Holy Week/ Easter In A Convent

[Divine Mercy 9999]

I know each community will have specific traditions,but I've been wondering what Holy Week and Easter look like in a convent. Any stories?

[Sister Marie]

In my community, most sisters live in smaller houses in parishes so their schedules are different depending on where they live with the Motherhouse being different as well. Some things are always the same, like that Good Friday is a silent retreat day but the minor details change from convent to convent. This year on Holy Thursday some of the sisters went to the Cathedral for the Chrism Mass on the morning of Holy Thursday. It was beautiful! When we got home we prepared dinner and the priests and deacon and his wife came for dinner to celebrate their special feast. After dinner, we went to the Holy Thursday Mass. The sisters were invited to read the reflection and present the sacred oils at Mass. When we got home from the Mass, everyone settled into the quiet of Good Friday. Yesterday we had a lot of time for quiet reflection and prayer. After Good Friday service in the parish, we had our small meal of fish and continued our quiet retreat. Tonight, we ordered sandwiches for an early supper before the Vigil Mass. After the Vigil, we will come home and have snacks, easter eggs, and the superior usually has a little gift for each sister. She gets something too from us! Sunday, we will go to morning Mass, spend time praying and recreating and eat an Easter feast for dinner. Monday and Tuesday we have off from school so those are free days for us to spend as we want. That depends on the school though for other sisters... they may have school on Tuesday... or they may have off all week! It's just nice to be together and celebrate.

[organwerke]

Last year I spent the holy Week in a convent.
It was so beautiful and I miss it so much!

[marigold]

Sr. Marie that sounds like a really lovely time!

Well the nuns keep pretty much a total fast from Holy Wednesday; this is customary in most monasteries and many laypeople do it too. All the Hours are extra full for the whole week, and since spring is a-springing on the farm, many times they've spent Holy Week literally running from services to the lambing and kidding happening in the barns, and back again. Whew! On the night of Holy Saturday itself, the service runs from early evening right through to pre-dawn. Near the end of the Paschal Divine Liturgy in the middle of the night, there is a procession around the entire grounds of the monastery singing 'Christ is risen' - censers jangling, candles, the big bells going, and apparently all the animals join in the noise! I've never seen it, but even the description gives me tingles. There is a big feast in the refectory after the Liturgy, and then everyone drops into bed at daybreak and there is a blissed-out silence - baby animals being born aside - and rest until Agape Vespers on Sunday afternoon. After which the parishioners come and continue the feasting!

Given that the silence of post-Liturgy Sunday afternoons were one of my favourite times in the monastery on 'normal' weeks, the upped intensity on Pascha must be amazing. While I am, in hindsight, quite glad that I didn't have to do the rigours of a monastic Lent this year, I'm a bit disappointed not to be there for the splendour and the fellowship.

[juchu]

I love Holy Week in my monastery!! So it was really a bit weird not to be there this year. Patience...

What I love about it, is that the Liturgy helps the prayer life that has already been so intense during Lent to really join in the death and the ressurection of our Lord.

The saturday before Palm Sunday we celebrate as "Lazarus saturday". The antiphon that is sung a lot during this day tells what it is all about: In order to strengthen our faith in the Ressurection before his passion, Lazarus was risen from the death. (free translation...)
So before joining Jesus way to Jerusalem and his death we are reminded again that this week will lead to life.

There is so much I could write about...

Holy Thursday. We eat in the chapel a Jewish Pessach meal with all the guests, it is crowded, there is happy jewish music. And after the meal there is a festive celebration of the Eucharist. But then at the end of the Eucharist the whole chapel is emptied, the sisters carry away everything and it is so sad to sit there and watch this.

Then we leave the chapel, it gets rearranged and instead of compline we read Joh 13-17 aloud. And this is followed by the night of Prayer with Jesus in the garden.

On Friday and on Holy Saturday there is no sung liturgy. All is spoken.
Between 12:00 and 15:00, the hours where Jesus is on the cross, one is invited to watch with him again. Then the Liturgy and Eucharist at 15:00. (Remember, we are protestant. So we have Eucharist on Holy Friday. That is different from the Catholic Church, but for us it is the reminder that Jesus death is FOR US. We hear the reading of this death, kneeling when he dies. And then in the Eucharist we experience that this death is to give US life.)

At night on Friday we remember that Jesus was laid in the tomb. On the altar there is a cloth with the tomb, it is of orthodox origin. We bring flowers to the tomb of Jesus and can pray individually "on the tomb", but our heads on the altar to "bury" with Jesus what we want to ask him to turn from death into life in our lifes.

