After searching for an opening Easter Acclamation that's progressive and cosmic in nature, and finding nothing that went where I'd like to take the congregation on Easter, I decided I'd just have to write one.
So, here's an acclamation/invocation that draws on themes found in the high Christology of Saint Paul (Colossians) and well as the Gospel of Thomas (from the Nag Hammadi collection of early Christian texts); it's also drawn from the medieval mystics Meister Eckhart and Hildegard von Bingen, and the modern evolutionary theologians, Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry. I also hope it has some of the poetic flare of that great earth mystic, Saint John (Muir) of the Mountains.
Travis Reed, the remarkable film maker, just put the poem/prayer to the sights and sounds of his craft.
It’s a considerable bump up from just the written text. Enjoy! And my it invite you to expand your experience of the Eastered life.
Here’s the link to the video: https://www.theworkofthepeople.com/o-radiant-light
PS: I’m sorry about the pay-wall with theworkofthepeople site. But Travis has to make a living too and must guard against thievery of his work. But seriously, his site is a “netflix” for the soul and well worth a modest subscription fee (I make nothing from it; my poem was my gift to the project).
I do realize the video ends abruptly. If you come to church on Easter (the second and third services) you’ll experience it. But if you’d like the text, here it is:
O Radiant Light,
O Flame Divine,
as shines the light of morning's dawn—
Come, bless the embers of the earth,
sparks flung from our eternal birth.
O Word of God,
the Source of Life,
you rouse us from the dark of night
to open souls and minds and ears
and hear the music of the spheres.
You are the Fire that birth’d all things,
the Force that spins the galaxies;
you are the Flame within all flames,
the Hidden Power that knows no name.
From you all things that are were sent,
and into you does all extend.
Peel back the bark of any tree,
lift up a stone—they blaze with Thee!
O Happy Light
We feel your heat
The starlight shining in our bones
You fill us all with cosmic grace,
We host your presence in this place.
O Risen Christ,
you shine in us,
the splendor of your holiness;
despite the sting of death and strife,
we rise to dance this Dance of Life.