Happy Easter Reincarnationists
Easter is about reincarnation. Renewal of body, mind and spirit.
Here is a lovely and inclusive piece reflecting on this time of year from America: The National Catholic Weekly
Paramahamsa Yogananda I: on Holy Thursday
by Francis X. Clooney, S.J.
Cambridge, MA. In this Holy Week, we are of course invited to quiet ourselves down, pull back a bit, and reflect on the meaning of our lives, in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are fortunate to have an abundance of aids in this reflection, ranging from the Bible and the liturgies of the Triduum to myriad homilies, spiritual writings, works of music and art. What we are not used to doing is listening to how people of other faith traditions think about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Hindus and Buddhists, Jews and Muslims, have been listening for centuries to what we Christians think of them and their faiths; rarely do we take time in a week like this to listen to their insights. Even if they see things differently than we do, and perhaps misunderstand parts of what we believe — as we have always tended, even with best intentions, to misunderstand the traditions of others — learning is still possible.
I would like to take a step in this direction with a small series of reflections for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, based on the reflections on the Gospels by Paramahamsa Yogananda (1893-1952). Founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, and author of the famous Autobiography of a Yogi, lived a good part of his life in the West. During these years he studied the Gospels, and wrote The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ within You (Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 2004), a nearly 1600 page reflection on selected Gospel passages, published posthumously. For the three days, I will simply offer a summation of a few of his insights into the relevant texts…
[the rest, here]
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