EasterTriduum 2012

Here is (I hope) A slide show of our recent Holy Week, our last in Esopus.Enjoy.

http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p296/Hildegardnpleva/?action=view&current=bbfc9831.pbw

The Day Has Come

You Are Not Alone

Time has come for me to be "on the ramp", the ramp to surgery. Friends say I will soon be the bionic woman; this week going for a third replacement joint. No, I am not collecting them on purpose. Wish I could pass this one up. I would do so with the snap of my fingers if it was in my power. However, osteoarthritis gives me no choice. So a hip replacement it will be on the 20th.

The blog has been quiet because the last two weeks have been filled with the usual pre-surgical stuff. But I have been thinking of all those warnings about possible infection, blood clots - the dire stuff they want you to know and sign off on. It is sobering. And when all is said and done it is you going down the hall alone on a gurney with a nurse or an anesthesiologist you just met and having no choice but to trust them with your life.

But the truth is I will not be alone.

In these two weeks following the great Feast of Easter we have heard the dramatic accounts of repeated appearances of Jesus to his disciples and apostles: to Mary of Magdela in the garden, to puzzled followers trodding the road to Emmaus, to the apostles in the upper rooom and to his friends, those tired fisherman hauling empty nets to shore in the wee hours of the morning. I have been struck by the human intimacy contained in each account. Jesus calls Mary by her very name in the beauty of a garden. He reveals himself in storytelling and in the act of sharing bread with new friends in a crowded inn. The risen Lord has sympathy for Thomas' 'show me' attitude and invites him to literally enter into the wounds still visible in his resurrected glory. And in those wee morning hours he directs tired fisherman to just the right spot for lowering their nets for a huge catch and greets them with warm breakfast on the beach. These are not whispers in the wind or burning bushes or hard to grasp dream images. Jesus is present. He is physical - talking, eating, allowing himself to be touched, pronouncing the name of his dear friend. And how often he says, "Do not be afraid." In this time of ours there is much of which we can say we are afraid: the economy, the wars, black clouds of volcanic ash over Europe, disease, joblessness, the welfare and fate of our children and grandchildren, the inevitability of aging. But Jesus comes, is beside us and bids us not to be afraid. "I am with you until the end of time." So I will think of Jesus beside me, with me, giving me the courage necessary. And I will ask him to have a hot meal ready for me when I wake.

"Stay with us, Lord!"

The Emmaus Experience

Today's Gospel   is such a wonderful evocative story of dismay and grief transformed. It invites us to enter in; to take up the part of one of the characters; to share the experience of being taught by and recognizing the risen Lord. "And they knew him the breaking of the bread."

The disciples' request, "Stay with us, Lord!" is our request. We want to prolong the joy of Easter. We need God's presence in troubled times. Five years ago, close to the end of his life, Pope John Paul II expressed these very feelings in his Easter message to the world. May it become your prayer.

URBI ET ORBI MESSAGE

OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II
Easter Sunday, 27 March 2005

1. Mane nobiscum, Domine!

Stay with us, Lord! (cf. Lk 24:29)

With these words, the disciples on the road to Emmaus

invited the mysterious Wayfarer

to stay with them, as the sun was setting

on that first day of the week

when the incredible had occurred.

According to his promise, Christ had risen;

but they did not yet know this.
Nevertheless, the words spoken by the Wayfarer along the road
made their hearts burn within them.
So they said to him: "Stay with us".
Seated around the supper table,
they recognized him in the "breaking of bread"
- and suddenly he vanished.
There remained in front of them the broken bread,
There echoed in their hearts the gentle sound of his words.


2. Dear brothers and sisters,
the Word and the Bread of the Eucharist,
the mystery and the gift of Easter,
remain down the centuries as a constant memorial
of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ!
On this Easter Day,
together with all Christians throughout the world,
we too repeat those words:
Jesus, crucified and risen, stay with us!
Stay with us, faithful friend and sure support
for humanity on its journey through history!
Living Word of the Father,
give hope and trust to all who are searching
for the true meaning of their lives.
Bread of eternal life, nourish those who hunger
for truth, freedom, justice and peace.


3. Stay with us, Living Word of the Father,
and teach us words and deeds of peace:
peace for our world consecrated by your blood
and drenched in the blood of so many innocent victims:
peace for the countries of the Middle East and Africa,
where so much blood continues to be shed;
peace for all of humanity,
still threatened by fratricidal wars.
Stay with us, Bread of eternal life,
broken and distributed to those at table:
give also to us the strength to show generous solidarity
towards the multitudes who are even today
suffering and dying from poverty and hunger,
decimated by fatal epidemics
or devastated by immense natural disasters.
By the power of your Resurrection,
may they too become sharers in new life.


