April 2026

A Contemplative Exercise for April 2026

The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It can be personalised or altered: its purpose is to serve as an example of how this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it may be used by individuals too. It is not intended to be definitive.  In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate for your group - probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.

Saying for the month: ‘Be not faithless, but believing’. (John 20.27 RSV)

To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; you may want to relax your way through your muscles or you may find it helpful to become aware of the sounds around you and then put them aside as you offer this time of prayer to God.

Say this introductory invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence:  ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11.28).

Introduction to the first silence - a preparation for listening with the mind:

‘Be not faithless but believing’.

These words were first spoken to Thomas and the other disciples by the Risen Lord Jesus. Among them is John who well remembers the occasion to record it in his Gospel. It is of course one of the astonishing resurrection experiences of Jesus.

St. John records this as happening eight days after the first resurrection appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene and later the same day all the disciples, expect Thomas. Jesus had showed his disciples his hands and his side, the scars of the Crucifixion, from only three days earlier. No reason is given to why Thomas wasn’t with them. When he does join them, later the same day, they tell him of their ‘unbelievable’ experience of seeing Jesus again, declaring: ‘We have seen the Lord’.

We can well understand Thomas’s response. He can’t believe them unless he has a similar experience with the certainty of physical proof. He needs actually to touch the wound, the marks made by the nails in his hands and the spear which pierced his side. Without so-doing, ‘he will not believe’.

A whole week passes with no sign of Jesus. It must have been a seemed a very long week!

We wonder what would have been going through their minds. Will He appear again? They had seen Him once and surely He will appear and come to them again. How would Thomas have been questioning and doubting their words about the truth of the first appearance they had experienced? There were eleven of his friends who were eyewitnesses. I’m sure he wouldn’t have completely dismissed their words but he needed and wanted physical proof.

Then St. John records ‘Eight days later his disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with them’. Jesus greets them with the words ‘Peace be with you’ and then he gives Thomas the very proof he was looking for with the words of our Saying for April: ‘Be not faithless but believing’. The response of Thomas is an acclamation of complete adoration and worship: ‘My Lord and my God’. This is the place to which the Risen Lord wants to bring all of us, to the knowledge and love of God, whereby we come before Him in love, adoration and worship.

We take this Saying into our minds then now, allowing the saying to speak to us: ‘Be not faithless but believing’.

A time is now kept for silence of the mind – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.  The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or feel free to repeat the Saying.

The first silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word.

Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with the heart:

‘Be not faithless, but believing’.

These words of Jesus, first directed at Thomas and the disciples, are true for us today in our own lives. Like Thomas we may be searching for tangible proof which isn’t forthcoming. Faith and belief can sometimes seem very elusive and not at all easy to exercise as much as we would like to do so. 

We have the scriptures and particularly the Gospels which testify to the resurrection appearances of Jesus to the first disciples but where do we find and experience the Risen Lord in our own lives? Where is He to be seen and found? What tangible proof and evidence do we have?

We celebrate Easter Day with the joyous services, rousing hymns and the shouts of acclamation ‘He is Risen indeed’. We experience something of this truth and believe it but then after the celebrations we are back in our ordinary lives, left wondering where is the Risen Lord? Like Thomas we can be doubting and wanting proof of His continued existance. As the Risen Lord appeared to Thomas showing the scars of His body, so we can perceive the very same Jesus in the scars of our own lives and the life of our world: ‘Be not faithless but believing’.

Jesus is asking us to reach out and feel the scars that are to be found within our own lives and relationships and then also out into the suffering places of our broken world. The pain, the suffering, the wounds and scars, together with the joy of knowing that the Risen Lord is mysteriously within it all and with us. These seeming opposites are inextricably bound together. The tangible proof of the wounds and scars that the Risen Jesus showed to Thomas are all around us, within all suffering and pain, and they are also to be found in the healing and beauty of our lives and the life of the world.    

Like Thomas we might be doubting, but as the Risen Lord appeared to him showing the scars of the Crucifixion, so He comes to us through all the vicissitudes of pain and suffering that we see and observe in the world, as well as the joy of His risen presence: ‘Be not faithless but believing’.

Charles Wesley conveys this well in his famous hymn ‘Lo he comes with clouds descending’:

Those dear tokens of his passion, still his dazzling body bears,

cause of endless exultation to his ransomed worshippers

with what rapture, with what rapture, gaze we on those glorious scars.

As we contemplate this resurrection appearance to Thomas and the first disciples and the words of our Saying: ‘be not faithless but believing’, we take them into our hearts and empathise with the suffering of our world through intercessory prayer.

Now we take this word into our hearts, as we allow Jesus’ words to speak in us, to let them touch us and let work more deeply upon our lives.

A time is now kept for silence of the heart – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.

The second silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us.

Introduction to the time of intercession – taking God’s word outwards into the world.

Say the name of a person or a group of people, and after a short pause, repeat the saying. For example:

‘Alison and your family … ‘Be not faithless, but believing’.

As we allow the word to speak through us we might direct Jesus’ word towards those people and situations where there is suffering, hurt and an absence of joy and where abiding in Christ would bring comfort.  Conclude this time of intercession with words of thanksgiving: Father, we thank you that your Word has gone out through us to those for whom we pray.

The Conclusion

Feel free to use the Fellowship Prayer (below) or another closing prayer to conclude your time of contemplative prayer:

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your unsearchable riches which pour forth from you as light from the sun, in boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And now we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. Amen

You may wish to say the Grace together before departing.