Most people are familiar with the afternoon and evening liturgies of the Triduum: Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, and, of course, the Easter Vigil Mass the night before Easter Sunday. But there is also another powerful time of liturgical prayer during the early morning of these three days: Tenebrae.
Read MoreWhat was that Saturday morning like for Mary? Just yesterday, she stood by at the foot of His cross, unable to take Him in her arms as she did when he was a small boy. To brush his locks of hair from his sweaty brow and offer him a drink like she did when he was a young man, working as a carpenter in Joseph’s shop. He looked at her, she looked at him. It reminded her of their first look so long ago in that stable in Bethlehem when He was born and she wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a rough-hewn manger. Now they looked at each other as he was stretched out on a rough-hewn cross, soon to be wrapped in burial cloths and laid in a cold, dark tomb. But these two looks held eternity… and then he gave her the next phase of her mission, her motherhood: “Behold your son.” And with that, she went to live with John in his house.
Read MoreOf all the fears and pain we face, there is one we find most terrible. Yet no matter how hard we try, we cannot escape from it: the pain of loneliness, isolation, abandonment. To feel unwanted and unloved. As He was fully human, this was part of the pain Jesus underwent throughout His passion, beginning in the garden of Gethsemane. His pain of loneliness and abandonment reaches to the depths of human suffering when He cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Read MoreWhat would you do if you knew today would be your last? That during the night, one of your closest friends would betray you to others who would see that you suffered a cruel and painful death? Would you gather with your friends for one final farewell? Would you have one more adventure, one more thrill? Would you throw up your hands, cry out to God? Would you try to seek out your betrayer before you were betrayed? What would you do?
Read MoreHoly Week and Easter Sunday at the Monastery.
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