After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. — Matthew 28:1
Dear People of St. David’s,
On Easter morning, I arrive at church very early. The building is still dark, still quiet. The sanctuary waits, empty, and expectant. The loudest thing in the place is the fragrance of the flowers. There’s a particular quality to that pre-dawn silence. It’s not an absence, but a presence. The kind of stillness that holds its breath.
This is what the women knew as they walked to the tomb in the half-light. Not the triumph and the lilies and the brass and the alleluias we will celebrate in a few days. Just the silence. Just the early morning chill. Just their own footsteps and the spices in their hands and the question of how they would roll away the stone.
I love this moment before the sanctuary fills. Those hours before the organ sounds and the people gather and Easter explodes into trumpets and joy. I love it because this quiet is where resurrection begins. In the dark. In the uncertainty. In the simple act of showing up when you don’t know what you’ll find.
The women went to anoint a dead body. They went to perform one last act of love for someone they had lost. They didn’t go expecting an empty tomb or an angel or a risen Christ. They went because love draws us to show up, even (especially?) in our grief and confusion.
When they arrived, they found everything had changed. And, what they found changed everything.
Come and join me on Easter morning. Before then, join me on Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Eve of Easter where we will celebrate the Vigil. Together we can walk the way of the cross, and the way those women took to the empty tomb. Then together we can experience resurrection.
May God’s peace be always with you,
The Rev. Rick Morley
Rector
Editor’s notes:
You are welcome to join us for Holy Week and Easter worship. Find a full schedule here.
We also encourage you to make an additional Easter offering for the mission and ministry we share here at St. David’s and with our partners in ministry here and around the world. You may place check or cash in the provided envelopes in the pew on Easter Sunday, or you may give online at stdavidschurch.org/eastergiving.
If you’d like to know more about the services of Holy Week, where they come from, what happens, and what they represent, please listen in to our recent series on our podcast, Cross Connections. Here are quick episode jumps:
Discovering Palm Sunday
What is Maundy Thursday?
What’s so good about Good Friday?
The Great Vigil of Easter (coming April 1)
About the image: The image for this letter, and the cover of our Easter worship bulletins, is the sunburst from “Jesus is Risen” by Gabriel Regli. This piece was created as a follow up to his full set of fourteen Stations of the Cross artworks currently on display by The Gift Shop and Art Gallery at St. David’s. Gabriel Regli is an artist and illustrator raised in Philadelphia. His insight and perspective on the world give him a unique whimsy in animation, prints, paintings, and digital art. All the covers for St. David’s Holy Week and Easter worship bulletins feature art from Gabriel’s series. The exhibition is currently open and running through April 24.
Learn more about Gabriel and get details about the show at https://stdavidschurch.org/giftsandart/.
Published on March 31, 2026.