Holy Week Schedule

Welcoming guests is at the heart of any authentic service that a monastery offers to the broader church and world. And Liturgy is one of the principal means by which we extend our Christian and monastic hospitality. Especially during this most holy week, we invite our friends and neighbors to join us at prayer. 

Palm Sunday
Vigils at 3:30 am
Lauds at 6:40 followed by Solemn Mass
with blest palms distributed following the Liturgy
Vespers & Benediction at 5:10
Compline at 7:40

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
our normal daily schedule with
Vigils at 3:30 am
Lauds at 6 followed by Mass
Vespers at 5:40
Compline at 7:40

Holy Thursday
Vigils at 3:30 am
Lauds at 6:40
The Beginning of the Sacred Triduum with
The Solemn Mass of the Lord's Supper at 4
followed by procession to the Altar of Repose
Compline at 7:40

Good Friday
Vigils at 4:30 am
Lauds at 7:40
Solemn Liturgy of the Lord's Passion at 3
Compline at 7:40

Holy Saturday
Vigils at 3:30 am
Lauds at 6:40
Vespers at 5:40
Compline omitted

Easter Sunday
Solemn Paschal Vigil Mass at 3 am
Lauds at 7:30
Easter Day Mass at 11
Vespers & Benediction at 5:10
Compline at 7:40

Sanctuary

I will put my sanctuary among them forever,

 the sanctuary of my wounded body.

My dwelling shall be with them,

the sanctuary of my broken body.

I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the Lord,

 by the sanctuary of my body,

who make Israel holy,
when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever,

 that is the sanctuary of my crucified body.

 I will console and gladden them after their sorrows,

 by the sanctuary of my broken and risen body.

It is better for us
that one man should die instead of the people,
so that the whole nation may not perish,

 but may be hidden in the sanctuary of his body.

Poetic rendition of today's readings by one of the monks.

Illustration by Eric Gill.

Perfect Fulfilment

Jesus proclaims that he has come not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. All that he is, all that he proclaims, all that he accomplishes in his dying and rising reveals the fullness of God's desire for our well-being and salvation. Indeed the whole Law has been set before us in Christ Jesus, our Lord; he whose Body is forever marked with the wounds of his passion. His wounded risen body has become our sacred text wherein we can read the truth of who we are, the truth of our sadness and our hope.

Photo of antique corpus which hangs in the Abbey's Santa Cruz Hermitage

Making Room

In today's gospel from Saint John Jesus tells us:

A slave does not remain in a household forever,
but a son always remains.
So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.
I know that you are descendants of Abraham.
But you are trying to kill me,
because my word has no room among you.

The monastery is our home. Jesus is the Word who asks constantly for "room" in our hearts, in this our home. With him we monks are sons of our heavenly Father. In Christ and through the shedding of his precious Blood, we are freed from our slavish repetition of sinful ways that do not lead us to life. The call is continually to listen and make room for the Word and the freedom he offers. 

Annunciation

In the predawn darkness of our morning Vigils, we heard these words of our Cistercian Father Blessed Guerric of Igny:

In these days of Lenten observance the solemnity of our Lord's Annunciation provides us with a welcome interlude, so that those who are wearied by bodily affliction may be revived by spiritual joy, and those brought low by the sorrow of repentance may be consoled by the annunciation of him who takes away the sins of the world.

Indeed we rejoice in Our Lady's fiat. She let her life be interrupted by God's plan. She made room for God. May we do likewise.

Bearing Fruit

Jesus tells us that the seed must fall into the earth to bear abundant fruit, and then, “When I am lifted up, I will draw everyone to myself.” Clearly this “lifting up” is his crucifixion. He will be raised up on a cross of humiliation, pain and death. And His lifting up will be his abundantly fruitful self-gift to his Father for us. He longs to draw us with Him to the Father through the narrow gate of his passion.

We may notice our resistance, and perhaps we do not want to enter through this narrow, probably painful gateway. But Jesus dreams something quite different and more beautiful for us. He offers us the cross a way out. He longs to draw us into his own his loving self-offering as a way out of death as dead end- self-giving as a way that absolutely cancels death, smashes it to pieces forever. Jesus comes to show us a more excellent way. He show us that death has no power over us at all, never did, never will.

Crucifixion by Duccio di Buoninsegna.

At the Cross

Think of the Son of God, how he
Died on the tree our souls to save,
Think of the nails that pierced him through,
Think of him too, in lowly grave.

Think of the spear the soldier bore,
Think how it tore holy side.
Think of the bitter gall for drink,
Think of it, think, for us he died.

Think upon Christ who gave his blood
Poured in a flood our souls to win,
Think of the mingled tide that gushed
Forth at the thrust to wash our sin.

Crucifix in the south cloister.
Lines from Gaelic hymn at Friday Lauds.