TAU SWEET the Province of the Pacific,Third Order Society of St Francis
TAU SWEET The Province of the Pacific,Third Order Society of St Francis. M.P. Reflection page 1 Climate change General Synod Prayer Stand in the Gravel Page 4/5 Interfaith Report Presence by Sandy Neal page 2 Easter ReflectionENTBy Dorothy Brooker Area News page 10-12 L Page 8/9 Page 6/7 Message of Hope Book Review Page 7 Formation Director The Archbishops Page 3 Report page 9 Minister Provincial Reflection “ Here and in all your churches throughout the world, we adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world”. How often we repeat this prayer of praise, yet I wonder what we mean when we say: ”by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” How do we understand that? What does it mean for us? How might it impact on our lives as members of the Order? I can write only personally and offer these thoughts as a pilgrim with you. I’ve struggled for years with the language of substitution – the apparently neat equation that makes me merely an “onlooker” to the drama of Golgotha. Convocation last year and subsequent reading and reflection have given me much more satisfying answers – full of grace…full of challenge…. The cross is redemptive for the world as the supreme icon of non-retaliation, of the way of non- violence. Jesus, absolutely true to God and God’s kingdom dream, asked forgiveness for his executioners, responded with silence to the cruel taunts of his enemies, promised paradise to a thief who pleaded just to be remembered, blessed his mother and beloved friend with the healing task of caring for one another…...and, in words of incredible faith, entrusted his spirit into the hands of the One, who a short time before, seemed to have abandoned him.
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