All My Desires are Known to You two-thousand and twenty Retreat

a retreat-in-place with the monks of st. benedict’s abbey “God is always with us, for All my desires are known to You (Psalm 38:10)” - rule of st. benedict 7:23

2 St. Benedict’s Abbey Contents From the Retreat Master...... 4 Horarium...... 6 Monastic Tools for Living Holy Week...... 8 Living by a Rule...... 9 The ...... 10 Praying with the Triduum Liturgies...... 11 Silence...... 12 Lectio Divina...... 13 Proposed Lectio Passages...... 15 Meals...... 16 Fasting...... 17 Art & Beauty...... 18 Notes for each Day...... 19 Wednesday of Holy Week...... 21 Holy Thursday...... 23 ...... 25 ...... 27 Easter Sunday...... 29 Resources for Parents...... 30 Ideas for living Holy Week...... 32 Suggestions for Each Day...... 32 Participating in Liturgies...... 33 Lectio Divina with Children...... 34 Additional Parent Resources...... 35 Appendix...... 37

St. Benedict’s Abbey -dominus providebit-

kansasmonks.org 1020 N. 2nd Street | Atchison, KS 66002

Holy Week Retreat 2020 3 From the Retreat Master

Welcome!

elcome to the 20th annual St. Benedict’s Abbey Holy Week Retreat! Normally this retreat is for the students of Benedictine College, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation. Thus, we used the internet to make it possible for anyone to join us! On behalf of Abbot James Albers and the monks of St. WBenedict’s Abbey, we welcome you to this stay-at-home retreat. You may notice we are not inviting you to a “virtual retreat”. This is a fundamental distinction. Though we will be using technology to connect, a retreat can only be done where you are. To retreat, in the Christian sense, is to enter more deeply into the truth of things, like taking a step back from a painting in order to see its beauty more clearly. “ Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:16), not to escape the task that was given to Him but to love it more, by staying with the One who was giving it to Him. We are inviting you to enter into these holy days with us not to escape our present situation, or even to persevere or overcome it until life returns to normal, but to enter more deeply into them, through the reality the Father is giving to us. This is the only place we can be in relationship with the source of our lives, who is our happiness.

Acknowledging that God is in our midst, doing something right now, in the here and now of our lives as we stay in our homes, we can ask: How am I being changed? How is He laboring to draw us close to Him and to save us and the world as we face this drama in our lives, in which the limits of sickness and death seem insurmountable? This is the Paschal Mystery.

In his chapter on humility in the Rule, St. Benedict states that “God is always with us, for All my desires are known to You (Ps 38:10)” (RB 7:23). In this holiest week of the Church’s year, we bring all of our desires to God as we meditate on the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of His only begotten Son. The intersection point- the crux- is that of the Cross. In that horizontal beam we place all of our fears and anxieties, knowing that this is truly a life- changing and world-changing moment in human history. In the vertical beam is the God-man who comes to save us and to bring us back to the Father. He meets us there, at the intersection of the two, where our lives are pulled into His. We are called not to just endure this time but to come to a place of gratitude for all God is doing right now, which includes death but also Resurrection.

As Pope Francis reminded us at the extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing on March 27th:

The Lord asks us and, in the midst of our tempest, invites us to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything seems to be floundering. The Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith.

4 St. Benedict’s Abbey And so on this retreat in your home we invite you to pick up the monastic tools for keeping watch in these hours together.

• First, we invite you to live our Horarium of prayer, recreation, and silence together with us and those in your household. We suggest you live it, as much as possible, at the same time with us (all times given are Central Daylight Time (UTC -5:00)), or at that same hour of the day in your own time zone, as a sign of our unity in prayer. Of course, availability will vary and so we will explore below the “Why, What, and How” of taking up this proposal as it applies to our circumstances. • Second, we will livestream daily conferences offered by the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey, and two different panels with witnesses of the lay and monastic experience during these times. If you are viewing them live, you will have the opportunity to participate in Q&A’s by typing in the chat section. Otherwise, you will be able to watch them later via Youtube. • Finally, we suggest different resources to help us live Christ’s paschal mystery.

These suggestions come from our monastic life, so you can take a little bit of monastic life into your home. Those of you that have been on an Abbey retreat before will recognize this as one of our typical goals- the difference this time is we are all living in monasteries now!

We invite you to participate in whatever way helps you enter into Holy Week. It will look different depending on each participant’s circumstances, but in living this together we will help each other draw closer to Our Lord. And please know that the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey are praying for you! Keep us in your prayers as we live out our monastic life during these dramatic days!

We are all--monks and laypeople--invited to embrace Him during this time, since He so earnestly desires to embrace us! May we not miss Him in our midst today!

Sincerely in Christ and Mary, Fr. Jay Kythe, OSB Fr. Jay Kythe joined St. Benedict’s Abbey in 2013 after Retreat Master 11 years of service as a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He currently serves the Abbey as Retreat Master and Novice Master.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 5 Horarium Retreat Schedule Liturgy of the Hours Vigils, Lauds, Midday Prayer, Vespers, Compline How to participate: Pray with the appropriate liturgical texts Pray with the Abbey’s streaming video and text Note: Compline will not be streamed, but may be prayed on your own See more suggestions on Praying the Liturgy of the Hours on Page 10

Triduum Liturgies Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday Mass How to participate: Pray with the monastery’s streaming video Participate in a Holy Week Celebration of the Word at home See more suggestions on how to do this in Praying with Triduum Liturgies on Page 11

Conferences and Panels How to participate: Links will be posted daily at kansasmonks.org/holyweek2020

Everything Else Rising, Lectio Divina, Meals, Stations How to participate: Do this at home, united with us in Christ! Wednesday

