Resurrection Appearances – Introduction

Godzdogz has been rather quiet over the last couple of weeks: the time after Easter and before the new university term is an occasion for the friars to visit their families, and also gives an opportunity to visit and get to know the other Dominican communities around the Province. Several of the students have been staying at the London priory, getting to know the parish in anticipation of a parish mission which will be taking place in September, and which they will help prepare over the summer.

Now, though, with lectures less than a week away, the community in Oxford is back up to strength, and we turn our attention here on Godzdogz to the season we are celebrating at the moment. For the rest of Eastertide, we will be exploring the Scriptural accounts of the various appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection, seeing how they relate and what we can learn from them about Jesus himself, about the meaning of his Resurrection. In particular, we find in these passages of the Bible words of Jesus preparing his followers for the situation they would find themselves in after his Ascension, the situation in which the Church – recognising her continuity with the Apostles – understands herself to be in to this day.