Woman gathering flowers, first century CE. Detached fresco, 38 × 32 cm, from the Villa Arianna in Stabiae, Campania, Italy, now in the Collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples, Italy. The woman may be Primavera (a personification of spring) or Flora (the Roman goddess of flowers, fertility, and abundance), or simply a generic maiden at leisure. Spring bursts today,For Christ is risen and all the earth’s at play.Flash forth, thou Sun,The rain is over and gone, its work is done.Winter is past,Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last.Bud, Fig and Vine,Bud, Olive, fat ..read more

Nicholas Mynheer (British, 1958–), Jesus Appears on the Shore: The Calling, 2007. Oil on canvas, 31 × 25 cm. Final painting from the thirteen-piece Sarum Cycle on Christ’s passion. [read artist profile] Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. (John 21:4) Lap lulled by lifeless waters,ill-cast nets bearing no weight,the fishermen see againstcharcoal dawnthe lone figure of the Lord—come to draw them in again,and launch them out. This poem is No. XXXII from 33: Reflections on the Gospel of Saint John by Andrew Roycroft (Baltimore: Sq ..read more

Here’s my new (nonthematic) playlist for the month of April! But also, because Easter lasts through May 18, be sure to check out the 184 songs I handpicked for the season, which includes some new ones mixed in since the playlist’s original publication. +++ NEW SONGS: >> “He Lives” by Emma Nissen: Emma Nissen is a Latter-day Saint singer-songwriter from Arizona known for her gorgeous jazz vocals. Here she performs an original song about God the Father giving his Son, Jesus, to redeem the world through his life, death, and resurrection. “Let there be light, let there be love . . .” > ..read more

Joaquín Vaquero Turcios (Spanish, 1933–2010), Alba de Resurrección (Dawn of Resurrection), 1956. Oil on canvas, 120 × 180 cm. Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain. The garden in the deep nightafter God’s rapt silencehas no breath. No echo evenin the vacant tomb which no oneyet has visited, no one seen,and yet everywhere his breathing,the turn begins, the blanketof sunrise in mist stretchesto swaddle the earth,gouged and waiting. From From Shade to Shine: New Poems by Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, © 2022 by Jill Peláez Baumgaertner. Used by permission of Paraclete Press, www.paracletepress.com. Jill ..read more

POEM SEQUENCE: “The Unfolding” by Michael Stalcup: Michael Stalcup has published a sequence of five short poems in Solum Journal that “tells the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection by unfolding five words that take us from Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday,” he says. “I wrote these poems in a very unusual way, restricting myself to words that could be formed from the letters in each poem’s title. . . . This poetic form calls for creativity within intense limitations, which seems fitting for Holy Week—a time when Jesus crafted the most beautiful art this world has ever known within the c ..read more

As an English major in college, I was required to take a course on medieval literature. I had not been looking forward to it—Romantic and Victorian lit were more my thing. I worried that working through Old English and Middle English texts would be a slog. But boy were my expectations upended! I was enthralled by all the imaginative theology I encountered in verse, drama, and sermons, from the Dream of the Rood on down. I went to a public university, but the saturation in Christian thinking is unavoidable for students of the history of English literature. After overcoming some hang-ups I had a ..read more

Olesya Hudyma (Ukrainian, 1980–), Ukrainian Madonna, 2021. Oil on canvas. Mary,God delights in you so much, God was so taken with you, he sank his love’s fire deep within you.So much love he gave you, that with it you nurture his son.So full of ecstasy is your bodythat it resounds with heaven’s symphony.Your womb exults.It exults like the grass, grass the dew has nestled on, grass the dew has infused with verdant strength.That is how it is with you,Mother of all joy. From Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen, introduction and versions by Gabriele ..read more

The English Crucifixion lyric “My Fearful Dream” (also known by the beginning of its first line, “To Calvary he bore his cross”) was written anonymously in the fifteenth century. It is preserved, with music by Gilbert Banastir (sometimes spelled Banaster or Banester) (ca. 1445–1487), on folios 77v–82r of the famous Tudor songbook BL Add. MS. 5465, intended for use at the court of King Henry VII. Compiled around the year 1500, this manuscript is commonly referred to as the Fayrfax Manuscript after Robert Fayrfax, the Tudor composer who was organist of St. Albans and a Gentleman of the Chapel Ro ..read more

Vision of Saint Bernard (Blood Crucifix), Lower Rhine, 14th century. Ink and colored washes on paper, 25.5 × 18 cm. Museum Schnütgen, Cologne. Jesu, no more! It is full tide;From thy hands and from thy feet,From thy head, and from thy side,All the purple rivers meet.What need thy fair head bear a partIn showers, as if thine eyes had none?What need they help to drown thy heart,That strives in torrents of its own?Water’d by the showers they bring,The thorns that thy blest brow encloses(A cruel and a costly spring)Conceive proud hopes of proving roses.Thy restless feet now cannot goFor us and ou ..read more

Digital concept for outdoor fountain by Chad Knight, 2017 [purchase] FIRST VOICE.I thirst, but earth cannot allayThe fever coursing through my veins.The healing stream is far away—It flows through Salem’s lovely plains. The murmurs of its crystal flowBreak ever o’er this world of strife;My heart is weary, let me go,To bathe it in the stream of life; For many worn and weary heartsHave bathed in this pure healing stream,And felt their griefs and cares depart,E’en like some sad forgotten dream. SECOND VOICE. “The Word is nigh thee, even in thy heart.” Say not, within thy weary heart,Who shall as ..read more