Anam Cara

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

I would like to welcome you all to Corcomroe to celebrate the Resurrection.

First of all, I would remind you that we are in a very sacred place—a Cistercian monastery going back to the eleventh/twelfth century—and we are here not to disturb those who are buried here nor the spirits of those who lived and prayed here for centuries. We are here to bring the light of the Resurrection and of the dawn. We begin in the darkness of night, with the beautiful light of the Burren moon gradually bringing the shapes of the mountains into view. So just for a few minutes we’ll have a slow air to concentrate our attention and focus on what we are here to do.

Music

At the beginning of the Eucharist, let us realize that there is a special gift of light and healing in this holy place for each of us on this Easter morning. For a moment in silence, let us call to mind the areas of our lives where we particularly need Easter light and healing and hope…

Silence

And let us ask first of all for healing for our sins of fear, for the areas where we are afraid in our hearts and spirits and where we haven’t the courage to enter fully the lives that God has so generously given us—

Lord have mercy.

People: Lord have mercy

And let us ask forgiveness for any sins of blindness that we have—blindness to the opportunities that we have to grow and be creative and that we indirectly reject—

Christ have mercy.

People: Christ have mercy

Let us ask forgiveness for any sins of resentment or bitterness, which put our lives out of joint and take the peace and natural courage that we are supposed to have—

Lord have mercy.

People: Lord have mercy

Let us ask forgiveness for any wrong we have done to anyone, directly in word or deed or indirectly through bad mind or any kind of negativity—

Lord have mercy.

People: Lord have mercy

Let us ask on this Easter morning that all the frailty of our minds and spirits may be healed and that we be given the healing and courage for a new beginning on our journey through life—

Lord have mercy.

People: Lord have mercy

Dawn Mass

And now as the dawn light approaches, we have an old Irish air as a Gloria celebration.

Music

Let us pray.

Lord, you have given us the gift of this new dawn, the dawn on which Jesus rose from the dead and broke, finally and forever, the chains of darkness and blindness. We ask that streams of Easter light might flow into the intimacy and privacy of our hearts this morning, to heal us and encourage us and enable each of us to make again a new beginning. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

People: Amen.

First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (10:37–43)

Music

Second Reading from First Letter of St. Paul

to the Corinthians (5:6–8)

Gospel from St. John (20:1–9)

Music

HOMILY

We are always on our way from darkness into light. Every morning, we come out of the dark territories of dreaming into waking awareness of the day. Every night, no matter how long, breaks again and the light of dawn comes. At birth each of us made a journey from darkness into light, from the warm secure darkness of the womb into the light of the world. So we are no strangers to darkness and we are special friends of the light. A human life is guided, balanced and poised by the light of the mind and spirit of the person. In the darkness of our bodies, and particularly of our brains, the light of the mind is attuned and alive. There are great primal thresholds in life, and one of the most beautiful and most encouraging and most healing is the threshold of dawn, when darkness gives way to the light and novelty and wonder of a new day. Days are where we live our lives, where everything happens to us. It’s lovely to think that at the heart of our belief in God, there is a young man, a carpenter from a small town, who braved in an extreme way the darkness of the human journey and took upon his tender shoulders, in a most brutal and harrowing way, all darkness everywhere. He took it to the summit of Calvary, where that darkness was turned into a light that never quenched.

Here in north Clare there is the tradition of winterage, where cattle are put out for new grazing. In doing this, some people went astray in the night and “Jack O’Lantern” was blamed for this. Old people will tell you that the way to break this spell was to turn your coat inside out. On Resurrection morning the dark and lonesome cross was turned inside out. When the cross hits your life, a loneliness, a blindness and a darkness come all around you. Darkness and lostness are the worst parts of suffering. The wonder of the Resurrection is that this darkness was opened out and at the heart of the darkness a secret light was discovered. Each one of us who has come here hasn’t come to this place out of curiosity but we have come because we know the need that is in our lives and we know the frailty that is in our hearts and minds. We are strangers in the world. In our journey through life anything can befall us. It seems to be very difficult for us as humans to learn how to love, to learn how to let the fear and the resentment and the blindness fall away from us and to come into the special joy and peace and freedom of love. No matter how assured or competent we may feel, there is none of us who has not large territories of fear in our hearts, fear of sharing ourselves, of opening ourselves, of entering life. That is why we come to an ancient holy place like this, before the dawn, to let the new tender light of the Resurrection touch our helpless fear and transfigure it and open it into courage. We come here also because we have all been hurt in our lives. One of the beauties of Easter morning is that the light that comes with Christ is a gentle but penetrating light. There is no hurt anywhere within us, no matter in what crevices it might be buried, but that the light of this Easter can reach it and heal it.