4. We, the men and women of the third millennium,
we too need you, Risen Lord!
Stay with us now, and until the end of time.
Grant that the material progress of peoples
may never obscure the spiritual values
which are the soul of their civilization.
Sustain us, we pray, on our journey.
In you do we believe, in you do we hope,
for you alone have the words of eternal life (cf. Jn 6:68).


Mane nobiscum, Domine! Alleluia!

Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles

Mary Magdalen and the other Mary

came to see the Lord's tomb, alleluia.

Antiphon1, Vespers, Easter

Jesus said, "Do not be afraid.

Go and tell my brothers to set out for Galilee;

there they will see me", alleluia.

Antiophon 3, Vespers, Easter

Mary Magdalen is my favorite among those who gathered around Jesus. I entered contemplative life on July 22nd, her feast day. This is the name of my baptismal godmother. And in one of our foundresses mystical colloquies with Jesus he said, "You shall perform the office of Magdalen in holy contemplation." Therefore when I professed first vows I took the religious name Hildegard Magdalen of the Resurrection.

It just tickles me that her name appears over and over again in the Offices of the Easter Octave and in the Gospels of the week. Scholars conclude that she was very important within the earliest Christian community and was held in great esteem. Jesus himself commissioned her to "go and tell my brothers.....” Thus she may be called apostle to the apostles.

Mary of Magdala supported him in his preaching. She was present in his agony. She was there at his entombment. She courageously led a group of women to the tomb to lovingly anoint his body. Jesus called her by name in the garden. He commissioned her to perform a precious task. She is a woman to be considered and emulated.

Days of Solemn Recreation

Our Redeemer

 has risen from the tomb;

let us sing a hymn of praise

to the Lord our God,  alleluia.

Antiphon 2, Morning Prayer, Easter

Liturgically speaking, Easter Week is one long series of Easter Sundays, one right after another. This is the octave of Easter, eight days of profound rejoicing in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Mass is the same and includes the Gloria which is not usual for weekdays. The Liturgy of the Hours is the same each day with only minor changes in the Gospel canticle antiphons. In accord with this effort to underscore the meaning of Easter for eight days, we are singing the major offices of Morning and Evening Prayer each day. I love this week of singing and wish that I could communitcate to you the loveliness of the melodies with which we sing the great Easter antiphons. Wish my technological capacities would catch up a bit faster. Maybe one day they will.

It is also monastic custom to have days of "solemn recreation." That phrase may seem an oxymoron. How can one be solemn and recreate at the same time. The meaning of "solemn" here is "deep". We are to fully recreate, fully rejoice is the great gift that has been given us. In the case of Easter, two days of solemn recreation follow the feast. 

Here in the Husdon River Valley all is bursting into bloom as if perfectly timed to emphasize our new life in Christ Jesus. This certainly adds to our abiltiy to profoundly rejoice in the Lord; to thoroughly enjoy a day of solemn recreation.

The Lord is Truly Risen, Alleluia

The spendor of Christ

risen from the dead

has shone on his people

redeemed by his blood,

alleluia.

Antiphon 1, Morning Prayer of Easter, Liturgy of the Hours

How beautiful is this feast! Last night at the Easter Vigil Mass we  again were blessed by the new fire and and the baptismal water. May that fire of faith remain in our hearts and the cleansing water of baptism continually wash us, making our rough ways smooth. May we truly be the Easter People we are called to be!

The post below links to a brief slide show of photos representing the Easter Vigil experience here at our monastery. We were blessed with the presence of many friends, Marist Brothers, and four Redemptorist priests.

While the theme of this day is one of great rejoicing in the triumph of Jesus Christ over sin and death, I was reminded this morning that the victory of Christ was a process, the process we call the Paschal Mystery. That process is all of his life. It ended at the moment we call Resurrection. However, that glorious moment was preceeded by the ignominy of his trial, crucifixion and suffering death. I was reminded of this by reading the Good Friday Homily given by Brother Andrew Colqhoun of Holy Cross Monastery in nearby West Park. We have a long-standing friendship with this Anglican community. Brother Andrew's brief but deeply insightful homily reminds that it is the suffering servant Christ we are called to emulate. In our humanity we resist the call. But the dual mysteries of the Incarnation and the Resurrection will provide both power and will to follow the call. Today we rejoice along with Mary Magdalen, to find ourselves in the garden of delight, knowing that the Lord is truly risen. Alleluia!

