Holy Saturday

For our sake Christ was obedient,

accepting even death, death on a cross.

Therefore God raised him on high

and gave him the name above all other names.

Responsory Antiphon, Morning Prayer, Holy Saturday

"The Disposition " or the Florence Pieta

Michelangelo Buonarroti

1547-1553

This uncompleted piece by the master sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti would seem to be a crude effort on the part of a man most well-known for the Pieta viewed by millions every year in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. That awe-inspiring depiction of Mary holding the death body of her son was a bravura perfomance by the youthful energetic Michelangelo. This much later work was intended for his own tomb. After seven years of work, finding a flaw in the marble, the scuptor smashed it into pieces. The remains were rescued by another sculptor, reassembled and the figure of Mary Magdalen on the left was completed. However, like Michelangelo's other uncompleted sculpture, this one has a mysteriously haunting and moving quality. The looming figure of Nicodemus is said to be a self-portrait of the artist. Nicodemus, the one who came to see Jesus only under the cover of darkness, had the courage to go to Pilate and ask for the body of the crucified criminal. Here is a brave figure, protector for Mary, the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalen. Yet, the tortured sadness in his face seems tinged with regret. Is it a regret similar to that of St. Augustine, "Late have I loved you, O beauty ever ancient and ever new." 

Michelangelo Buornarroti spent the last years of his life working on two Pieta sculptures. One was intended for his own tomb. He used his face as the model for the dominant figure in one of these pieces. That figure was of a man who slowly and maybe too late fully realized who Jesus truly was. We may conclude that this event of the Passion of Jesus haunted Michelangelo in its poignancy and may have touched some of his own feeling of regret at the end of his earthly life. As you gaze upon this image, which character draws you? Is it the lifeless Jesus or his grieving mother? Is it the bereft Magdalen, present to Jesus even in his crucifixion and death? Or is it Nicodemus, once fearful and later brave, who agonizes in regretful grief?

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

Into the Darkness and Waiting

Empty Tabernacle

Mother of Perpetual Help Monastery

Redemptoristine Nuns

Espous, New York

Holy Saturday

The following excerpts are taken from an ancient homily on Holy Saturday. It is among those selections chosen by our Church for the only official public worship of this holy day, the Liturgy of Hours. Those participating in the most solemn expression of this at Tenebrae (prayer "in the dark" - a combination of the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer) today, heard this most poetic description of that mysterious time between Jesus' death and his Resurrection. In addition, at Tenebrae, the Psalms of the Offices and the selected readings would be punctuated by sections from the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on the earth today, a great silence and a stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep...He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep...He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now, by my own authority, command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated...

The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

This poetic imagery is invitation. Surely we too dwell in darkness. Surely we too have surrendered our freedom and carry the bondage of crippling emotions and addictions, of norms and values thrust on by the surrounding culture. Surely we too suffer a variety of abandonments - grief, disappointing friends, goals not attained. Today we are invited to shed the bonds, to step out into the light because the one who loved us has died for us, died united with our sufferings, whatever they may be. And in these days has prepared the banquet feast of heaven just for us, those who are intensely loved by the Father in whose image we were created out of love. We need not wait until our mortal death to experience this gift of freedom. We can experience he Resurrection now.

What is the nature of my darkness? What binds my soul, spirit and body? Where am I drowsy and unmotivated? What is the particular invitation to me today in the words of Jesus Christ, "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead."

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord your God.

(response to the Lamentations of Jeremiah)