My Time Abbey Time Event CDT UTC-5:00

______5:00 PM Vespers ______7:00 PM Greetings and Orientation Conference #1 - Introduction to Praying the Liturgy of the Hours Holy Thursday

______5:25 AM Bell to Rise ______5:45 AM Vigils followed by Lauds (a little after 6:00 AM) ______6:20 AM Silence (Lectio Divina) ______7:00 AM Breakfast (optional) ______10:00 AM Conference #2 - Communion: An Ever-Present Reality ______11:45 AM Midday Prayer ______12:00 PM Silence (Lectio Divina) ______12:55 PM Lunch ______3:00 PM Lay Panel - They Make it a Place of Springs ______5:00 PM Festive Dinner w/table reading ______7:30 PM Mass of the Lord’s Supper ______9:30 PM Compline

6 St. Benedict’s Abbey Good Friday - Day of Silence

My Time Abbey Time Event CDT UTC-5:00

______5:25 AM Bell to Rise ______5:45 AM Vigils followed by Lauds (a little after 6:00 AM) ______6:20 AM Silence (Lectio Divina) ______7:00 AM Breakfast (optional) ______10:00 AM Conference #3 - The Joy of Full Surrender: Discovering Trials as Revelation ______11:45 AM Midday Prayer ______12:00 PM Silence (Lectio Divina) ______12:55 PM Lunch ______3:00 PM Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion ______5:00 PM Dinner w/ table reading ______7:00 PM Stations of the Cross Holy Saturday

______5:25 AM Bell to Rise ______5:45 AM Vigils followed by Lauds (a little after 6:00 AM) ______6:20 AM Silence (Lectio Divina) ______7:00 AM Breakfast (optional) ______10:00 AM Conference #4 - Entering the Silence that Changes Me ______11:45 AM Midday Prayer ______12:00 PM Silence (Lectio Divina) ______12:55 PM Lunch ______3:00 PM Monastic Panel - Let Them Prefer Nothing Whatever to Christ ______5:45 PM Vespers ______6:10 PM Dinner w/ table reading ______8:30 PM Easter Vigil

Gather to celebrate following the Easter Vigil Compline said only by those who do not participate in the Easter Vigil

Easter Sunday

______6:40 AM Bell to Rise ______7:00 AM Lauds ______7:20 AM Breakfast ______8:15 AM Conference #5 - The Resurrection: A Journey We Must Make ______10:00 AM Mass ______12:05 PM Midday Prayer ______12:15 PM Lunch ______4:15 PM Silence (Lectio Divina) ______5:00 PM Solemn Vespers

Holy Week Retreat 2020 7 Monastic Tools for Living Holy Week The Why, What, and How

In a certain sense, we are all monks now.

We have been asked to quarantine and distance ourselves from the outside world for the sake of our lives and the life of the world. St. Benedict calls this the cloister. We live with the same faces and the same four walls every day. St. Benedict calls this stability. We no longer choose the most basic things about how we work and what we can do with our bodies. St. Benedict calls this obedience. And all of this invites us to change. St. Benedict calls this conversatio morum. What kind of change? From fear to love. In front of the news that daily reminds us that death is a reality we cannot avoid, St. Benedict would have us “Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire” (RB 4:46).

The difference between the mentality which the Bible calls “the world” and that embodied in St. Benedict (that is to say, the Christian mentality) is that these are positive proposals which can help us on our way to eternal life. Pope Francis told us during the Urbi et Orbi, “Faith begins when we realise we are in need of salvation. We are not self-sufficient; by ourselves we flounder: we need the Lord, like ancient navigators needed the stars.” But recognizing our need for the stars and following their direction does not happen automatically, which is why St. Benedict, in the opening sentence of the Rule, invites the prospective monk to freely take up (libenter excipe) his advice, the advice of a loving father (pii patris).

Therefore, this Holy Week we invite you to freely take up the monastic tools below. To help you do this we have included notes below on each of them to clarify what it invites us to live together (the star, so to speak). Understanding the reason for each tool will help to freely discern what living it will look like in your circumstances and will help in being faithful to it. For instance, perhaps your family is unable to pray all the Liturgy of the Hours with us. Knowing the value of remembering God at the beginning and ending of the day can help you choose the ones you can pray (e.g. morning prayer and evening prayer or compline). Or perhaps you have to work on Good Friday and cannot keep silence during the day. Understanding St. Benedict’s teaching on silence can help you stay in the spirit of silence during your work and remain united with all of us in Christ.

Most importantly, let us pay attention to the last tool St. Benedict gives in his chapter on “The Tools for Good Works”: “And finally, never lose hope in God’s mercy” (RB 4:74). To live by a rule is not to expect perfection from ourselves but to give ourselves opportunities to say Yes to His perfect love and discover its embrace. When we fail, we offer this too to Christ, we ask for His embrace again, the grace of forgiveness. When others fail we do the same. There may be boredom, tears, and harsh words (this is true both for the children and the adults). This is part of the journey. It is an opportunity to ask for and discover His grace and the depths of His mercy again. And if we do use “the tools of the spiritual craft”, St. Benedict tells us, “...our wages will be the reward the Lord has promised: What the eye has not seen nor the ear heard, God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9)” (RB 4:75-77). SUGGESTIONS:

• Read through this booklet, especially this section on monastic tools, together with anyone who may be participating with you in your house, to understand why each tool is proposed. • Note what you can take up. If possible, print the schedule and consider each event. Highlight each event you will take up. • Note how you will take it up. • For example, you will watch the conferences but your work or time zone prevent you from attending live. Write the new time when you will watch it next to the conference under MY TIME. This is “my time” which I am offering to God to become God’s time. • Or you want to do silence but can only do one period of time and so want to lengthen it. Write it down. • Or with your work and family obligations a shorter morning and evening prayer are the most realistic, picking one or two psalms from each to pray slowly and thoughtfully. Write down when you will pray these. • Post your personal Holy Week Schedule and stick to it: At the end of this you should have your own household’s schedule for Holy Week based on the one proposed. Tape your new Holy Week schedule somewhere everyone participating can see it, such as the refrigerator.

