From Resurrection to Pentecost: Easter-Season Meditations

Robert Morneau's latest book, From Resurrection to Pentecost: Easter-Season Meditations, is not for spiritual novices. But if you're interested in a book of meditations based on the Daily Office, there is none better. From Resurrection to Pentecost is the third of a series that I hope will eventually include the whole church year. Providing daily meditations for the seven weeks between Easter and Pentecost, Morneau's format is effective. Each entry offers a brief contextual comment on the Gospel reading assigned for the day, an antiphon that can be used as a mantra for centering prayer, a selection of poetry, a commentary on the poem, three questions for personal or communal reflection, and a concluding prayer.The seven poets selected are the glory of the book. Some of them, like William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins, were familiar to me. Others, like Ralph Wright and Morneau himself, were delightfully new. The selection for the Friday of the Third Week of Easter was typical. Reading Anne Higgins' "The Space Window at the Washington Cathedral" allowed me to preen a bit in my Anglican identity, but, more importantly, it illuminated Morneau's insight that "the Eucharist is God's stained-glass window."