Easter Vigil Mass 2010

Make a photo slideshow

Entering Holy Week

Holy Week: A Sacred Season

Many years ago, in a pre-Vatican II Brooklyn parish Church, I was introduced to fine details and inner workings of Holy Week Liturgy. I was an 8th grade public school girl enamored with her CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) teacher, Sr. Mary Corita, CSJ. That year Sister decided to invite public school students to join her parish school students and participate in the children's choir which would accompany all of the liturgies of Holy Week with the traditional Latin responses set to Gregorian Chant. I was in awe of her and in awe of the privileged invitation. It was hard work to learn all of the Latin pronunciation and the tones. But I still rmember them and treasure the little book we used with all my chilidishly written pencil margin notes reminding me to go up here and down there.

That experience was a catechetical vehicle for me - creating a sudden explosion of understanding for what seemed arcane and incomprehensible rituals. Why a Eucharistic procession at Holy Thursday Mass? Why the tradition of visiting Churches on Holy Thursday. Why no consecration at Good Friday Liturgy? Why the darkness on Easter eve and the difficult way of creating a fire? Why did the priest plunge that big candle into a huge contatiner of water at Easter Vigil Mass? AND, of course, what did all those Latin prayers mean? By my participation in that choir all the questions were answered and I was invited forever into the mystery and mystical nature of the Easter Triduum.

Today, in the intimacy of the monastic setting that invitation and level of participation is repeated. Many go to monasteries for just that experience. Here is our schedule for this week should you wish to join us.

Holy Thursday - 7pm Liturgy

Adoration at the Altar of Reposition until 12 midnight

Good Friday Liturgy - 3pm

Easter Vigil Mass - 8pm

Easter Sunday Morning Mass - 11am

We will be blessed by the presence of three Redemptorist priests during the Triduum: Fr. Thomas Deely, assisgned to Mt. St. Alphonsus Retreat Center here in Esopus, Fr. Ronald Bonneau and Fr. James Gillmore who share a special mission for Hispanic Catholics in the Diocese of Metuchen, NJ.

The door at our Chapel entrance will be open well in advance of each liturgy. We welcome all who may care to join us. Let us be united in contemplation of the Paschal Mystery

The Lords is Risen, Alleluia

Special Note: Scroll Down for Easter 2009 Slide Show

The photo above, a precious image of new life emerging from last fall's dead leaves; this shock of audacious color and strength reaching toward the sun, speaks so much of the Easter message. It bespeaks resilience, courage, commitment, beauty, renewal and the bounty of nature - all gifts of God. And how we need to be reminded of them, in each of our days and the midst of these times. It says,"The Lord is truly Risen."

Through an accidental meeting on Facebook with my first cousin once removed, the much accomplished Anne L. Galante, I discovered her stunning photography and received permission to use her images here. This was one of the great gifts of this Easter season. Anne has a history that makes me breathless - nurse, doctor, wife, mother of two, practicing gynecologist and, now, photographer of note. Anne also volunteers her medical skills each year for a period of time in service to native Americans on a government reservation in the west. Thank you Anne, for all that you do and share.

Below this post appears a slide show of Easter celebration in our contemplative monastery assisted by the presence of Redemptorist priest and students, and many friends and guests. For us, the liturgies were glorious and tremendous blessing. Some first time visitors spoke of the intimacy and drama of the Paschal story especially in the dramatic moments and readings of the Easter Vigil. The Exultet was sung by a Redemptorist brother, his baritone melody molded by deep faith and the musical tradition of his African heritage, touched us all. The readings moved us thorough the Passover story in all of its mystery and awe.

Now we proceed through the Easter Octave, eight days of the Easter Sunday Office for Morning and Evening Prayer. All to remind, to underscore the message, to communicate, like the crocuses pushing a fist of color up through dead leaves, that we have been given life anew in Christ Jesus risen from the dead because "God so loved the world..."

EASTER EGGS - UKRAINIAN PYSANKY

Cross and Wheat

Regular readers of this blog know that I like to dabble in the arts. Quilting is an old passion (more about this in the next few days). Icon writing is a new enthusiasm. In between I tried my hand at creating decorated Easter eggs in the manner of traditional Ukrainian Pysanky. I fell in love with them when I saw a Ukrainian woman creating these designs on eggs at a craft show. I shyly asked,"I do very fine needlework. Do you think that I could translate those skills into this kind of work?" Her answer was, "Sure." After ordering dyes and wax pens (kiskas) and trying my hand, I was hooked. It takes a steady hand, lots of patience and some prayers that the fragile eggs do not crack. The eggs in the slide show above were created over the years and stored between Easter seasons even more carefully than glass Christmas tree ornaments.

