Easter Morning we had a Mary Magdalene Eucharistic Procession. It was beautiful.
John 20:10-17
"Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look in the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head adn the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't knwo where they have laid him."
At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
Jesus said to her. "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, "Do not hold onto me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
The Easter Vigil is a time of Celebration. The Victory of the Cross is given to us through the words of the angels to those who came early in the morning to anoint his body "He is not here." The gospel account was read in 4 different languages during the Easter Vigil Mass with the Brothers. Words of hope drilled into our souls and reaffirmed in the sacrifice of the Mass.
After lighting the Easter Candle from a column of fire in a safe location, we processed into the darkness of the chapel with our own candles to illuminate the darkness, as Christ's light illuminates the world.
I can't really explain the exuberance and joy I felt after the Easter Vigil. This year's Triduum opened my eyes to my desperate need for a savior, and I couldn't be happier. For too long I've swallowed the lie that I'm not sufficient and stopped with the lie. Now I know that I'm made whole by Christ who has taken all of my sins upon Himself and carried them up a hill to die.
Christ's resurrection is the light that sends all the shadows running.
Ephesians 5:8-10 "For once you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of the light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord."
Holy Saturday is a day of anticipation of the Easter Vigil. Christ has been laid in the tomb, and as such has been removed from the tabernacle. If you've never done this, I encourage you to spend some time in your Church on Holy Saturday, when the tabernacle stands open. To put yourself in the tomb with Christ and spend some time in silent anticipation.
Living with the Community of St. John afforded me the gift of spending two hours in the Chapel, living the mystery of Christ's entombment. Throughout the Triduum, Christ called me into the deep. I had become achingly aware that Christ didn't want part of me, he wants all of me, and he died for all of me.
To spend time waiting with him, I was caught up in my own anticipation and an inexplicable hope. I know Christ will wash me clean and heal me of all those things I've been holding onto. Those things that are "too big" to hand to him. I was given the desire to allow him to carry those things to the Father and be free once more. For the first time in years I was able to look at the new day in hope.
My hope is found in the victory of the Cross. Lord carry me.
"Behold the wood of the cross, on which your savior died."
Many of you are familiar with venerating the cross on Good Friday. We begin Lent with the words "Repent and believe in the Gospel." At the end of Lent, we're given an opportunity to kiss the wounds that brought us our salvation, offering our sins and allowing him to cleanse us as a libation to his wounded heart. He was pierced with a lance, so that we could receive his mercy.
In the morning on Friday, the Community of St. John journeys the Stations of the Cross together, carrying a life-size cross through the woods of the priory. It's a trek that takes 3 hours, the priests are available for confession throughout the stations, and the monks take turns leading the pilgrims in meditations.
I've walked the stations with the brothers every summer since I was 16, as living the Stations of the Cross is part of the Eagle Eye Summer Institute (the camp which introduced me to the Community of St. John.) This time, I didn't worry about keeping everyone together, didn't have to sing the songs as we walked, I could just pray.
My soul wanted to pray the Consecration to Our Lady, the prayer that has been my heart-song for several months. Even though I've been praying it a lot lately, I still don't have it memorized, so I asked Fr. Nathan, my spiritual director, to pray me through it. I noticed a line I feel like I've never heard before and it took me so much more deeply into the Way of the Cross. So I'd like to share the prayer with you.
If Mary is someone you struggle with, let me know what you're questions are, I'd love to chat with you.
I, Mary Ann Pometto, a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today through you my baptismal promises I renounce forever Satan, his empty promises and his evil designs, and I give myself completely to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after him for the rest of my life, and to be more faithful to him than I have been until now. This day, with the whole court of heaven as witness I choose you, Mary, as my Mother and Queen. I surrender and consecrate myself to you, body and soul, with all that I possess, both spiritual and material, and even including the spiritual value of all my actions, past, present and to come. I give you the full right to dispose of me and all that belongs to me, without any reservations; in whatever way you please, for the greater glory of God in time and throughout eternity.
Accept, gracious Virgin, this little offering of my slavery to honor and imitate that obedience which the eternal Wisdom willingly chose to have towards you, his Mother. I wish to acknowledge the authority which both of you have over this little worm and pitiful sinner. By it I wish also to thank God for the privileges bestowed on you by the Blessed Trinity. I solemnly declare that for the future I will try to honor and obey you in all things as your true slave of love. O admirable Mother, present me to your dear Son as his slave now and for always, so that he who redeemed me through you, will now receive me through you. Mother of mercy, grant me the favor of obtaining the true Wisdom of God, and so make me one of those whom you love, teach and guide, whom you nourish and protect as your children and slaves. Virgin most faithful, make me in everything so committed a disciple, imitator, and slave of Jesus, your Son, the Incarnate Wisdom, that I may become, through your intercession and example, fully mature with the fullness which Jesus possessed on earth, and with the fullness of his glory in heaven. Amen.