8 St. Benedict’s Abbey Living by a Rule

“This Lent [God’s] call reverberates urgently: “Be converted!”, “Return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). You are calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of choosing. It is not the time of your judgement, but of our judgement: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others.” - Pope Francis, Extraordinary Urbi et Orbi

When the bells ring for prayer, St. Benedict tells us “the monk will immediately set aside what he has in hand and go with the utmost speed… Indeed, nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God” (RB 43:1, 3).

A schedule makes concrete a rule of life by which I recognize and choose what is most important: what is the source of my life and what my life is for. For this reason the most important moments in a rule are moments of prayer, which center my days around the memory of God. This is what I follow, what determines what I think about, what opens my heart up, instead of, e.g., being caught up in the anxiety of the continuous news or social media cycle. St. Benedict invites us to “no longer live by [our] own judgment, giving in to [our] whims and appetites... [but rather] walk according to another’s decisions and directions…” (RB 5:12). We are invited to be freed from the tyranny of our own opinions and those of the powers that be, and entrust our lives to an Other at every moment and event of the day. The bell interrupts our thoughts and gives us an opportunity to say yes to God’s thoughts, to God’s life. In this way we not only can entrust ourselves to Him but also the lives of others, especially those who are suffering more during this time. SUGGESTIONS:

• Live this Together in Unity: • None of us are alone because no circumstance can erase the fact of our baptism which unites us in Christ. As a sign of this reality, as much as possible try to enter into the gestures on the Horarium at the same time as the monastic community and the other retreatants, if you are in the same or near time zone, or at the same time of day in your own time zone. For example, though you can watch one of the recorded liturgies later, try to watch it when it is being live streamed. Even if circumstances prevent this, offer your prayers and actions in union with us and the whole Church in Christ, the head.

• Schedule communal work. Organize household tasks (cooking, cleaning, etc.) so that everybody has something to do and try to schedule this to do at the same time together. If necessary, schedule individual work (e.g. job or school assignments). Do this at the same time with others in your household (or with us, fitting it between other points in the Horarium). Do the same for communal and individual recreation time as needed.

• Consider a Screen Fast: A screen, with its constant invitation to be “somewhere else” can make silence and prayer difficult. It can also impede communal recreation time. So we suggest limiting screen time during this retreat. This may seem an odd suggestion when we are using internet technology to connect with you this week through conferences and materials (e.g. sending this booklet)! But we offer these resources in the hopes of helping you enter more deeply into the reality of Holy Week, not as a virtual substitute. A fast reveals what is essential. Perhaps limit screens to accessing only these resources and necessary tasks. Printing out some of the materials may also help. This is something to be discerned personally and with your household. Each of us, by observing ourselves in action, can see what is useful or not in helping us stay present.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 9 The Liturgy of the Hours

In his Chapter on “The Discipline of Psalmody” (RB 19), St. Benedict writes,

“We believe that the divine presence is everywhere… [and] beyond the least doubt we should believe this to be especially true when we celebrate the divine office. We must always remember, therefore, what the Prophet says: Serve the Lord with fear (Ps 2:11), and again, Sing praise wisely (Ps 46:8), and, In the presence of the angels I will sing to you (Ps 137:1)... let us stand to sing the psalms in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices.”

Whether you are praying the Psalms with your spouse, your whole family, or with a roommate, or by yourself, St. Benedict wants you to know that you are not alone. There is no such thing as a private recitation of the office. When we pray, we pray as the whole church – we, the church suffering, together with the angels and saints, and Christ our head, praising the divine presence of God who is always before us.

SUGGESTIONS:

We do not speak these words like we would just any words. With these words we enter into dialogue with God. Here are some ways we can acknowledge this:

• Speak the words slowly and think about what the words mean. • Pray in Choirs. If more than one person is present we embody this divine dialogue by taking turns praying the stanzas out loud. One group, “Choir 1”, prays the the first stanza of each psalm. The other, “Choir 2”, responds with the second stanza, and they continue to alternate.

• Pray in unison. Listen to each other and pray so that no single voice dominates. When even our voices and breath move together in this way, it is a concrete sign of the one body of Christ united in the Holy Spirit (Spiritus means “breath” or “spirit”).

• Pray with your whole body. Whether we stand or sit we do it with energy and attention. • Sing. Listen to the monks and follow along if you are streaming. By yourself we suggest singing recto tono, on a single pitch.

• Bow at the doxology (Glory be to the Father…) because we are in the presence of the glory of God the Father to whom we speak, the Son whose word resonates in us, and the Spirit who moves us as one.

For notes on when some of these elements happen watch the abbey’s livestream and see Conference #1 for more explanation and demonstration.

10 St. Benedict’s Abbey Praying with the Triduum Liturgies

The words of the mass tell us that we celebrate the eucharist “with the angels and saints.” This is truly a time to learn to live in the communion of saints. We are in communion with those people we can see and those we do not. This is possible because of Christ, because he took us into His life at our baptism. In baptism we belong to a great visible and invisible reality.

