Happy Easter, and a Holy Week Blessing

A blog note: we here at WOC will be transitioning to a new platform, and as a result, our
blog will be down for a bit after Easter. I look forward to connecting with you all when we
are back up and running.

On behalf of WOC, I want to wish you all a holy and soul-full-filling Triduum—and invite
you into the women of the Resurrection story. Who were they? Why are they the
cornerstone of this story? Why does the canonical church refuse to give space to
women who were equally vested in this amazing life story? For indeed, that is what we
celebrate and have faith in… a resurrection. A new life…after death. Our collective
human experience.

I leave you with a Holy Week Blessing from Christine Valters Paintner, the online
abbess of Abbey of the Arts. Amen and Namaste.

Holy Week Blessing
Godde of Paradox,
you call us to sit these coming days
in the heart of betrayal, abandonment,
mockery, violence,
to not avert our eyes
but see ourselves in the story.
Travel with us into
the border spaces of unknowing
holding death and life,
the liminal realm of in-between.
As we feel the suffering and loss of Jesus,
let us not rush to resurrection just yet,
but linger a while in mystery.
In this temple of grief,
strip us of our attachments,
the identities we cling to,
the securities we believe in,

disorient us
so we might walk in a new direction,
lift the veils
that dull our senses from the world’s sorrow,
give us courage
to ask questions rather than seek answers,
let loss carve a space within us to let love pour in
into this chalice of the heart.
Bring us into communion
with all those who suffer
from poverty, hunger, war, abuse,
climate crisis, pollution, clearcutting,
the whole of creation groaning
together in labor,
birthing a new possibility,
one only dimly seen
in quiet moments,
a glimmer in the eyes
a song in the throat.