Pysanky (pronounced PEsH-san-keh) refers to the ancient art of decorating eggs by means of a wax resist, or batik method that produces elaborate, colorful, symbolic designs. Lines of liquid wax are drawn on the eggs and then the egg is plunged into a dye bath. The process gets repeated moving from light colors to the darkest a producing in the end a multi-colored egg with a very fine design. Although now mainly used to decorate Ukrainian Easter eggs, pysanky are much older than the Christian holiday, dating back to a time of sun worship. Adopted from the pagan tradition by Christians, pysanky were imbued with symbolism and superstition, and tradition has upheld the customs and rituals of this ancient art.

The Decorated Easter Egg

The egg is nature's perfect package. It has, during the span of history, represented mystery, magic, medicine, food and omen. It is the universal symbol of Easter celebrations throughout the world and has been dyed, painted, adorned and embellished in the celebration of its special symbolism.

Before the egg became closely entwined with the Christian Easter, it was honored during many rite-of-Spring festivals. The Romans, Gauls, Chinese, Egyptians and Persians all cherished the egg as a symbol of the universe. From ancient times eggs were dyed, exchanged and shown reverence.

In Pagan times the egg represented the rebirth of the earth. The long, hard winter was over; the earth burst forth and was reborn just as the egg miraculously burst forth with life. The egg, therefore, was believed to have special powers. It was buried under the foundations of buildings to ward off evil; pregnant young Roman women carried an egg on their persons to foretell the sex of their unborn children; French brides stepped upon an egg before crossing the threshold of their new homes.

With the advent of Christianity the symbolism of the egg changed to represent, not nature's rebirth, but the rebirth of man. Christians embraced the egg symbol and likened it to the tomb from which Christ rose.

Old Polish legends blended folklore and Christian beliefs and firmly attached the egg to the Easter celebration. One legend concerns the Virgin Mary. It tells of the time Mary gave eggs to the soldiers at the cross. She entreated them to be less cruel and she wept. The tears of Mary fell upon the eggs, spotting them with dots of brilliant color.

Another Polish legend tells of when Mary Magdalen went to the sepulchre to anoint the body of Jesus. She had with her a basket of eggs to serve as a repast. When she arrived at the sepulchre and uncovered the eggs, lo, the pure white shells had miraculously taken on a rainbow of colors.
Decorating and coloring eggs for Easter was the custom in England during the middle ages. The household accounts of Edward I, for the year 1290, recorded an expenditure of eighteen pence for four hundred and fifty eggs to be gold-leafed and colored for Easter gifts.

The most famous decorated Easter eggs were those made by the well-known goldsmith, Peter Carl Faberge. In 1883 the Russian Czar, Alexander, commissioned Faberge to make a special Easter gift for his wife, the Empress Marie. The first Faberge egg was an egg within an egg. It had an outside shell of platinum and enameled white which opened to reveal a smaller gold egg. The smaller egg, in turn, opened to display a golden chicken and a jeweled replica of the Imperial crown.This special Faberge egg so delighted the Czarina that the Czar promptly ordered the Faberge firm to design further eggs to be delivered every Easter. In later years Nicholas II, Alexander's son, continued the custom. Fifty-seven eggs were made in all.

Ornamental egg designers believe in the symbolism of the egg and celebrate the egg by decorating it with superb artistry. Some use flowers and leaves from greeting cards, tiny cherubs, jewels and elegant fabrics, braids and trims, to adorn the eggs. They are separated, delicately hinged and glued with epoxy and transparent cement, then when completed, they are covered with a glossy resin finish. Although the omens and the mystery of the egg have disappeared today, the symbolism remains, and artists continue in the old world tradition of adorning eggs.

Tradition relates, that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited the Emperor Tiberias (14-37 AD) and proclaimed to him about Christ's Resurrection. According to tradition, she took him an egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: "Christ is Risen!" Then she told Tiberias that, in his Province of Judea, Jesus the Nazarene, a holy man, a maker of miracles, powerful before God and all mankind, was executed on the instigation of the Jewish High-Priests and the sentence affirmed by the procurator Pontius Pilate. Tiberias responded that no one could rise from the dead, anymore than the egg she held could turn red. Miraculously, the egg immediately began to turn red as testimony to her words. Then, and by her urging, Tiberias had Pilate removed from Jerusalem to Gaul, where he later suffered a horrible sickness and an agonizing death.

