Goslings on site!

Goslings Galore

Yes, we see a lot of Canadian geese in our part of the world!    And now we know why!    

This couple has been to our pond in each of the last three years.  Mom sits on exactly the same nesting spot at the edge of the pond for two or three weeks each year.  She had to sit through some snow and freezing weather this year.

This is their third family just at our site.  We have no proof of numbers from last year but the first year there were at least four goslings.

There are, of course, predators in the wings and on the wings.   Our local red-tailed hawk butchered a duck that he had carried to the lawn right under my window.   A quiet place to dine.  So mom and dad have nothing to worry about from a stray photographer but they know enough to keep a steady watch.

The waning of winter in Wersnersville

The foot of wet snow on March 22

And a few hundred yards away mom and dad set up their nest in the exact same spot for the third year running, this year just six or seven days after the snow fall.   Vigilant and confident they will usher in a new season with their offspring.   (Papa is getting used to the photographer!)

Easter Vigil 2018

Saturday, March 31, 2018  Easter Vigil

The Blue Moon of March 31, 2018

When the sky cleared last evening and the near-full moon rose, our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrated the feast of Passover.  We Christians, of course, had celebrated Jesus’ last Passover on Thursday evening.    There Jesus gives himself as food for our journey into liberation and glory.   Like the Jews freed from Egypt, in our own desert we also may complain about the struggles through which we must live but at the same time Jesus is with us in the Eucharist and sends us the Spirit of encouragement and peace.

A story in Mark’s gospel tells of the women discovering the empty tomb and hearing the message of the angel:  “Jesus of Nazareth has been raised, he is not here.”   Details about what happens next among the women differ.   Mark says that they were afraid to tell anyone.   Luke writes, on the other hand, that they told the men who were disciples but the men refused to believe the women.  

Similar witness from the women occurs in each of the four gospels. Yes, later the men offer testimony but Jesus reveals his resurrection first to the women.  In their patriarchal society none of the gospel writers or male disciples would have thought it helpful to begin with women’s testimony.  Thus such unusual testimony argues for its truth.   And, too, this revelation first to women underlines their role as disciples of Jesus.

I seek some parallels of the resurrection in our own clumsy lives. Even when this possibility is so disrupted by our sins and the evil in this world, rebirth never vanishes.   To be sure, so often the Spirit of God and the hands of human love and care bring about a rebirth as in the change of heart of those ailing with addictions or lives of anger and hatred.   

But still, with each person’s inevitable death, the permanence of risen life hides itself from us.    In our times of sadness and anger over death or over the suffering of children we find ourselves in the same position as the men and women who came to know Jesus, his life and his teaching.   The Spirit opened their eyes to his resurrection so powerfully that his love transformed their lives.   All of our weaknesses and sins, all the evil in the world have not and cannot destroy this Spirit.