Kelsi Vanada

Dear Friends,

In the concluding collect read after the Liturgy of the Word during the Easter Vigil, we heard the beautiful words “let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new.”

Those words were still in my mind when I read the Psalm appointed for today, Psalm 96:1-7, which begins: “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.”

Our faith is complex—we can spend our entire earthly lifetimes digging deeper into its holy mysteries. But when I need to feel I can grasp it, or share what it means to me, I come back to newness. The powerful truth that what Christ offers, what his crucifixion and resurrection means, is the possibility of transformation: newness in our hearts and minds, our lives, our communities, our world.

Transformation, the working out of God’s good plan to “make the whole creation new” (Eucharistic Prayer D), is no small idea. And sometimes it’s a difficult one to hold onto, especially when I see our world’s patterns of violence, power-seeking, and the marginalization of groups of people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and more play out time and again.

Newness and transformation mean we’re not stuck in what has been. It might mean we have to be transformed over and over again, but it means that we have hope.

How are you being made new—and how are you offering the capacity for transformation to others?

Peace,

—Kelsi