SUGGESTIONS:

• Prepare a space to orient worship and prayer. • A prayer table to face while you pray can be helpful. You can place a cloth on it of the appropriate color for each day (purple, red, no cloth, white). The suggestions for parents and children (See Living Holy Week with the Heart of a Child on page 31 or click to download) are relevant to other adults too. • Place a crucifix or simple cross in a prominent place and two candles on either side. • If you have an image or icon of Our Lady, place it there as well. • Participate in Holy Week Celebrations of the Word at home without streaming • Perhaps sit around a table. Light a candle. Have the crucifix present. • As a household, choose the one who leads the prayer, and someone to do the readings, prayers of the faithful, and any other parts. • Proclaim and listen to the Word of God with care and attention and appropriate silences. • Unite yourself in prayer with us at the abbey, your fellow retreatants, the whole world (especially those suffering during this time), and all the angels and saints. • Pray with the monastery’s streaming video of each liturgy. (Available at Youtube.com/kansasmonks) • Watching a streaming liturgy can be a great help in connecting to the rest of the faithful, but the screen also makes it easy to zone out and disengage from prayer. We do not want to view this in the same way as we would Netflix. • In order to help make this a time of prayer we suggest placing your streaming device on your prayer table and doing all the gestures of the liturgy- sit, stand, kneel, etc. and say and sing the people’s parts. (download pdf) • Make an act of Spiritual Communion at the reception of the Eucharist: My Jesus, I believe that Thou art truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love Thee above all things and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive Thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace Thee as being already there, and unite myself wholly to Thee; never permit me to be separated from Thee. • It may be especially hard for children to stay with a liturgy via video. Find suggestions on page 31 or download pdf.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 11 Silence

St. Benedict tells us:

Let us follow the Prophet’s counsel… I have put a guard on my mouth. I was silent and was humbled, and I refrained even from good words. (Ps 38:2-3). Here the Prophet indicates that there are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence… Speaking and teaching are the master’s task; the disciple is to be silent and listen” (RB 6:1-2, 6).

It is easy to let the cloister of our home be filled up with either a cacophony of individual chatter (e.g. everybody talking over each other) or the silence of isolation (e.g. everybody doing their own thing in their room). What these have in common is they cut us off from each other.

The silence St. Benedict proposes is different. It is a silence that unites us because in it we place ourselves before the Presence that is the source of our lives, the One each of our hearts desires. Who is the master St. Benedict speaks of? Jesus said, “You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers” (Matt. 23:8). By practicing silence together we enter into dialogue with the mystery of God our Father. SUGGESTIONS:

We practice silence at particular times in the monastery and invite you to join us in them.

• Keep silence before Morning Prayer and after Compline, so that the first and last words of the day we utter are to God. This is called the Grand Silence.

• During the two periods set aside for personal prayer and Lectio Divina (see Horarium). • Observe a day of silence on Good Friday, only speaking during prayers and liturgies or to communicate something essential (the retreat conference falls under the latter). • One note may be helpful as you consider what this may look like in your home (since, e.g. it may not be possible for a family to observe an entire day of silence): The attitude of silence is not just “not speaking,” but also speaking what is important. For instance, it may be necessary to say a few words to the person you are working with. But these are kept essential and come from the same posture of listening and attentiveness which is the spirit of silence.

• Practice a spirit of silence on Holy Saturday, the day of Christ’s immense silence on earth, when he descended to the depths of hell.

• Depending on the situation, it may not be possible to observe all of these times. If so, pick one period of time each day to do silence together.

12 St. Benedict’s Abbey Lectio Divina Praying with Scripture

“God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response. As God gradually reveals himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a covenant drama. Through words and actions, this drama engages the heart. It unfolds through the whole history of salvation.” —Catechism of the Catholic Church #2567

“The written word is the means by which God’s living Word reaches me, the divine act by which he addresses me, questions my whole existence and saves me. I must grasp the full dramatic value of the Word as a Person who reveals himself to my openness, challenging me to commit myself to him.” —Archbishop Mariano Magrassi, Praying the Bible What is lectio divina?

Lectio Divina is an ancient form of Christian prayer that involves a close and prayerful reading of Sacred Scripture. It is a way of encountering the Lord through the words of the Bible, leading to a powerful, enduring sense of the Lord’s presence in one’s daily life. See page 15 for suggested Lectio Divina passages for this retreat. Start by putting yourself in the presence of God and by saying a prayer to the Holy Spirit to help you to open your heart to whatever the Lord wishes to give you in the Scripture passage. Now you are ready to enter into Lectio Divina. The steps of lectio divina: step one: read First, read the passage (lectio) more than once—three times is recommended—very slowly, pausing at words that touch you in some way and letting them linger in your mind. Sometimes reading the passage out loud can help. step two: meditate

Second, meditate on the passage (meditatio). Ask questions of the text. Imagine yourself in the story or as one of the characters (if the passage lends itself to the imagination). Be aware of words or phrases that appear meaningful or mysterious. Find connections with events in one’s own life or with other parts of Scripture.

step three: pray Third, pray over the passage (oratio). Let the previous two steps lead you to compose a prayer to the Lord, to speak to Him about the Scripture passage and your life. You may be moved to gratitude, adoration, petition, supplication, contrition, etc. Speak to the Lord about what is going on in your life as it connects to the passage.

step four: contemplate Fourth, let the Holy Spirit work (contemplatio). At this point, God takes over and responds. We must be receptive to all the different ways the Lord speaks to us. Sit in quiet gratitude for His loving Presence in your life and listen.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 13 Lectio Divina (Cont.)

Encountering God: ARRR

Begin by placing yourself in the presence of God. Take some deep breaths. Remember, you are facing a God who loves you and desires a relationship with you.

