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This is a buy one get one free review,
covering this two books of reflections by Stephen Cottrell, one for
Lent and the other for Easter.
I read The Things He Carried on and off
last thing at night during Lent, while I dipped in and out of The
Things He Said over week (on holiday in Barcelona), and found the
“slow” reading of them allowed the ideas to dwell deeper in the
mind.
As usual Cottrell crafts the
reflections in such a way that there is great simplicity but also
great depth. The cover familiar themes and yet are remarkably fresh.
There are many Lenten books and The
Things He Carried is a strong contribution to a crowded shelf, but
Easter books are less common and therefore The Things He Said is
perhaps a greater gift.
The Things He Said is divided into 2
sections, the first focused on Mary Magdalene's encounter with Jesus
at the Tomb, and the second focused on the Emmaus road.
It was the first part that I found most
powerful, the way Cottrell captures Mary's pain and grief as she
comes to the Tomb, and the confusion of finding it empty, was a new
insight for me into the story.
I really felt myself being drawn into
the moment. The desire to cling to Jesus in the midst of a troubled
world is familiar to me. I will be honest and say that I am
struggling with “Church” right now and that the lost and lonely
feelings of Mary that morning indeed echo for me.
I think the second part, for me, lacked
that power, perhaps it is harder to capture the emotional state of
two disciples would have left Jerusalem for Emmaus, but also there
was much longer dialogue on the road, it is not the imitate and
intense exchange of Mary and Jesus in the Garden.
Cottrell provides questions etc to
allow these books to be used by study groups, which is a useful
addition, but for me the encounter prompted more of a meditative than
a discursive response.
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