TSPC Newsletter Eastertide 2026
The St. Paul Center for Theology and Prayer exists to form disciples of Jesus in every congregation. It seeks to do this by equipping and resourcing local congregations for the tasks and joys of faith formation, teaching and learning, catechesis, and the life of prayer.
We are continuing our theme of Joy in an age of despair, and in this newsletter are considering ‘Joy in Resurrection’. Easter is a time of joy - but it can be hard to find as we face the troubles of the world today. We hope some of our thoughts below may inspire you; and we hope you’ll join us for upcoming events, next week and beyond. Read on for details!
Don’t forget, you can find our previous newsletters online. If you’re reading this because someone shared it with you, and you’re not yet on our newsletter mailing list, please do sign up here, so you’ll be sure to receive all future news from TSPC!
A THOUGHT FROM TSPC
Joy in Resurrection: Jesus present in our real lives
Throughout Eastertide, we hear readings from the gospels telling the story of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances to those who loved and followed him. What’s surprising to us as readers is that no one recognizes him. Mary looks up in the garden to see a figure standing there, blurred through her gunked-up, weepy eyes, and thinks she sees the gardener.
Thomas says he won’t believe it’s truly Jesus until he touches his wounds. Peter and some others are out fishing and only recognize Jesus on the shore after they have the catch of their lives following his advice. Cleopas and companion on the road to Emmaus talk to Jesus for about a seven-mile walk without realizing who they’re talking to (they actually take the time to explain to Jesus how Jesus isn’t there!).
The Doubt of St. Thomas by He Qi
It's easy to look back on these disciples and think they’re pretty dense: “How could they not see what was right in front of them!” But, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re often just as confused as they were. The disciples were so committed to their version of who Jesus was or should have been, that when the actual Jesus stood before them, they were completely unaware.
If they were looking for a deliverer from Roman occupation—Jesus was executed by Roman guards. If they were looking for a king to sit on the throne of their ancestor David, what they got in Jesus was an impoverished wanderer living mostly unhoused throughout his ministry. If they were looking for a warrior leader to conquer their enemies and bring political liberation—what they got in Jesus was a pacifist revolutionary who wouldn’t even block a punch from his abusers.
Jesus, by their standards, by their expectations of the kind of deliverer they thought they wanted and needed, was a complete failure. And so he often is for us. We expect God to be a certain kind of god, to make our lives a certain way or fulfil certain expectations. We want to make a Jesus in our own image. Maybe not as a warrior king to defeat the Romans, but perhaps one who is meant to give us the success or the riches or the comforts or the relationships or the wellbeing that we want or expect in our lives, and when things don’t turn out the way we expected them to, well, we can only assume God isn’t there for us; we can only assume that Jesus is a failed Savior. And, well … he is, at least as the kind of false Savior we’ve set him up to be.
What if we were a bit more open, a bit less certain we have it all figured out, a bit more aware and alert to God’s presence with us? Maybe we wouldn’t miss Jesus walking alongside us on the road.
Jesus offers us the joy of meeting him as he really is, as he meets us as we really are. He calls Mary Magdalen by name in the garden, extends his wounded hands to Thomas, takes, blesses, breaks, and gives bread at the table in Emmaus in perfect Eucharistic motion so that he is “made known in the breaking of the bread.” He forgives Peter on the beach in reconciling love.
So often, I think, we’re looking for a “Jesus” to meet us where we expect him to be. But Jesus doesn’t say, “You will experience my presence, encounter my love, really know who I am when you’re super spiritual and have inexplicable experiences and revelations of divine power, or, are living that life you’ve always imagined.” No. Jesus comes to us in the lives we’re actually living. Not the fantasy world we think we need, not the unreal life we’ve imagined we must have. Not even in caviar or filet mignon, but in the simple and everyday nourishment of common bread. In the daily sustenance of life. And in our grief, our loneliness, our fear, our sin.
And we have to ask ourselves, alongside the disciples who meet the unexpected resurrected Jesus, why is that the last place we expect to encounter him? Why do we expect to see Jesus in the fantasylands of failed expectations, in the pretend lives we think we need to be living, rather than in the life we’re actually given?
In the Eucharist, in the wounds of this life, in reconciling love and forgiveness, the resurrected Jesus is with us. And there is nothing more beautiful than God’s presence with us in Jesus in the real lives we live, in the actual stuff of our reality.
Jesus isn’t known to us when we’re good enough, not when we get the life we want, but right here in the lives we’re already living—and this is far better than anything we could ever imagine: Jesus, present with us on the roads we really walk, the lives we really live. Jesus made known to us in the breaking of the bread. This, forever, is the joy of Easter.
The Rev. Dr. Jarred Mercer
WHAT’S ON AT TSPC - and beyond!