A: Acknowledge

Acknowledge: Dig deep and recognize your deepest feelings and emotions. Bring these into prayer, Holy Thursday especially any negative emotions you may have. Ask questions of yourself: where am I today? Am I tired, lonely, angry, joyful, confused, not wanting to pray, etc.? R: Relate

Relate: Speak to the Lord from the place of these emotions. Talk to Him as you would speak to a close friend. In expressing yourself, you are letting go and making space for a self-giving God.

R: Receive Receive: Listen to the Lord from a posture of receiving what He wishes to give you. The practice of Good Friday Lectio Divina fits in well here, opening you up to the word He wishes to give you in lectio. R: Respond

Respond: Make a resolution on how to live that word throughout the day. This has been called the “Fifth Step” of Lectio Divina. The Fifth Step of Lectio Divina step five: resolution Holy Saturday Take one some element from your time of lectio, for example, Jesus sitting at the well awaiting the Samaritan woman, walking on the road to Emmaus, or the father of the prodigal son embracing him, and focus exclusively on that. Imagine the scene and enter into it. Use that to ponder the meaning of the scene: Jesus thirsts for me, Jesus accompanies me through my life, the Father embraces me when I sin. Stay with the deeper reality for an extended period of time, about 20-30 minutes. Sit comfortably, breathe at a regular pace, recall the initial scene when you are distracted, and stay there. Be at peace. If your Scripture passage doesn’t let itself to images, what word can you hold on to from the prayer? Stay with that word, repeating it softly, returning to it often. Let this prayer word or the image be an anchor for you throughout the day. Handling distractions in prayer Easter Sunday

Use that word or image (the anchor) to return back, away from the distractions. Often if you fight distractions, they tend to get a life of their own. Gently return back to your prayer. Having an image, holy card or picture, crucifix, etc., is helpful too. Sometimes it is helpful to jot down the distraction on a slip of paper and push it away from you. If the distraction still returns, perhaps the Lord wants you to pray with it. It may be something you need to face. Distractions are “unavoidable … and should not be a disturbance or affliction for you … Pay no attention to these thoughts … and let’s not blame the soul for what a weak imagination, human nature, and the devil cause” (St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, IV.1.13-14). “I consider [distractions] an incurable disease” (Letters, October 9, 1581). Allow prayer to become a daily habit. Create space for it, physically and temporally. As you pray, you may find yourself returning to that place of encounter throughout the day. Over time, you may find a theme or a train of thought emerging from your daily prayer. This can be an aid to discerning the will of God for your life.

14 St. Benedict’s Abbey Proposed Lectio Passages

These are suggested brief passages for your private lectio during this retreat, taken from the one of the hours of the Liturgy of the Hours of the day. However, you are free to use whatever texts you like, including psalms and readings from the daily Liturgy of the Hours.

Holy Thursday

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 7:26-27) It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens. He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself.

Good Friday A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53:4-5) It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted, But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.

Holy Saturday

A reading from the first Letter of Saint Peter (1 Peter 1:18-21) Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb. He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Easter Sunday

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:12-14) Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated. We also recommend doing Lectio Divina with your children! For more information see the Resource for Parents starting on page 30 or Lectio Divina with Children on page 34.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 15 Meals

A good rule includes time to be together, whether in conversation or absorbed in a common activity. For most of us meals are the privileged place of spending time with one another. It is meant to be a moment of real communion, a fact reflected in our monastic architecture- our refectory is built parallel to the Abbey church and we cross ourselves and process into both! This fact is so true for St. Benedict that the first sign of a brother who, through his worldly ways, has removed himself from the communion (ex- communion) of the monastery, is that “he will not be allowed to share the common table” (RB 24:3). This discipline is less of a punishment and more a concrete expression of what really happens to us when we affirm ourselves rather than God, and so helps the brother understand the nature of his fault and more swiftly enter into amending his ways and returning to the table, i.e. to communion. Here at the monastery we speak at lunch and keep silence at dinner, listening together to a brother who reads something edifying for the heart and mind while we eat. During the Triduum we listen to particular passages from the scriptures to help us meditate on the Paschal Mystery. SUGGESTIONS:

• If you are with others, eat meals together. If it is a “talking meal” have one conversation. Speak about what you have seen this day in your experience of this retreat. What has moved you? What has changed you? Why? What questions have these days provoked in you? Share and explore these together.

• If you are by yourself make meal time a special time of communion with our Lord. Set the table, perhaps light a candle, put attention into preparing your meal and take your time eating. Consider what your answer is to the questions above. Bring that to our Lord in silent, prayerful dialogue.

• As you plan your meals for this week join us in marking Holy Thursday’s dinner with special festive dishes, to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist. Since this is night of Passover, lamb is appropriate.

• On Easter pull out all the culinary stops, for on this day Our Lord conquered sin and death and raised everything to a new life. In Him all of life tastes fuller and sweeter! If there are special recipes in your family this- the most special day of the year- is the day to use them. Try out traditional easter recipes too, like hot cross buns.

