Writing for The Steward’s Well, an e-newsletter from the Office of Stewardship of The Episcopal Church, Bishop Beckwith reflects on the discipline needed to live into the gift of Easter -- and how developing the holy habits of worship, prayer, study, and giving of self and treasure can prepare us to fully receive the abundance of the Easter blessing.
As the Lenten fast ends, we can either applaud or chastise ourselves on how well we did with whatever we took on or gave up. Many of us have been trained to give Lent a lot of attention. For centuries the Christian family has been drawn into the via negativa dimension of Lent – engaging in the classic disciplines of prayer, fasting and self-denial.
That is all turned around at Easter. With the Resurrection, we enter into the season of via positiva. And strangely, we tend to drop whatever sort of discipline we put together for Lent and simply live into Easter. Many are exhausted from their Lenten project and are unwilling to take on anything more. Still others tend to think that the power of the Easter message obviates the need for intention or discipline.
Easter is pure gift, but it takes some discipline to live into that gift.
