Easter Exultet

By James Broughton

Shake out your qualms.
Shake up your dreams.
Deepen your roots.
Extend your branches.
Trust deep water
and head for the open,
even if your vision
shipwrecks you.
Quit your addiction
to sneer and complain.
Open a lookout.
Dance on a brink.
Run with your wildfire.
You are closer to glory
leaping an abyss
than upholstering a rut.
Not dawdling.
Not doubting.
Intrepid all the way,
walk toward clarity.
At every crossroad
Be prepared
to bump into wonder.
Only love prevails.
En route to disaster
insist on canticles.
Lift your ineffable
out of the mundane.
Nothing perishes;
nothing survives;
everything transforms!
Honeymoon with Big Joy!

Source: Little Sermons of the Big Joy: Poems by James Broughton (Insight to Riot Press, 1994).

Image: Members of the Colorado Ballet Company, photographed by Jana Cruder.


Notes Wikipedia:

The Exsultet (spelled in pre-1920 editions of the Roman Missal as Exultet) or Easter Proclamation, in Latin Praeconium Paschale, is the hymn of praise sung, ideally by a deacon, before the paschal candle during the Easter Vigil in the Roman Rite of Mass. In the absence of a deacon it may be sung by a priest or by a cantor. It is sung after a procession with the paschal candle before the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word. It is also used in Anglican and various Lutheran churches, as well as other Western Christian denominations.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The "Wild Gaiety" of Jesus' Moral Teaching
• Joy: The Most Infallible Sign of God’s Presence
• The Two Entwined Events of the Easter Experience
• Easter Reflections
• Good News on the Road to Emmaus
• The Triumph of Love - An Easter Reflection
• Trusting God's Generous Invitation
• Soul Deep