• Have table reading at dinner. • We recommend reading the Gospel for the day, or a portion of it. • If it is more appropriate, have a shorter table reading for part of the meal, and then discuss what struck you about that passage. • Pick one person who can read well to read while others eat. If you are by yourself read your selection before beginning to eat. And then “chew on the Word” along with your food, slowly and thoughtfully. • St. Benedict provides further suggestions in his chapter on “The Reader for the Week”:

Let there be complete silence. No whispering, no speaking–only the reader’s voice should be heard there. The brothers should by turn serve one another’s needs as they eat and drink, so that no one need ask for anything. If, however, anything is required, it should be requested by an audible signal of some kind rather than by speech… Brothers will read and sing, not according to rank, but according to their ability to benefit their hearers. (RB 38: 5-7, 12)

16 St. Benedict’s Abbey Fasting

In his chapter on “The Tools for Good Works” St. Benedict gives us the following tools: “Renounce yourself in order to follow Christ, discipline your body, do not pamper yourself, but love fasting” (RB 4:10-13). The reason why fasting is something that can be good for us, and therefore lovable, becomes clearer in his chapter on “The Observance of Lent”: During these days, therefore, we will add to the usual measure of our service something by way of private prayer and abstinence from food or drink, so that each of us will have something above the assigned measure to offer God of his own will with the joy of the Holy Spirit. In other words, let each one deny himself some food, drink, sleep, needless talking and idle jesting, and look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing. (RB 40:5-7) Fasting helps educate my desire for Easter, that is, to meet Christ’s living Presence in my life- to experience what nobody else but the Christian can experience- the experience of the resurrection. Christ himself said his disciples will fast when the bridegroom (Christ) is absent. Therefore, when I fast I am praying with my body, Come, Lord Jesus! If I fast with this longing for the Bridegroom then indeed it will be permeated with joy. Like the lover in the Song of Songs I go out to seek Him who seeks me. Joy is the fruit of this belonging.

SUGGESTIONS: • However you fast, freely take it up and remember why. If it feels like an imposition and just a duty to get through, stop and ask yourself why you are fasting. Ask for the Holy Spirit to enter into your fasting. To remind you for Whom you long in your fast. Pray, Come Holy Spirit. • Fast on Good Friday. The Church particularly has us fast on the day of our Lord’s death. It is a day of great longing to see Him who is so hidden from our sight in the incomprehensibility of the passion, when man (we) killed God whom he did not know. • The norms below from the USCCB articulate the basic requirements, but of course one can do more. St. Benedict recommends seeking counsel from a superior first, to curb the possibility of “presumption and vainglory” (RB 49:9). • “For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards. • Members of the Eastern Catholic Churches are to observe the particular law of their own sui iuris Church. If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the “paschal fast” to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection.” • Fast on Wednesday. Wednesday is a traditional day of fast because it is the day Judas betrayed our Lord. It is a day on which Christ’s full divinity and humanity was veiled from us and we long to see Him as He truly is. • Move breakfast to lunch each day. Breakfast is whenever you break-fast. Consider making lunch your first meal of the day. • Do not eat outside of communal times. In his chapter concerning “Brothers on a Short Journey” (RB 51) St. Benedict essentially tells the brothers: don’t eat out (unless it is a special circumstance determined by the Abbot) on pain of excommunication. Why? Because where and with whom we eat expresses the place and people we belong to. If we are not longing for the Bridegroom with all of our being- body, soul, and spirit- how will we recognize Him when he arrives? Similarly, it has been said that if you do not know how to fast you will not know how to feast.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 17 Art & Beauty

While St. Benedict is silent on the subject of contemplating art, the 1500+ year history of Benedictine monasticism has borne out the fact that art and beauty are very much at home with the monk and the monastery. Perhaps it is because, like the architecture of our monastery, art can make the invisible visible and point us to the infinite. Our own monastery walls are covered with works of art that are always there as an invitation to enter into what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls “the mysterious encounter known as prayer” (CCC 2567). The artistic genius gives shape and form to this encounter and so helps us more readily stand in awe before the mystery of God.

For this reason throughout the booklet you will find the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), especially drawn from his cycle on the life of Christ on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. The genius of Giotto expresses that mysterious meeting of heaven and earth revealed in the Incarnation when God, the inexpressible beyond which our hearts long for, became flesh, became one of us and so became touchable, knowable. In Giotto’s faces and figures the sublime sweetness and grace of heaven and the deep pathos of our human experience become one.

This is also why in the resources below we have a link to a pdf booklet of meditations on three different works of music which plumb the depths of the Paschal Mystery: Mozart’s Requiem, De Victoria’s , and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. The meditations are from Servant of God Luigi Giussani, an Italian priest who was known for his appreciation of art and beauty as a privileged place to encounter Christ. He wrote,

I began to feel enthralled by this music that seems — and often is — always the same, as a continuous repetition. And yet one never tires of it, because it fathoms the horizon of the soul and the heart, filling them with light and warmth, as De Victoria’s Christian heart must have been when he wrote these Responsories for Holy Week.

SUGGESTIONS:

• Art: Pay attention to the paintings in this booklet: • Look at the details in each painting. Look at the faces, the hands, the gestures in each. What do they show? What do they point to? What invisible reality does it make visible? • Music: Read the meditation from the “Music and Meditations for Holy Week” pdf booklet out loud beforehand. Then listen in silence in one sitting, away from distractions, paying attention to the words and the music, using the commentary and art in the video to help you enter into it more. Here are links to recommended videos. • Wednesday: Listen to Mozart’s Requiem. • Holy Thursday: Listen to De Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories. • Holy Saturday: Listen to Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

18 St. Benedict’s Abbey Notes for each Day

The following pages are given as a space to center your meditation and reflection as we journey through each day of Holy Week. Each day has two pages: the first with a work of art to contemplate, the other with space to journal during your silence and prayer as well as to take notes during the conferences. Notes may be typed into the pdf directly or you can print these pages.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 19 20 St. Benedict’s Abbey Wednesday of Holy Week

5:00 PM | Vespers

7:00 PM | Greetings and Orientation

Immediately following orientation: Conference #1 - Introduction to Praying the Liturgy of the Hours Speaker: Br. Leven Harton, OSB Notes:

Suggestions:

Listen to Mozart’s Requiem after reading a meditation from the Music & Meditations resource.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 21 22 St. Benedict’s Abbey Holy Thursday

