Easter week

Happy Eastertide! May these 50 days of Easter lead us into deepeer awareness of the presence of Christ in our lives.

We celebrated Easter amongst ourselves last Sunday. It was a beautiful, intimate celebration of Easter. It felt so different to not share all of it with our guests. We streamed several matins and vespers during Holy Week. We continue to stream Vespers every Wednesday and Saturday (well, we goofed and forgot to sep ut the livestream this past Wednesday; apologies). You can find the stream on our Facebook page a few minutes before 5 p.m. on those days. We are delighted by all the positive feedback this is eliciting. We had suspected it might be helpful. We just didn't guess how much.

The Easter Vigil. From top left, clockwise: listening to the gospel readding; praying over the paschal fire on the Great Cloister; listening to salvation history throughout scripture in Pilgrim Hall; Br. Luc censing the assembly; Br. Bob reading the epistle (two pictures).

Br. Max who is a gifted orgnaist led our music. The hymn singing sounded beautiful but lacked the depth we get from a full congregation of course.

Beautiful music. From top left, clockwise: Br. Max accompanying the brothers in their hymn singing; at the keyboard of our electronic organ; Br. John turning the pages of the music score; audience participation with some noise-makers; Bros. John and Max collaborating.

With the pandemic, we find ourselves connecting with friends and loved ones more often to assure each other we are OK (or to share the weight of bad news). New forms of socialization emerge. My Belgian family had an Easter happy hour on Zoom while we were in church. But they made sure I got a screenshot of them wishing me good health for Easter ("à ta bonne santé").

We had our own festivities at the monastery in the company of Cari Pattison who is staying in our Iona wing for a few months and of Yanick Savain and Matthew Wright who live in St Mary's House, up the hill. Cari was the secret Easter Bunny who treated the monks to Easter eggs and a bunny-shaped cake.

In the evening, we had a relaxed supper with wines in our West Atrium in the enclosure. We followed that by watching Audrey Hepburn in the 1959 movie "The Nun's Story." I had never seen it and didn't realize that the action took place in Belgium and (then Belgian) Congo.

Easter feasting. From top, clockwise: my brother Benoit, my sister-in-law Annick and their children and spouses (Louka and Ludovic; Coline and Zak) toasting me on Zoom; an Easter egg of every monk; me stealing Br. Aidan's bunny ears; Cari's cake; Easter joy on Br. Aidan's face; and in the company of Br. Bear.

Easter joy in refectory and church. From left, clockwise: The Rev. Cari Pattison with Br. Robert Hagler showing her handywork; blooms of lilies and forsythia around the paschal candle; and in fron of the ambo; bird's eye view of the monks celebrating the paschal feast (with The Rev. Matthew Wright in the middle picture and The Rev. Cari Pattison in selfie mode with the monks; close-up of the paschal candle blooms.

Our two brothers in parish ministry have found ways to use online technology to pastor to their respective congregations. Br. Randy pre-records a video sermon on Saturday. Br. Bob conducts a Zoom service for his two parishes together online in the late Sunday morning. Due to the physical distanciation that is currently necessary, we their brothers get to celebrate Sunday Eucharist with them. That is normally a rare treat which we are grateful for.

This week, Br. Aidan inaugurated our online retreat programs with a three-day program on Contemplative Ecology. Seventy to a hundred people joined him for the three one-hour sessions. Overtime was devoted to Q&A sessions. Check out our Retreat Progams page on our website for future online retreats (several are in the pipeline). We used the Zoom platform and have had to purchase the higher software license to accommodate more than one hundred simultaneous users.

We keep monitoring developments to consider when and how it will become safe enough to consider re-opening our Guest House for residential retreats. We'll be sure to let you know.

In the meantime, be safe, stay home, save lives. You've got this!

And when in doubt, remember that you are in our prayers. Peace!