For the last year I have journeyed through the spiritual exercises of Ignatius. It has been a remarkable journey. The journey is divided into four weeks, but these weeks are not just seven days. A week can last up to a few months. The last two weeks explore Jesus’ death and his resurrection.

When I went though the exercises, the week on death corresponded with the season of Lent and Holy Week. The week on resurrection overlaps with the season of Easter. I am grateful that the journey has been in sync with the liturgical calendar but the synchronicity didn’t just stop there.

During the week on Jesus’ death I had my heart attack and the triple bypass surgery. Reading and living into Jesus’ suffering and pain became a very close encounter for me. It got me thinking how relevant this is to the majority of people living on earth. Suffering is the norm for most. Reading these texts while I confronted my mortality was a gift; an invitation.

During the week of resurrection my rehabilitation started and I got to walk a lot. We were fortunate to go to the coast and every morning I hiked on a four kilometer stretch of boardwalk next to the ocean. It became my Emmaus road where I had conversations with Jesus. Earlier this week I dropped Liam at school, a resurrection gift where we travel the Emmaus road every morning. We noticed that winter is upon us here in the Southern hemisphere. During Easter Johannesburg is still showing its fall colors – this gives a wonderful dynamic representation of life and death working together. Green and brown leaves form a tapestry showing the rhythms of life and death – cross and resurrection.

Liam and I drove on our Emmaus road and looked at the tapestry and then a light shown through the leaves beaming with glory. A whisper that there is sense to this rhythmic movement of seasons. That death and resurrection forms a rhythm of beauty.

The rhythm of death and life