Silence and Lectio Divina | Journal

10:00 AM | Conference #2 - Communion: An Ever-Present Reality | Speaker: Fr. Meinrad Miller, OSB

3:00 PM | Lay Panel - They Make it a Place of Springs

7:30 PM | Mass of the Lord’s Supper Notes:

Suggestions:

• On this day Christ instituted His priesthood among us. Pray a rosary for your parish priest. Send him a letter or card and let him know you are praying for him. • Have a Seder Meal at home, see The Passover Meal: A Ritual for Christian Homes. • Listen to De Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories after reading a meditation from the Music & Meditations resource.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 23 24 St. Benedict’s Abbey Good Friday

Silence and Lectio Divina | Journal

10:00 AM | Conference #3 - The Joy of Full Surrender: Discovering Trials as Revelation Speaker: Fr. Simon Baker, OSB

3:00 PM | Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion Notes:

Suggestions:

• Pray the Way of the Cross. • Pray Tenebrae at Home with this resource.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 25 26 St. Benedict’s Abbey Holy Saturday

Silence and Lectio Divina | Journal

10:00 AM | Conference #4 - Entering the Silence that Changes Me | Speaker: Br. Leven Harton, OSB

3:00 PM | Monastic Panel - Let Them Prefer Nothing Whatever to Christ

8:30 PM | Easter Vigil Notes:

Suggestions:

• Listen to Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater after reading a meditation the Music & Meditations resource.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 27 28 St. Benedict’s Abbey Easter Sunday

5:00 PM - Vespers

8:15 AM | Conference #5 - The Resurrection: A Journey We Must Make | Speaker: Fr. Jay Kythe, OSB

10:00 AM | Mass of Easter Sunday Notes:

Suggestions:

• Have a festive meal with your family and friends in person or with a video chat. Call someone who is alone and wish them a Happy Easter.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 29 Living Holy Week with the Heart of a Child

A Resource for Parents and Children

We hear our Lord say in the Gospel of Matthew, “Truly I tell you unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). Therefore, the suggestions we share below for entering into Holy Week with children are, in a real way, for all of us, whatever our age. We are grateful to our friend Rossella Carone for sharing these, borne out of her experience as a Montessori teacher, accompanying children in their journey of faith. She spoke on our panel of lay people on Holy Thursday, entitled “They Make it a Place of Springs”, which included lay people in various circumstances witnessing to God’s power to make the bitter valley of these times a place of life. We pray for all of us that this is a time in which, by the grace of the Good Shepherd who knows all our needs, we allow ourselves to be changed and given the eyes of a child again.

Prayer for the Heart of a Child by Fr. Leonce de Grandmaison Resources for Parents Holy Mary, Mother of God, preserve in me the heart of a child, pure and clean like spring water; a simple heart that does not remain absorbed in its own sadness; a loving heart that freely gives with compassion; a faithful and generous heart that neither forgets good nor feels bitterness for any evil. Give me a sweet and humble heart that loves without asking to be loved in return, happy to lose itself in the heart of others, sacrificing itself in front of your Divine Son; a great and unconquerable heart, which no ingratitude can close and no indifference can tire; by a heart tormented by the glory of Christ, pierced by his love with a wound that will not heal until heaven. Amen.

30 St. Benedict’s Abbey Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

Sofia Cavalletti (1917-2011) developed the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, along with her colleague Gianna Gobbi, to help children have “an encounter with the living God”. Cavalletti taught that the child’s first exposure to the faith should be centered in the person of Jesus. From her research she found that the aspect of Christ that most speaks to the young child is Jesus the Good Shepherd, who calls his sheep by name, creating a personal relationship with Him; who lays down his life for the sheep, nurtures and protects them. Because of this emphasis on Jesus the Good Shepherd, through this method, children soon realize that He is the center of the Christian faith. The Atrium of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a specially prepared environment in which the furnishings are scaled to the size of the child. In this space children and adults live together a religious experience which facilitates participation in the wider community of the family, the church and other social spheres. The atrium is a place of prayer, in which work and study spontaneously become meditation, contemplation and prayer. The atrium is a place in which the only teacher is Christ; both children and adults place themselves in a listening stance before his Word and seek to penetrate the mystery of the liturgical celebration. From the National Association of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Resource Contents

Prayer Ideas for Living Holy Week Suggestions for each day Suggestions for participating in Liturgies Lectio Divina with Children Additional Resources

Rossella Carone was trained and served as a 6-12 Montessori teacher, working for two years at a school offering the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium in Ave Maria, Florida. She lives with her husband in Pennsylvania where she is currently working on a master’s degree in Secondary Science Education at the Pennsylvania State University.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 31 Ideas for living Holy Week

The following are ideas that you can use at home to help your family in living Holy Week. You don’t want to force your children, so live everything as a proposal. The following are things that were done by some children, so perhaps your children will like them. Involve them as much as possible in the preparation, this will help them to be more excited about what you are proposing. Propose as much as possible what is personally helpful to you in living Holy Week. If things don’t go as you expected it is ok- welcome your children as they are. • Preparing a prayer table at home (see this video on how to do this) • Treating the prayer table as we would treat the church during the Triduum.You can use a cloth, a napkin. You can change the color during the days. The children can light the candle when you pray.

Each day of the week you will change what is on the table. You can process with the children bringing the items. Each member of the family will bring something. You can sing a song or hymn as you process. You can start in a place of your house where you have a table to prepare the items, walk around the house and end at the prayer table. Because it will be a procession, one person at the time will place the item he is carrying on the prayer table.

