Join us for Holy Week 2026!
We reach the place of ultimate relinquishment. Jesus reminds us that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. We trust that the "shattering" we have carried all season is the necessary condition for the new life about to bloom.
Release your grip on the self you protect.
Ritual action: The Planting—press a seed into dark soil and sit with the silence of it "dying" in the dark.
Pádraig Ó Tuama
That you were born
and you will die.
That you will sometimes love enough
and sometimes not.
That you will lie
if only to yourself.
That you will get tired.
That you will learn most from the situations
you did not choose.
That there will be some things that move you
more than you can say.
That you will live
that you must be loved.
That you will avoid questions most urgently in need of
your attention.
That you began as the fusion of a sperm and an egg
of two people who once were strangers
and may well still be.
That life isn’t fair.
That life is sometimes good
and sometimes better than good.
That life is often not so good.
That life is real
and if you can survive it, well,
survive it well
with love
and art
and meaning given
where meaning’s scarce.
That you will learn to live with regret.
That you will learn to live with respect.
That the structures that constrict you
may not be permanently constricting.
That you will probably be okay.
That you must accept change
before you die
but you will die anyway.
So you might as well live
and you might as well love.
You might as well love.
You might as well love.
Pádraig Ó Tuama is an Irish poet, theologian, and conflict mediator whose work explores the power of language, storytelling, and silence in the realms of peacebuilding and human connection.