The saturday is a silent day. But also already full of prepation for Easter Sunday. On the night we have complines, very special, beautiful complines. It is the first time we sing again after Good Friday. And then there is an unction by the prioress / pastor to strengthen us to fully life the ressurection.

Then everybody goes to sleep - I was always excited as a little child and could hardly sleep - and then early in the morning first the community meets for a very short liturgy and then there is the Easter Fire in front of the chapel and the Liturgy with all the guests starts at 05:00 in the morning and lasts for at least 3 hours!

And then of course the Easter Octave...

For me it was all so intense. Of course there is also a lot of work in the kitchen and with all the guests, but it all blends in. Even though I was always happy to have a short nap on Easter afternoon!!!

[the171]

I was going to be spending Easter in the monastery... Plans fell through. I was really rather sad. I wanted to await our Lord's resurrection with my sisters, but God has His plans. OH, I'm not done there though. I will be retreating to the monastery soon though. The weekend after the next. This might be when I am let through the enclosure doors. pray that it is.

Oh poo. I just realized I totally hijacked. I'm sorry!! I got excited. Hahahaha

[marigold]

[quote name='the171' timestamp='1333877509' post='2414361'] I
I was going to be spending Easter in the monastery... Plans fell through. I was really rather sad. I wanted to await our Lord's resurrection with my sisters, but God has His plans. OH, I'm not done there though. I will be retreating to the monastery soon though. The weekend after the next. This might be when I am let through the enclosure doors. pray that it is.

Oh poo. I just realized I totally hijacked. I'm sorry!! I got excited. Hahahaha
[/quote]

No problem! It's exciting to hear your news! I for one had missed that you were doing that visit.

[the171]

I didn't really share. His is the first time I posted on the phorum about it

[AccountDeleted]

Well, Benedictines do things a little differently from Carmelites, but one of the main differences is that here we had a lot of guests over Holy Week and Easter. Disclaimer: I haven't been in a Carmelite monastery over Easter so I am not comparing them in any way. The guest thing is just an observation because of the Benedictine charism of hospitality. There were Oblates and locals and just friends of the Monastery here and we had some people who just came for some of the services but not for any of the hospitality before or afterwards, and who weren't staying in the guest house.

Early in the week there was a lot of work and preparation, with everyone being assigned to different jobs. One day I was putting the homemade mustard into jars and labelling it, and another day I was pulling up leeks and cleaning them for cooking. One day I was moving things around in the freezer and labelling items, to get ready for fresh meat from the pigs that we sent to be butchered and another I was trimming flowers and preparing them to be arranged for the altar and for tables. While I was busy doing my little things, others were cutting up yams, collecting eggs, feeding animals, making food and desserts and just generally doing all of the little odd jobs that need to be done on a farm and in a monastery to prepare for some very special days and many guests.

On the Saturday before Palm Sunday, those of us who were here were given a list of the week's mysteries (based on each day's readings), starting with Commitment Saturday, where the Monastery made its annual commitment promise, this year it is a commitment to 'hope'. On Palm/Passion Sunday, we had the traditional palms and joy of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem course, but as one of the nuns pointed out to us, the liturgy quickly changes to the passion of Christ, and during the reading, we became the 'crowd' who shouted out, 'Crucify Him.' I certainly didn't want to play this particular part, but did my bit for the sake of the liturgy of course.

Sunday's mystery was the procession and passion, and then Monday was called 'intimate extravagance' as this was the reading about Mary annointing Christ's feet with oil, considered an extravagance by Judas. The nuns said this day we had to meditate on the mystery of an intimate extravagance with God. Then Tuesday was 'compulsion to completion', when everything was rushing to be fulfilled, Judas was rushing off to betray Jesus and Jesus was trying to explain that He would be leaving them.By Wednesday everyone in the gospels was busy doing something to prepare for the Passover meal, but each one had basically gone his own way, with Judas off to see the priests and the disciples off to find and prepare the room and no mention of what Jesus was doing, so this day's mystery was 'aloneness' with each person going their own thing.

