Dry Bones -- Reflection

I attended Easter Vigil ceremonies a few decades back at the now defunct Jesuit Renewal Center, in Milford, Ohio. It was part of an Easter Triduum retreat, and since I worked with a team giving high school retreats, I was there and invited to participate.

What was particularly interesting about this vigil is that it lasted all night! We started the vigil after dark, entered into the first reading, and then were asked to go away and pray and reflect for awhile. Then we returned for another reading, going away afterwards, etc. This culminated in a sunrise service (the sun did rise that day, if I remember properly), followed by a gallon of good coffee and a delicious brunch.

I still clearly remember the "Dry Bones" reading (from Exekiel 37). I think it might have been 3:30 in the morning or so when we gathered, in the darkest most spiritually-charged time of the night, to hear one of the darkest, most spiritually-charged readings. I especially remember the verse (Ezekiel 37:9), "Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."

Some thirty years later, I was working in my back yard, and a milkweed pod, dried from the autumn drought, rattled as the wind blew through it. What I heard, though, was the rattling bones of the dead, which took me back to that reading on that eerie night in April. This PhotoSinryu is a testament to that night, and to the dry bones that rattle among us daily to remind us that we are always, young and old alike, a mere footstep away from death.

Reflection Points: This PhotoSinryu invites us to listen for the "dry bones" rattling in our own lives. What part (or parts) of you might be dead, but seeking new life? Is there a wind blowing through your life right now, calling you to bring these dead parts of yourself back to life? Or is it just a call to let them go and let the wind blow them away? How might you come to know the difference?

© 2020, by Brian Kokensparger. Return to PhotoSinryu List.