Embracing the Hope of the Resurrection in our Centenary Year

Sister Agnes Lanfermann, Society Coordinator, shares this reflection for Easter 2025.

"Easter invites each one of us to join in the light and the hope of the Resurrection, to renew our commitment to promote healing and wholeness in all aspects of our life. Nobody and nothing stand alone. Salvation includes the willingness to remain in loving relationship with all people, all creation, to participate in the wholeness of the Body of Christ.

“Our sense of disconnection is only an illusion. Nothing human can stop the flow of divine love; we cannot undo the eternal pattern, even by our worst sin.” (Richard Rohr OFM)

Easter encourages us to live more deeply into a loving and participatory relationship with the triune God who is relationship itself, united yet distinct forces of divine love overflowing.

Help us each day to stand
For love, for healing, for the good,
For the diverse unity of the Body of Christ and all creation.

Easter reminds us of the triumph of light over darkness. The risen Christ comes to us, filling our hearts and souls with love, peace and joy. We are invited to witness to the presence of the Risen Christ in the centre of our being and in all created life amidst the struggles and conflicts of our world of this day.

Easter joy has a transformative power - it transforms our darkness into light, our despair into hope. As we journey together to live the fruits of the risen Christ, we are called to continue to be a healing presence at the heart of a wounded world. Let this Easter season be a time of renewed strength for our global mission in all generations. May we courageously embrace the challenges that face us in our Society, in our contexts, trusting in God’s love, trusting in the Spirit of God to guide us, to be with us always.

“In the end, everything will be [all right]. If it’s not [all right], it’s not the end.” (Fernando Sabino (1923–2004)). That’s what Easter is telling us. Let us live this Easter-season with courage, love, and unwavering faith.

Together with all sisters and associates across the world, our friends and benefactors, with all with whom we are connected in our life and mission, let us continue to sow the seeds of joy, peace and love in the world around us for the healing of the nations. Easter is not about a solitary Jesus rising from the dead. In traditional icons, Jesus is always surrounded by crowds of peoples both haloed and unhaloed, pulling people out of the place of the dead (Hades not hell), where a soul waits for God. Easter is about humanity and all of creation in the hope of being pulled out of the place of the dead. We are all in this together.

Easter Prayer