On Holy Thursday, the mystery was 'body given' because of the Last Supper. It started with Tenebrae/Matins/Lauds early in the morning and one of my jobs was to put out a candle after each psalm until there was only one left at the top. I alternated this with one of the interns so we each had 7 candles to put out. Late in the day, we had our own 'Passover meal' at the guest house with matzo bread made by one of the nuns, salad with bitter herbs in it and lamb. Then during the Mass that night, some of us were assigned to have our feet washed by the priest, a very humbling experience. I didn't want to do it (to have a priest wash my feet?) until someone reminded me that Peter didn't want Jesus to wash his feet either! Then after communion came the stripping of the altar and the repositioning of the Blessed Sacrament in a corner of the parlor, where we each had one hour of Adoration (to stay awake with Jesus) during the night and into the next morning. I was given the first shift, right after Mass, and it was a very beautiful experience for me. I was relieved by the Mother Prioress, and walked back to my room in the dark, with a full moon shining over all the trees and farm - the beauty was breathtaking.

Good Friday's mystery was 'non est lex' - there is no law, because with the death of Jesus, the law ceased to exist. We had Tenebrae again in the morning and at Mass we read out the arrest, passion and death of Jesus, and once again I had to read out hateful words against Him. Father fasted the whole day and I wish I had thought to do the same, but at least the meals were sparse and of course, no meat.

The mystery for Holy Saturday was 'night' because it was a time of darkness for the disciples before Jesus' Ressurection. We had Tenebrae again in the morning but for us there was also a sense of hope because unlike the disciples, we knew that this night would bring the light again during the vigil service. The day itself was a quiet one for all of us. We each had things to do to prepare for the Easter celebration, but it seemed as if we did them quietly and without a lot of fuss. In the afternoon, many of us colored Easter eggs to send up to the nuns. Everyone got very creative, and we didn't put the eggs into colored water... we drew on them with non-toxic colored markers. One guest had brought a kit that included wax to paint on, and then dipped them in colors, but she did that earlier in the week before she had to go home. The eggs were all different sizes and some were brown and others white because they have a lot of different types of chickens here.

Then Saturday night we celebrated the Easter vigil with the paschal fire outside the chapel, and Father blessed it and the Paschal Candle and then we all had our candles lit and processed into the church while the nuns sang. We had all the usual Easter festivities and one of the nuns rang the bells joyously and we sang out Alleluia and Father replaced the Blessed Sacrament and lit the vigil lamp and all seemed right with the world again.

Very early this morning, Easter Sunday, I was woken by the sound of a loud crack and then a bang, and my first thought was that someone had thrown a rock against my window, but I realised that was impossible way out here and figured it must be a pinecone falling off a tree and hitting the window instead, even though it sounded too loud for such a thing. I got up to find that the corpus of Jesus had 'leaped' off the St Benedict Crucifix on the wall! He is Risen! I know it sounds ridiculous but it was simply amazing and I felt that Jesus had been resurrected in my own room! It was such a strange occurrence that I had to take the corpus and show it to the others and explain what happened. the Prioress told me that I should keep the corpus now because it is obviously very special. I was going to try to repair it, but maybe now I will just keep it as a reminder of this first Easter with the nuns.

We had Prime and Terce this morning but no Lauds (because of the Easter vigil the night before) and then the Resurrection Mass, which was also beautiful. The nuns (with some of our help along the way) had prepared a beautiful Easter feast for us, with wine as well. At noon we had Sext and None, and then an early Vespers at 4.30pm. I saw that the nuns had also left us each a little Easter present in a basket in the guest house, but I forgot to take a look last time I was there, so will have to get mine tomorrow.

I have to say that I am very tired now after all the preparation and excitement and joy of this Holy Week but in a very nice way. The monastic schedule returns to normal again tomorrow, although the Office continues with the paschal theme all through the Octave. This has been my first time celebrating Easter in a convent (I seemed to have been in convents during Advent and Christmas a lot but not Easter!) and I have to say that it was so wonderful not to have any income producing work commitments to take me away from the focus of the whole week. I have tried to do it on my own before, making each day of Holy Week special, but when one has to go out to a job and isn't able to attend all of the services, it really isn't quite as all consuming as this past week has been for me. I highly recommend anyone spend a whole week at a monastery during Holy Week sometime - every day is something special and it all culminates in the Resurrection of Our Lord and the renewal of hope for the world.

Edited April 9, 2012 by nunsense

[the171]

I like Benedictine Easters!

[maximillion]

OH nunsense, this all sounds so wonderful and prayerfully focussed. I am so glad you have had this (the first of many to come) Easter experience, and so many many thanks for sharing in such detail.

[mantellata]

The Dominican nuns at Summit have an interesting Easter posting here: [url="http://nunsopsummit.org/"]http://nunsopsummit.org/[/url]

Incidentally their blog is now on their website - change your bookmarks!