Easter Monday

On this Easter Monday, a poem of the same name by Christina Rossetti, which speaks appropriately both of today's weather and of the joys of the ‘growing green’ in our small portion of God’s Acre here in South Manchester. May you continue to have a very blessed Eastertide! 

Out in the rain a world is growing green,
On half the trees quick buds are seen
Where glued-up buds have been.
Out in the rain God's Acre stretches green,
​Its harvest quick tho’ still unseen:
For there the Life hath been.

If Christ hath died His brethren well may die,
Sing in the gate of death, lay by
This life without a sigh:
For Christ hath died and good it is to die;
To sleep when so He lays us by,
Then wake without a sigh.

Yea, Christ hath died, yea, Christ is risen again:
Wherefore both life and death grow plain
To us who wax and wane;
For Christ Who rose shall die no more again:
Amen: till He makes all things plain
​Let us wax on and wane.

Christina Rossetti, 1830-1894