EASTER 2008

Matthew Erich Pleva '06

The Lord is Risen, Alleluia

Did Mary Magdalen feel as if she had just woken from a very bad dream? I know that feeling of utter relief when waking from a deep sleep in which I was being hounded by difficult people or was unable to find something or get to some place very important. We have all had those anxiety dreams which made reality pale in comparison.

Mary Magdalen was probably numb, performing a ritual action with other friends of Jesus as on automatic pilot. What must have it been like to be huddled together in that upper room from Friday, through the Sabbath, waiting for the day to fulfill their duty? It must have been still unbelievable to them that they must perform this last act of devotion for their master, rabbi, teacher, friend, and healer; the one whom they believed to be the Son of God.

Our Church connects and has always connected with Mary's plight, her deep sorrow and the courage with which the women set out on their mission. At the Easter Vigil Mass and again at the Mass of Easter Morning we hear accounts of her experience from two of the evangelists. The story appears in each of the four Gospels. This is a moment for Mary, and a moment for us, that is not to be missed. She hears and we hear words that should wake us from a tormented sleep into the light of endless day and endless possibility. "Do not be afraid...Go and tell...There you will see me..."

******************************************

At Mother of Perpetual Help Monastery, this community of contemplative nuns, was blessed by the presence of eighteen Redemptorist seminarians, students preparing for the Novitiate along with their formators, for the entire Easter Triduum. Our small chapel was filled by their big-ness in size, their big-ness of voice and their big-ness of heart and devotion to Jesus our Redeemer. They not only joined us for the major liturgies in which they were readers or cantors or singers in their Schola, but they also came to participate in the various offices of the Liturgy of the Hours.

On Holy Thursday Father Phil Dabney was the celebrant and homilist at our evening liturgy. Father Phil served until recently as Redemptorist Vocation Director for the Baltimore Province for fifteen years. His reverence and attention as he washed the feet of eight students and four sisters of our community was inspiring. In his homily he noted the absence of an institution narrative in John's account of the last supper and the outstanding emphasis on loving service. It is as if, Jesus, the inspired teacher, knowing he was about to die, decided that he had to dramatically underscore all that he had taught by doing something totally radical, so unexpected and out of the ordinary that no one present would ever forget the moment. His action was the ultimate 'visual aide'. He put on a apron, got down on his knees and washed the dirty, calloused, worn feet of his own followers. It was an act so outrageous that Peter refused the magnanimous gesture. What is the message? We are, he begs us on his knees, to do the same.

On Good Friday Father Paul Borowski, one of the directors of this group of students, presided at our Liturgy. His homily was a first person narrative of that last day in the voice of Peter. He shared his story his repeated denials, his lack of courage, his frightful fear of being himself arrested and crucified. His dismay was palpable, his uncertainty too. And his guilt tremendous. He wondered aloud, "What are we to do now?

Father Paul was also the principle celebrant at our Easter Vigil, assisted by Father Patrick Keyes who also directs the students, and Father Thomas Picton, Provincial of the Denver Province of Redemptorists. Father Picton was the homilist. He spoke of the various current theories concerning the Resurrection "story". However, he said, "We know better because without the Resurrection the rest is meaningless." He offered a number of rebuttal arguments directed at doubters but then said, " We know that Jesus our Redeemer is risen from the dead when we see a ninety year old Redemptorist living with the 'garbage people' on the outskirts of a city in Brazil because he is the only one willing to do so. We see Jesus our Redeemer risen from the dead when two Redemptorists serving the Caldean Catholic community in Bagdad refuse to leave even though they know they are in grave danger. WE see the risen Lord in long faithful marriages and faithful perseverance in vowed religious life." His heart moved at the devotion of these and others he described, tears streamed down his face as Father gave his accounts of the risen Jesus among us.

On Sunday morning Father Patrick Keyes was celebrant. Faher Keyes told us about his favorite Easter homily, one that recycles well everywhere and in every language. He told us how he calls all the little children out of the congregation to come and join him in front of the altar. He then tells them his tale of woe, how he could not figure out what to put in his homily and how he went to the park and sat on a bench. Then a little bunny came out of the grass and talked to him and told him what to say. Father Patrick said he then whispers the bunny's message to the children to willing pass it to their neighbors. Then Father said he commissions them to go out among the congregation and whisper in the ears of all the people the message that the bunny in the park gave him. This is always a 'show stopper.' Of course Father embellished this for us so that we were well prepared for the message being whispered by the children and also heard by us today. "Jesus is LOVE."