"Pain is atonement," as they said in the Middle Ages.
"Pain is based on a mechanical foundation," René Descartes believed.
Those who experience pain don't need anyone to explain what suffering is. They know what pain is.
Easter offers hope, confidence, and clarity about what truly sustains us: There is a way out of pain, a way from darkness to light.
The Easter egg is symbolic of this: From within it grows a new life that feels and understands.
I wish you all a happy Easter.
Yours
, Hartmut Göbel

In a distant time
, you go to Golgotha,
endure loneliness, and
even say yes to death.

You know what suffering is.
You know what pain is,
you who are my brother,
a human being and a child of God.

Completely abandoned
by both people and God,
you offer up your life
and die on the cross.

If you die outside the gate,
you die in the heart of the world.
In suffering, you demonstrate
what truly sustains and upholds.

Be reborn in me.
Be reborn every day.
Keep me with You,
whatever may come.

Amen.

(Otmar Schulz)