Chaplain’s blog by Revd Nigel Rawlinson, University Chaplain
Easter Preparation
We are coming to the inter-semester break, Semester 2. Students are preparing to go home for a well-earned rest. It is a strange time in the life of the Chaplaincy. The great festival of Easter is just around the corner, although at the moment we are still in Lent. While the students are on vacation, Easter is celebrated, and when they return, we will be in that exciting time for the Christian faith between the resurrection of Jesus, his ascension to Heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
This divine power and inspiration of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit comes in great abundance to twelve believers waiting in their room, is one of the great facts of faith. Something like this must have happened then to explain why now the teachings of Jesus and the life he promotes is a worldwide movement. I find it is very easy to lose sight of this, particularly when there is so much Christian intolerance and church division at local level. The fact is that there is only one worldwide saviour, and he is Jesus Christ.
So, as we sit here in the Chaplaincy Office, we are preparing to say farewell and best wishes to our students for a couple of weeks. Unlike the Christmas vacation, which follows the University Carol Service and other celebrations, there has been no such event to mark this time in the church’s year. Different believers and church communities mark the period of Lent in different ways.
For me, Lent is always a time where we are encouraged to reflect on our own personal walk with God. Sometimes we can be so busy on the outward facing aspect of our life and work – our studies, conversations with others, and wherever our diary takes us – that we lose sight of this inner life with God. Each time we arrive in Lent, we of course bring another year’s worth of experiences, successes, mistakes and their resolution, all of which inform how we engage with this reflection.
I believe that when we look at this honestly, allowing the light of the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hidden corners, we end in increasing gratitude at the grace of God, his love and his patience with us. Some verses from Psalm 86 help here:
Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.
(Psalm 86: 11-13)
Using this as a prayer, it encourages us to continually seek the guidance and correcting power of the Holy Spirit. We are being transformed into the people we are intended to be at our creation. God years for us to love him unconditionally. When we realise and recall the experience of God's forgiveness and intervention in our lives - when he delivers us from the depths we find ourselves in - we can only sing his praises.
For this Easter vacation, we are publishing an Easter Walk that can be downloaded. We are releasing this imminently, before students leave for their holidays, and as part of our programme for any students who are remaining in Bath. Most students will celebrate Easter in local churches. On Easter day, I shall be in the University Chaplaincy at 12.30pm to celebrate communion for anyone who is around.
When the time comes, may we all have a Happy Easter!
Revd Nigel Rawlinson
University Chaplain
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