Next Week
Engage with the power of poetry to stir the soul: An evening with Pádraig Ó Tuama - April 29, 5.30pm, Christ Church Cambridge
We're delighted to join with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Christ Church Cambridge, and the Harvard Episcopal Chaplaincy to host an evening of poetry and conversation, featuring Pádraig Ó Tuama, host of the Poetry Unbound podcast. Pádraig will read from his collection Kitchen Hymns, as well as new work, and will be joined by Bishop Julia Whitworth for a thoughtful conversation with the audience. Also featuring special guest Riko Matsuoka, Celtic harpist.
Free general admission (as well as guaranteed reserved seating for a fee) is available here. Doors will open at 5.00pm. (Please note start time of 5.30pm - an earlier time than noted in our previous newsletter.) Seating is limited so register in advance and arrive early to secure your seat!
THIS SUMMER
BIG QUESTION DAY - ‘What is the Cross?’ Saturday August 29, 10am - 2.30pm, in Newburyport, Taunton and Boston
Each Summer The St. Paul Center for Theology and Prayer hosts an in-person day to tackle a ‘Big Question’. This year we’re asking ‘What is the Cross?’
Please join TSPC to explore this important question together, in honest and open conversation. All are welcome - clergy and lay, Episcopalians, seekers, and ecumenical friends. Our day will include teaching, conversation, reflection and prayer. All participants will leave with materials to bring back to their congregation, to continue the conversation and exploration.
‘What is the Cross?’ days will be hosted at St. Paul’s Newburyport, St. Thomas’ Taunton, and the Cathedral Church of St. Paul Boston, August 29th, 10am to 2.30pm. You are warmly invited to join us at whichever location works for you! Tea and coffee will be served at the start of the day, and you are invited to bring a packed lunch.
You can find all details and sign up to attend, here. As we prepare for the event, please let us know: what does the question ‘What is the Cross?’ mean to you? How would you approach that question? Where is there incompleteness in answers you have already received? We’d love to read your thoughts! tspc@diomass.org
LOOKING AHEAD TO FALL
Ministry Discernment Day - September 26th
Another date for your diary! TSPC is delighted to partner again with the Commission on Ministry to host Discernment Day at the Cathedral.
Also - stay tuned for dates for Lay Eucharistic Visitor training, which we expect will be in early Summer. More information to come!
There is a helpful list of Discernment resources available here.
RECENT EVENTS
Transformative Prayer: Ancient Practices from the Monastic Tradition: Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina and the Gospel of Thomas - with the Rev. Steven Bonsey
During Lent, we offered a five week online course on practices of contemplative prayer. The course filled quickly - folks were eager to sign up! Here is how The Rev. Bonsey describes the course:
In the earliest centuries of the church, Christians understood Jesus as a wisdom teacher whose parables and sayings called human beings into metanoia -- a term translated as "to repent" but more accurately understood as the transformation of consciousness. Monastic communities in third and fourth century Egypt, Palestine and Syria observed contemplative spiritual practices that were preserved for western monasticism in the Rule of St Benedict. These same practices are now becoming widely available through instruction in Centering Prayer, sacred chant and lectio divina (sacred reading). This course offered instruction, group practice, conversation, and video and live presentations on the history, theology and current relevance of Wisdom Christianity.
Feedback from participants included:
I found Rev. Bonsey’s presentation of the Wisdom Practices to be especially clear and accessible, which made the concepts easy to understand and apply.
He took the time to let silence form, rather than press us right into silence.
The videos each week helped build on the material. His calm demeanor and gentle voice set a great environment for centering.
[I enjoyed] Practicing the Lectio Divina using the Gospel of Thomas. Praying with icons. Having the time to pray with others.
Participants particularly enjoyed the very helpful videos the Rev. Bonsey created to accompany the course. If you’d like to explore those, you can find the first video here. It provides an introduction to Centering Prayer; the video can be watched in chapters:
Start: Why Centering Prayer
From 6’33: What is Centering Prayer?
From 17’36: How to do Centering Prayer
From 27’13: A Centering Prayer guided practice
Further videos on ancient prayer practices from the Rev. Bonsey can be found on his YouTube channel. We encourage you to explore! In our quest for ‘Joy in an age of despair’, contemplative prayer may be just the tool we need - and we’re grateful to the Rev. Bonsey for his insightful course on the subject. Look for more collaborations between Steven Bonsey and TSPC in future!
CLOSING WITH … A POEM
JOYFUL DEFIANCE
Let’s slip out the side door of sorrow
Round past the watchman of worry
And make for the green fields beyond.
Let’s imagine these frail bodies can dance.
Let’s believe we have all we need and more to spare.
It is not pretense but an act of joyful defiance
Against all that would hem the heart
All that would constraint the love within.
Come slip out the side door
To find the peace that waits
In the green fields of faith
Beside streams of distant laughter.
Steven Charleston
Please share your thoughts - or your questions! - with us. Our email inbox is always open! tspc@diomass.org