To be born is to be chosen. None of us is accidentally in the world. We are sent here because there is something special for each of us to do here that could not be done by someone else. One of the wisdoms of living a full life is to try and sense what it is you were sent here for and to try and let the hindrances that block you from that fall away so that you can claim completely the life that was so generously offered to you. We were all reared in a world that concentrated on sin and sinfulness, but I believe that when we come into the eternal world we won’t so much be checked for our failures, but we will be asked whether we honored the possibilities that were placed inside us when we were so carefully fashioned out of the clay. There are limitless possibilities within each one of us and, if we give ourselves any chance at all, it is unknown what we are capable of. So on this Easter morning, let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given and let us let fall away the useless baggage that we carry—old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling—and let us have the courage to begin again. Life is very short, and we are no sooner here than it is time to depart again, and we should use to the full the time that we still have.

We don’t realize all the good we can do. A kind, encouraging word or a helping hand can bring many a person through dark valleys in their lives. We weren’t put here to make money or to acquire status or reputation. We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts, and when we find it we are meant to give it away generously. The dawn that is rising this Easter morning is a gift to our hearts and we are meant to celebrate it and to carry away from this holy, ancient place the gifts of healing and light and the courage of a new beginning.

Silent Reflection

BLESSING OF THE ELEMENTS

Air: One of the oldest words in Greek is the word for “air”—pneuma—and it is also the word for “spirit.” One of the first words for God in Hebrew is Rua, which also means “wind.” Bless the air we breathe, Lord. Let us close our eyes and breathe in the fresh air of this dawn and then breathe out the darkness that is within us and inhibiting us.

Silence

Earth: Our bodies are made of the earth, and at the end of our lives will return to the earth. We ask forgiveness of Mother Earth for all the ways we have abused and poisoned and destroyed her. We put our hand to the ground and ask the earth to heal us and bless us.

Fire: Fire is the great cleanser and purifier. We ask that this fire of Easter may burn away from our hearts all that is false and useless and negative inside us.

Water: Water is the gift of life, and without it there is no life. We thank God for the gift of water and ask him to bless with Easter light this water taken from the ocean surrounding us, and in receiving it may we be cleansed and blessed, that we may be protected from all danger and darkness, so that the spirit of evil may have no power over us or those that are close to us among the living and the dead.

PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL

That the light of Easter may fully enter our hearts and change us and bless us.

Lord, hear us

Lord, graciously hear us

For all those that we love, and especially for the gift of friendship, and that our friends may be blessed with the same kindness and generosity which they show us.

Lord, hear us

Lord, graciously hear us

For those who are suffering in the world. For those in hospital, that God might bless them and that the light of Easter might surprise them and give them courage. For those who are depressed and for those who are haunted and locked away in institutions, that they too may receive the special peace of Easter. For prisoners everywhere, that though they have lost the outside world, the gifts of the inner world might be opened up to them. For those who suffer injustice in the world, those starving to death in a world where there is too much food—and that we may be forgiven for our guilt in participating in systems that cause suffering to others.

Lord, hear us

Lord, graciously hear us

For all the people of this parish, especially those who are ill or who have died in the past year. And for all our own particular intentions.

Lord, hear us

Lord, graciously hear us

Lord, you know the deepest needs of our hearts. We ask you to renew us and transform us in the new dawn light of Easter.

Amen.

Music

Priest and congregation move inside the ruined abbey for the Consecration of the Mass. At the end of Mass, John gives the final blessing.

May the spirit and light of this Easter morning and the special spirit and light of this abbey of Corcomroe bless us all, watch over us and protect us on our journey and open us from the darkness into the light of peace and hope and transfiguration. May the spirit of the sacred Trinity, the light of nature and all good spirits and angels and our friends among the dead bless us and heal us, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen

This Mass is ended, but don’t go yet because there’s tea and buns outside and a feast of reels to send us home happy!

A Morning Offering

I bless the night that nourished my heart

To set the ghosts of longing free

Into the flow and figure of dream

That went to harvest from the dark

Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me

Welcomes the wonder of this day,

The field of brightness it creates

Offering time for each thing

To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:

The quiet loyalty of breath,

The tent of thought where I shelter

And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today

To the invisible geography

That invites me to new frontiers,

To break the dead shell of yesterdays,

To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today

To live the life that I would love,

To postpone my dream no longer,

But do at last what I came here for

And waste my heart on fear no more.

From To Bless the Space Between Us