There is an anticipation that settles on the air with the beginning of the Easter Triduum. Every day of the Triduum allows you to enter into the mysteries of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. In Princeville, with the Brothers of St. John, you don't just enter the mysteries of the Triduum, you live them.
Holy Thursday offers the mystery of Christ's Last Supper with his Apostles and the Agony in the Garden (John 13:1-17:26.)
During the Last Supper Jesus knelt at the feet of his apostles and washed them. When I listen to Peter's reaction, I often think "Peter, why not? Why wouldn't you just let Jesus wash your feet? And then you go overboard... 'Wash my hands and head as well.'"
This Triduum, instead of looking at Peter from the outside, I truly discovered the man through identifying with his struggles. Peter was loved by Christ, even through his faults, through his pig-headed stubbornness and pride. It's just that Peter wasn't always willing to give those things to Him.
Too often, I keep the worst parts of myself: those faults that stand out and mark me as something less than worthy, as a shield against Christ. "Don't wash my feet Lord, there's too much I can't let you have." Jesus didn't wash Peter's feet because they were clean, he washed them because they weren't. This Holy Thursday, I was confronted with the question I had so long asked Peter, "Why won't you just let Jesus wash your feet?"
Jesus died on a cross, taking on a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8.) Not only did he take the little sins, I'm okay with giving him, but the ones I'd like to hold onto.
The fact of the matter is, that he can't take what I don't give him.
Jesus doesn't force anybody to love him. The real question behind what I've been asking Peter for years is, "How much do I love him?" The foot washing of Holy Thursday, threw me into the Triduum with the force of the Mercy of Christ as blood and water gushed out for the sins of his children.
"Wash not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."
For Holy Thursday's evening of Adoration, the Contemplative Sisters enlisted the ladies of the Eagle Eye Institute to help them create the Garden of Gethsemene in our conference center. We spent the morning traipsing through the woods near the priory for moss and grass to use to make it more authentic. And then when we were finished we placed candles throughout. Sr. Theresa Marie and I ran over to the Conference Center at the end of Mass when they were processing over with the Eucharist to light the candles and then they had all-night adoration.
Before Lent began, the Eagle Eye Institute was given a silent retreat.For those who have never experienced or maybe even heard of silent retreats, it is in fact like it sounds.We live our days in silence, passing notes only when necessary and then once or twice a day we gather for a Spiritual Conference.This silent retreat’s conferences were led by Br. Gabriel Maria.
In beginning the conferences, Br. Gabriel Maria wasn’t shy about telling us that maybe part of Lent is for us to set our obligations and fail.The point of Lent is Jesus, who, even though he knows how weak we are, also knows how strong we can be in him.He encouraged us not to go into Lent looking for a result, but to look at our life in Christ.Something I see as a fitting reminder as the end of Lent draws near.
Br. Gabriel Maria also led us through the Scripture and the different ways the Desert is portrayed in the Word of God.I found it particularly insightful.Since the Word of God is a living word, I know that it will hit you differently than it hit me, so I’ll simply share the verses we talked about and not my own reflections.It’s good to re-read now that Lent is almost done to rediscover our fervor to meet Christ within our sacrifices and allow him to carry us through the final days into Holy Week.
Exodus 5:1-3—The Desert, a place of adoration of God
After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the desert.”Pharaoh answered, “Who is the Lord, that I should heed his plea to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord; even if I did, I would not let Israel go.”They replied, “The God of the Hebrews has sent us word. Let us go a thre days’ journey in the desert, that we may offer sacrifice to the Lord, our God, otherwise he will punish us with pestilence or the sword.”
Hosea 2:16-17—The Desert, a place of rebirth
So I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.From there I will give her the vineyards she had, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope.She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt.
Luke 4:1-13—The Desert, a place of spiritual battle and victory
Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.The devil said to hem “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’’ Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish.All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God and him alone shall you serve.’”Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and: ‘With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.
Side note from Luke: “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed...” this is said because the three temptations represent the three roots for sin as exemplified in: 1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world of the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world.Yet the world and its enticement are passing away.But whoever does the will of God remains forever.
Revelation 12:13-14—The Desert, a place of escape from the dragon
When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly to her place in the desert, where, far from the serpent, she was taken care of for a year, two years and a half-year.
