As April begins, I’m finding myself thinking a lot about Easter. Yet, as we know, we are still amid Lent! One of the things I’ve been reflecting on this year during Lent is staying present in each moment. Our Lenten study this year has been on the major days of Lent: Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil. And part of what I’ve been focusing on while doing this study has been how to observe those days with intention.
While our community of faith doesn’t celebrate Easter Vigil, I have always found it to be one of the more precious parts of the Liturgical year. I remember the first time I encountered Easter Vigil. I was in my first year of seminary at Wartburg, and the Easter Vigil I attended was at a Trappist Monastery outside Dubuque, Iowa. I had never attended an Easter Vigil service, but this was a profound experience. The service began at 2:00 a.m. and I was exhausted. I was playing organ for a congregation in Wisconsin at that time, so I had just done Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, and would need to be up early to get there for Easter Sunrise at 7:30 a.m. Yet, I was required to go to this service of Easter Vigil as part of my worship class requirements.
We gathered outside the monastery because Easter Vigil always begins with “The New Fire”. The Paschal candle (what we call the Christ Candle) is lit from the new fire and then a procession in complete and total silence begins. We walked through the monastery in silence and into the long, narrow chapel and sat in the pews. And so began the 4 hour long service. Traditionally, Easter Vigil includes 12 readings, and in between each one, the lights get a little bit brighter. Another aspect of the service at New Melleray Monastery is the incense. Now I’m not talking about a tiny amount of incense. I’m talking CLOUDS washing from the front all the way to the back, so thick that the air became HAZY. I was smelling incense for weeks! But the most important part of the Easter Vigil service was that the abbot of the monastery allowed us to take communion. And it was one of the most holy and beautiful moments of my life. To be able to receive the Body and Blood of Christ at a table normally closed to me brought me such joy.
I think about that experience every year around Easter. I don’t miss the incense, but I miss the way that that community opened their doors, hearts and Table to a group of exhausted first year Lutheran seminarians. It was a formative experience for me that opened a deep appreciation for the liturgy in me. I have always found the liturgy to be a ground experience, as Sister Monica Joan says in Call the Midwife: “The Liturgy is of comfort to the disarrayed mind. We need not choose our thoughts; the words are aligned, like a rope for us to cling to.” Yet this experience of Easter Vigil opened in me a deeper appreciation for the Liturgy because it helps me stay grounded in the moment.
As I continued seminary, I didn’t attend Easter Vigil at New Melleray again, but I used that experience to help shape my understanding of the importance of Easter Vigil, which I was able to help lead during internship. And while that Easter Vigil didn’t include all 12 readings, and certainly no incense, it was still deeply grounding because it tells the whole story. The readings begin with Genesis and tell the entire story of God’s struggle with God’s people.
As we continue our Lenten journey, I invite you to remain grounded in each day and moment. God has called us to this discipline out of love for all people. God calls us to the disciplines of alms giving, fasting, and repentance not out of anger but rather out of love. And love binds us to God and to one another. Easter is coming, yes. But we must get through Holy Week first. Together, we will observe Palm Sunday with its branches and shouts of hosannas, even as we know that Maundy Thursday and its betrayal and Good Friday with the Cross will come. But the cross isn’t the end of the story, nor is the tomb. And the story doesn’t even end at the empty tomb. There is more to the story. I invite you to join us, to witness, and to observe faithfully the story of God’s love come near to us in Christ Jesus.
In Christ’s peace,
Pastor Katie
While our community of faith doesn’t celebrate Easter Vigil, I have always found it to be one of the more precious parts of the Liturgical year. I remember the first time I encountered Easter Vigil. I was in my first year of seminary at Wartburg, and the Easter Vigil I attended was at a Trappist Monastery outside Dubuque, Iowa. I had never attended an Easter Vigil service, but this was a profound experience. The service began at 2:00 a.m. and I was exhausted. I was playing organ for a congregation in Wisconsin at that time, so I had just done Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, and would need to be up early to get there for Easter Sunrise at 7:30 a.m. Yet, I was required to go to this service of Easter Vigil as part of my worship class requirements.
We gathered outside the monastery because Easter Vigil always begins with “The New Fire”. The Paschal candle (what we call the Christ Candle) is lit from the new fire and then a procession in complete and total silence begins. We walked through the monastery in silence and into the long, narrow chapel and sat in the pews. And so began the 4 hour long service. Traditionally, Easter Vigil includes 12 readings, and in between each one, the lights get a little bit brighter. Another aspect of the service at New Melleray Monastery is the incense. Now I’m not talking about a tiny amount of incense. I’m talking CLOUDS washing from the front all the way to the back, so thick that the air became HAZY. I was smelling incense for weeks! But the most important part of the Easter Vigil service was that the abbot of the monastery allowed us to take communion. And it was one of the most holy and beautiful moments of my life. To be able to receive the Body and Blood of Christ at a table normally closed to me brought me such joy.
I think about that experience every year around Easter. I don’t miss the incense, but I miss the way that that community opened their doors, hearts and Table to a group of exhausted first year Lutheran seminarians. It was a formative experience for me that opened a deep appreciation for the liturgy in me. I have always found the liturgy to be a ground experience, as Sister Monica Joan says in Call the Midwife: “The Liturgy is of comfort to the disarrayed mind. We need not choose our thoughts; the words are aligned, like a rope for us to cling to.” Yet this experience of Easter Vigil opened in me a deeper appreciation for the Liturgy because it helps me stay grounded in the moment.
As I continued seminary, I didn’t attend Easter Vigil at New Melleray again, but I used that experience to help shape my understanding of the importance of Easter Vigil, which I was able to help lead during internship. And while that Easter Vigil didn’t include all 12 readings, and certainly no incense, it was still deeply grounding because it tells the whole story. The readings begin with Genesis and tell the entire story of God’s struggle with God’s people.
As we continue our Lenten journey, I invite you to remain grounded in each day and moment. God has called us to this discipline out of love for all people. God calls us to the disciplines of alms giving, fasting, and repentance not out of anger but rather out of love. And love binds us to God and to one another. Easter is coming, yes. But we must get through Holy Week first. Together, we will observe Palm Sunday with its branches and shouts of hosannas, even as we know that Maundy Thursday and its betrayal and Good Friday with the Cross will come. But the cross isn’t the end of the story, nor is the tomb. And the story doesn’t even end at the empty tomb. There is more to the story. I invite you to join us, to witness, and to observe faithfully the story of God’s love come near to us in Christ Jesus.
In Christ’s peace,
Pastor Katie
Pastor Katie’s Office Hours:
(Also available by appointment)
Monday – 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Wednesday – 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday – 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Friday – Day Off
Saturday - 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
(Also available by appointment)
Monday – 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Wednesday – 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday – 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Friday – Day Off
Saturday - 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.