I wrote this blog yesterday, Easter morning, and share it as a talk at our Center. The Easter Masterpiece

Here it is:

It’s Easter morning. On April 8, Passover began. These two holidays presently being celebrated together have much in common for me. They both represent rebirth.

Passover celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. It is a story of faith, endurance and the willingness to leap into the unknown. I am always intrigued by the part of the story when the Israelites were instructed to put the blood of the lamb on their doors so the angel of death would pass them by during the 10^th and last plague. The blood on the door, to me, represented their faith in God, which was greater than their fear of death. As they move out of Egypt, led by Moses, with Pharaoh and his army hot on their heels, their faith lead the way.

The story of Easter tells of the resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion. It is about the overcoming of death. I always loved the story of Mary, one of Jesus’ disciples, seeing the tomb empty, weeping, and then meeting a man on the road. The man asked her why she was crying. She told him about Jesus and her sadness, and then she all of a sudden she recognized him. She recognized him because she recognized his Spirit. It was Jesus. Our Spirit never dies and that is the story of Easter.

These are both stories of courage, seeing beyond the conditional world and the ability to rise above it into a greater consciousness. They are both stories of spiritual rebirth.

I believe we are having a rebirth right now. We are having to decide what we believe, and where we we will place our faith. Just like the Israelites were led out of Egypt, we are also being led out of the Coronavirus pandemic. But, who is leading us?

So much information is coming our way, all about how we must deal with the Coronavirus from a physical standpoint. Many mandates are given to us: stay home, stop social gatherings, wear a mask, keep social distancing, only go out for essentials. We are flattening the curve. Then there is the testing, the hope of vaccines, the question of who has antibodies or not. Then, there are those who say we are making too big of a deal about it. It’s just another flu and people die from the flu every year. Then there are those conspiracy theories. Who are you to believe when everyone is saying something different? Some are even saying the Coronavirus is here to stay. What will we do?

I believe in choice and volition. I get to decide what I believe, and as I believe, so it is.  Really, what I believe will manifest, it’s scientific.

I believe in myself. I believe in myself because I know who I am now. It’s taking faith and constant spiritual practice to stay in this knowing. However, I believe this is my Exodus from this pandemic of fear. The energy of faith will carry us through.

There is no way that I can judge the next uncertain moment except by choosing what I want to believe about now. I can be led by fear or with a faith like the Israelites.  Ernest Holmes wrote, “We are not going through a harder time today, a longer or darker night, than has ever been experienced before. It only seems darker because we have lost faith – the beacon of light.” Dr. Holmes was writing this when our world was on the brink of war and during the Great Depression. How comforting to know we have travailed other similar times.

I can believe in the Truth that all is Spirit like Mary did or I can believe in only flesh and bone. I can believe in life or I can be afraid of death. I’m not going to live afraid of dying. My promise land is living in health, strength, creativity, passion and most of all love. I place my faith here.

There really is nothing that can threaten us. We come from the All that is. We are Powerful. We have the gift of intuition to guide and direct our path. My only reason for being here now on this earth plane is to recognize my Divinity, express it, and assist you in recognizing yours. I have great faith in all of us and belief in our victory.

There’s a reason for everything, you know; and I believe it’s always about expansion. The Coronavirus is expanding us. It is an opportunity for expansion. We were on remote before this crisis, going from moment to moment, same, same, same, even saying we hated it all: too many activities, no time with our families, I hate my job. I’m stressed …on and on. This sudden jolt has rocked us out of our monotony and unwillingness to change what we kept saying we didn’t like. We were literally dying in the spirit.

I am seeing people more spiritually alive than ever. We’ve had to think a new thought everyday to move ourselves through this. We are forced into being the creative beings that we are. Never have I seen a more courageous group of people than us – all of us.  Again, I have great faith in us because of the Power and Presence that moves through each of us.

My Easter masterpiece is you and me. All the pieces of a beautiful painting vibrating together, finding our way through this individually and collectively. We’ve never done anything like this. It is an original and we are having to be original. But, then look at our fingerprint. Each of us is an original – God original masterpiece.

Ernest Holmes wrote,

“Now it is going to be a pretty tough thing. The truth is not always easy to follow. There is something in you and in me that transcends tragedy and sorrow and grief and loss. Power perennially springs from the innermost recesses of that unborn reality which is evermore being born in us today. This is the glory of our work; this is the power of what we do; this is the presence of the Living Spirit we adore: Beloved, you are that Thing you seek; you are that Thing you long for. The great and the good and the gracious God exists in you. …Surrender to the dignity of that law, to the love of that Presence, to the glory and joy of that Being, and no longer be afraid of the universe in which we live.”

I have faith in the Truth of our Divinity and I believe that will always prevail.

In Love and Truth,

Rev. Rita