Easter Fire — Christ is Risen Indeed!

26 insomniacs at 5·50 in Great Missenden, not quite Dawn, as the clocks haven’t gone forward yet this year. Walking through the village afterwards, a dove (I kid you not) watched us go by from one of the cottages in the high street. If Candle light is a sign of Easter faith, it’s corny but notable that our candles guttered and occasionally blew out as the snow began to fall, but as long as we stayed together and re-lit from each other’s, we were able to carry the flame from our early bonfire all the way to the paschal candle in Church. Then the snow started in earnest... We are an Easter people. Alleluia is our song. Don’t know what the neighbours made of it, but one day they’ll understand!

Again the Light said, ‘Unlock!’
Said Lucifer, ‘Who goes there?’
A huge voice replied, the lord
Of power, of strength, that made
All things. Dukes of this dark place
Undo these dark gates so Christ come
In, the son of heaven’s King.
With that word, hell split apart,
Burst its devil’s bars; no man
Nor guard could stop the gates swing
Wide. The old religious men,
Prophets, people who had walked
In darkness, ‘Behold the Lamb
Of God,’ with Saint John sang now.
But Lucifer could not look
At it, the light blinding him.
And along that light all those
Our Lord loved came streaming out.

The Vision of Piers Plowman (Langland — 14th Century)