Nothing could hold back the new life that had come into the world to overcome death forever.

We give thanks for the power that is infinite yet comes so gently to meet all our needs; for every showing of that power in the natural world and in human lives; for the way people can changed by a single touch of the love of God.

We think that our problems are too great, our sins too bad for any solution. Help us to know the infinite strength to meet our weakness. Teach us not to be afraid to ask for some of that strength, in the little things that are dear to us as well as in the great issues of the world where we feel helpless.

V         Christ is risen.

R         He is risen indeed.

V         Let us bless the Lord.

R         Thanks be to God.

So many miracles when he was walking as a man among his friends and his enemies, but none to help or save himself. When he intervened in the course of things it was to heal or to bring relief from hunger or fear. Now that his work in the natural body was finished, Offered at the end upon the Cross, the last and greatest miracle of the Father’s power threw open his tomb, to set free into eternal life for all who would accept the grace of his triumph over death.

You foolish men, his enemies – you thought that an official seal and an armed guard could put an end to your troubles. You feared him when he gathered the crowds around him, and sent you own crowd to call for his death. You trusted human law and human judgment, setting the power of Caesar against the will of God. God could have destroyed the world in a moment, putting an end to sin and rebellion, and that grieved him since the first human disobedience. What can we say to the love that not only spared us, but submitted the fullness of divinity to constraint and suffering and death?

We call for more signs, we will not believe without the reassurance of our senses, I need my little own personal earthquake to remind me that all this is true. I am not just remembering an episode in history, once new and present now only as a page in a book. I am praising the falling of a dark wall the marked the end of lifem the opening of a barred gate between living once and living eternally.

Dear Risen Lord. Please roll away the stone from my heart.