‘Oh God, give me light in my heart and light in my tongue and light in my hearing and light in my seeing and light in my feeling and light in every part of my body and light before me and light behind me. Give me, I beg you, light on my right hand and light on my left hand and light above me and light beneath me. O Lord, make light grow within me and give me light and illuminate me.’

….Muhammed

evolving toward ecstasy….

Master Eckhart identified a place within the soul that neither time, flesh nor space can touch. This sacred temple is in every heart. He believed this to be the ‘Vunklien,’ the simple, divine spark within us. In that spark your own essence and the essence of God are the one brightness. It is a lovely idea that the passion at the heart of the human is indeed divine. Light plays on the surface of things. When night comes, it clears all the light before it. But fire can reach and penetrate inwards to the essence of a thing- to the heart where no hand or eye can reach. The warmth and fire in the human heart is that of the Holy Spirit. The heart of Easter renewal comes out of the paschal fire; it is a wonderful image of renewal, regeneration and creativity. The Easter fire comes from the heart of God. This offers a glimpse of the divine imagination. God is never still. God surges and flows and is wild. This aspect of God’s vitality has been lost for so long within the tradition. The danger of such a concept is that it deadens the deity. This is where all fundamentalists and sects get lost. If we could but retrieve the idea of God that Jesus had we would revolutionize dead religion……John O’Donohue

Easter, a time of volatile renewal and a deeply emotional bursting open……this sacred sunrise lights the path of grace, to grace, from grace and burrows in the heart…..the ancient rites of atonement, conscious gratitude, and self-forgiveness nurture the gentle tides….from darkness to light…..moving from self-righteousness into natural harmony….

Spring has great significance in the many spiritual traditions of the world. It can be a time of sanctification, purification, surrender, redemption, liberation, or resurrection. The word Islam itself means surrender; to submit one’s life to God. In the Judaic tradition, Passover offers an opportunity to be liberated from selfishness, to grow in love, and ultimately to become love. Easter is the time when Christians celebrate the purification inherent in redemption, liberation, and resurrection. D.P. McAdams, in’The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By,’ has found that personal redemption and expressions of deep gratitude are consistent themes in the lives of highly generative people: those who produce benefit for themselves and others. In all the spiritual traditions and redemption stories, human beings return to and experience the natural states of freedom, love, humility, and goodness. All acts of mercy produce healing and restore the soul…..Angeles Arrien