As those of you who read our autumn newsletter know, we’ve been quietly working on a surprise for you over the past year. Now it is here, and you can shop Queen of Peace Monastic Arts and Workshops from right here on our website! Our first online product? Handmade soap! Our nature-inspired blends are prayerfully handmade in our monastery by our sisters, using simple ingredients. You can learn more from the video below, and then shop our collection online here.

Why an online store? As those of you who have visited our monastery know, we have a small gift shop in which we sell items handmade by our community: pottery, rosaries, icon prints, candles and, yes, soap. Along with our guest house, and the generosity of benefactors, this gift shop ordinarily helps to support the day-to-day needs of our community. When Covid-19 hit our region, we suddenly found ourselves with both the guesthouse and gift shop closed for the (un)foreseeable future. We are deeply grateful to our friends near and far who have continued to financially support our life of prayer during this time that is economically difficult for so many. Now, we are happy to share our handwork with you again in a new way, and look forward to adding more products once we have the inventory. Thank-you for being part of the adventure of our growing community, and please know that we are praying for you and your intentions. God bless!

The Lord is risen, alleluia, alleluia! May the Resurrection of Christ bring you new peace, joy and freedom today, and in the days of Easter to come. As promised, here is our final hymn of the Triduum: “Open, you eternal doors!”

Written by our Dominican brother Andre Gouzés, it celebrates Christ’s breaking down of the doors of death to free the captives held within. As an ancient author says in a homily on Holy Saturday, imagining the words Jesus spoke during the harrowing of hell:

“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.”

This call to freedom and new life was very much on our minds and in our prayers throughout the celebration of Holy Week. In our region, there had been a brief hope that public liturgies would be possible for the Paschal Triduum. However, a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations made this impossible. We walked with you in our prayers, especially around the Paschal Fire, and are looking forward to the day when we can be gathered in-person once more. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from our celebrations.

Preparations for the Mandatum in Chapter on Holy Thursday.

The forsythia bloomed just in time to decorate for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Procession to the altar of repose.

Tenebrae on Good Friday.

Adoration of the Cross.

Tenebrae on Holy Saturday.

The Paschal fire—and the Paschal rain tent!

Inscribing the Paschal candle.

“Christ, our Light!”

“Thanks be to God!”

Singing of the Exsultet.

The Gospel procession and great Alleluia.

We hope you have had a fruitful Lent, and would like to wish you a blessed Palm Sunday. As St. Andrew of Crete puts it so well in a homily for this Sunday:

When the pandemic began last year, we realized that many people would not be able to celebrate Holy Week in their usual communities of faith. We began to make recordings of our liturgy to share with you. As we know that in many places access to public worship is still highly limited, we’d like to share those with you again. Last year, we unfortunately ran out of time to make the final recording—a celebration of the Resurrection! This year, we’re going to finish the task, and will share the final hymn with you on Easter Sunday. Until then, we invite you to walk through Holy Week with our community. Please know that we are carrying you in our prayers in a very special way, and we look forward to the day when we can celebrate together “in-person” again. God bless.

Palm Sunday: “Hosanna to the Son of David”

Good Friday: The Reproaches

Holy Thursday: “We should Glory”

Holy Saturday: The Lamentations of Jeremiah