Suggestions for Each Day

Holy Thursday

• Holy Thursday is purple. Place a purple napkin or cloth on the prayer table and a loaf of bread (you can prepare the loaf of bread with the children the day before or the same day), along with the other usual things that go on the table. • Tell the story of bread: gather the family around the table, tell the kids the story of how bread is made: the days of the seed, the work of the grower, the rain, everything until you get the bread. Then simply say that for love Jesus transforms this bread into His body. At the end of the story take the loaf of bread you made together with the children, then break it and give a piece to everybody. We share it with one another. • Wash each others’ feet. • Bury the Alleluia cards (remind them that this is a word you do not say during the Lent): each person in the family can take a card and write “Alleluia” on it, draw Jesus resurrected, flowers, write verses from the Bible, etc. Put cards in a bag, close it, put in a pot, and soil is placed on top of it and this is left there until Easter. On Easter day or at Midnight the cards are taken out and Alleluiah can be said again.

32 St. Benedict’s Abbey Suggestions for Each Day

Good Friday

• Friday is red. Place a red napkin or cloth, place a cross on the prayer table • Do the Stations of the Cross at home. You can tell your children: “Let’s think about what Jesus did for us when he died and then we can think of His presence in our house.” Put 14 candles throughout the house and put something simple at each (piece of cloth for Veronica, etc..) • Children could draw the stations of the cross to put at each station

• Make a crown of thorns with foam and sticks (above, third from left). Every sacrifice or act of love a person in the family does for Jesus that person secretly takes a stick out of the crown.

Holy Saturday

Saturday is a day of silence. Take everything out of the prayer table. You can propose to your children to have a day of silence as a family. Silence doesn’t mean you don’t talk at all, but you only say the important things- this is a day when we are essential. Silence means staying in front of God.

Easter Sunday

Sunday is white. Place a white tablecloth, flowers, the candle, the Bible, the Alleluiah cards, an image of Jesus Risen on the prayer table. Another idea could be to place a figure of Jesus in a cloth and then in a tomb. At Midnight on Easter the children could take out Jesus, open the Allelujah Cards, and you could process as a family to bring them to the prayer table. Suggestions for Participating in Liturgies

You can follow the liturgies online with the monks. If you do it, watch it live. If you watch it online sit as you would sit in the church, don’t be on the couch. This will help the attention of the children. Your children may get more out of praying around a table with family than watching the liturgy online. In many rural areas of the world, Catholics, who don’t have the possibility to physically attend mass due to the lack of priests, gather with their community to pray together the “Celebration of the Word.” In place of watching the liturgies online, you might want to consider doing something similar in your home: have a daily “Celebration of the Word” every day during Holy Week around the prayer table. Judge what you want to do based on your children’s attention.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 33 Lectio Divina with Children

Lectio Divina (or Sacred Reading) is an ancient practice in which one reads and meditates over scripture. You could have Lectio Divina with your children in the morning. This is something you want to propose if it is helpful to you. We can witness only what we live, and the more we find something helpful, the more we have the desire to share it with the people we love. • The best is for each person to have a Bible to underline and read from it. Also give to each child a beautiful notebook. Tell them that that is where they can write the Word of God. They can decorate it beautifully. • Make with your children a schedule to read the readings, the Psalm and the Gospel. You can assign longer readings to older children, but try to involve all of them as much as possible. The younger ones can read the Psalm or verses of the Psalm taking turns. You can ask them what they prefer. • Start with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, asking Him to come to your minds so that you can understand that Word, to come to your hearts so that you can love It, and to come to your whole being and will, so that you may have the strength to put that Word into practice. • Start reading as decided in the schedule. • Go back to read a second time, but this time the adult can read, so that the children can take notes and underline on their Bible what they think God is telling them, what He is calling their attention to. • Explain together what happens in the first reading and what they think God was telling to them, giving them turns. They may start seeing connections between the Reading, the Psalm and the Gospel. • Allow time to respond with a prayer or to say it in silence in their heart. Everybody will have a journal, at the end give them time to write down what God is telling them and a resolution they have. • It may be a long prayer, so you can just read the Gospel if you don’t have time. Also skip readings if they are not appropriate to the age of your children. • In some families the parents can read from the beginning. Later, when children understand how it works, you can start involving them. The following are pictures from a 7 and a 8 year old.

34 St. Benedict’s Abbey Additional Resources

If these suggestions are of interest to you and you want to learn more we recommend the many resources that have been generously made available by The United States Association of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd on their website: COVID-19 Coronavirus Response & Praying with Children.

Under the tab “For Families- Parent Pages” you will find many useful resources including: Preparing a Prayer Space at Home The Gift of Silence Observation as a Tool for Learning for Parenting Living with an Horarium And more suggestions for each day of Holy Week, starting with The .

Holy Week Retreat 2020 35 Appendix

Here find further resources we have gathered together to help us lives these days in the memory of Christ.

36 St. Benedict’s Abbey Retreat Resources

Liturgical Texts:

Liturgy of the Hours Resources: • Abbey Liturgy of the Hours for Holy Week

• Shorter Liturgy of the Hours Triduum Liturgies • Abbey Triduum Liturgy Guide • Holy Week Celebrations of the Word

Additional Resources • Pope Francis’s Extraordinary Urbi et Orbi • Music & Meditations resource • Mozart’s Requiem. • De Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories. • Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater • The Way of the Cross • Living Holy Week with the Heart of a Child • Pope Francis’ Easter Urbi et Orbi

Appendix

Here find further resources we have gathered together to help us lives these days in the memory of Christ.

Holy Week Retreat 2020 37 Notes

38 St. Benedict’s Abbey The images used in this booklet are from Giotto di Bondone’s (1266-1337) series of frescoes on the life of Christ on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy.

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