It's a bluebell Easter. The weather feels like the onset of summer, with a high today of 81F --- and I am not complaining. I'm just back from a lovely, meandering walk with the dog and about to start cooking our dinner in a similarly leisurely fashion.
We had a marvelous night at the Easter Vigil: Brother Tobiah kindling the fire in the dark outside the church door, a moment which always feels so weirdly ancient and druidic to me --- but druids whose eyes are opened to the true Sacrifice, splintering, forever, the old economy of bloody sacrifice even as the veil of the temple is shivered in twain. The Mass was beautiful, of course, from the advancing of the single candle into the dark church to the pealing out of the bells to announce the resurrection, to the baptism and confirmations that followed, to the Eucharist itself. The dearness of the monks and the current crop of students was part of the whole fabric, though of course I could have been anywhere, at any Easter Vigil, that oldest liturgy in all Christendom, and it would in its essentials have been just the same. Same resurrection, same newness of life, same shattering of the power of death, same world whose maker continually makes it new. Same old, same old. Same new everywhere, every year.
Afterwards we went to the party for the newly baptized and confirmed, which the monks wisely just integrated with their own party. Often there have been two parties, one somewhere on campus for students, and one in the refectory for the monks and whomever they decide to invite. This year it was all one party, and that was a good move. I spent a good bit of time talking to Br. Gabriel, the newest novice, whom I remember as an undergraduate and of whom I am very fond. Last Easter he was a brand-new postulant; this Easter he's been almost a year now in the habit and his religious name. I asked him how life was treating him, and he said, "It's good to be a monk." I also had a chance to catch up with my dear Br. Bede, who is in his first semester of teaching English in the college, after finishing a master's degree. He too seemed to be flourishing, happy and contented and loving his students. There's a new young postulant who entered during Lent --- I haven't had a chance to meet him yet, but it's good to see the numbers grow, and grow in young men. Anyway, it was a delightful time, everyone feeling festive, with a good bit of book talk.
We went to bed far too late and got up far too early, for how late we'd gone to bed. I might have to go out and sleep in a chair in the sun after dinner. But first I ought to cook the dinner . . .
Wearing today:
*Secondhand Eileen Fisher pink merino tank (not really visible, but there), bought January 2023
*Secondhand Birkenstock Bali sandals, bought February 2023
This is the other dress I fasted from all through Lent, because it doesn't go with purple. I love it, and it's a delight to reunite with it. I can tell it's going to be a spring and summer staple, though it's really a great dress all year round.
I did put on last night's cardigan to walk the dog, but I didn't need it.
And now to commence those dinner preparations, which won't commence themselves. A happy Easter to all!