Daily Prayer: a resource of Forward Movement

The Forward Day by Day Meditation for April 4, 2021

We post a Forward Day by Day Meditation for every day of the year - and we invite you to consider them and talk about them here. If you'd like to comment, you can log in to Disqus with your Facebook, Twitter, or Google account; just click "Login," or the appropriate logo below. Or, you can sign up for a Disqus account; just use the entry form below, or click the "D" logo to start the process. You can find the past week's Meditations in the box at right (or below, for mobile users), or search for previous entries on the Archives page. You can also listen to the Forward Day by Day podcast anywhere you find podcasts!

Please note: you won't be able to use the Comment feature unless you enable Javascript in your browser. In general, your overall experience on the Daily Prayer site will be greatly enhanced if you enable Javascript.

SUNDAY, April 4 Easter Sunday

John 20:15b Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

Mary Magdalene is faithfully doing what needs to be done. Having seen Jesus die, she has gone to care for Jesus’ body. It’s perfectly understandable that she would struggle, at first, to grasp the reality that her friend and her Lord has been raised from the dead. Seeing a person who had been dead walking around would have been no easier for Mary than it would be for us. We know that the world isn’t supposed to work that way. And yet, she courageously sees and then believes. Mary is the first evangelist of the resurrection, the first to announce that God’s victory over death is complete.

Around this time every year, a website usually runs an article attempting to explain away the radical proclamation of Easter. After all, we know how the world is supposed to work. Jesus defies expectations then and now, thanks be to God. Let us, like Mary, see and believe the Good News. We see Jesus in the church, in the sacraments, and in his followers. Death is vanquished. “I have seen the Lord.”

MOVING FORWARD: How will you follow in Mary Magdalene’s footsteps?

PRAY for the peace of Jerusalem

Ps 118:1-2, 14-24 | Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 25:6-9 | 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43 | John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8