Easter Day found us in the Church at 4:00 a.m. to sing Matins, Lauds and Prime. After Prime, a first High Mass was sung at which the seminary received communion…
We returned at 10:45 for the second High Mass at which I was again the cross-bearer. The ceremony did not finish until 1:30. Vespers began at 4:00 p.m., then the sermon, then benediction, in short we did not get back to the seminary until 8:30. Adding up all these hours you will see it works out at twelve, but you would have a job to work out the amount of happiness I felt during this time that seemed to me to flash by like a minute.
I was so happy, in the superb Temple I found myself in, at the sounds of joy that re-echoed in my ears and penetrated to the depths of my heart;
Letter to his mother, 4 April 1809, EO XIV n 50
The joy of the Resurrection! That special joy that seems to carry us, so much so that Eugene did not seem to have a problem being in Church for 12 hours or so over the course of the day.
The sounds of that joy which penetrated his heart.
Easter joy – this is the root joy which abides in us for all time, our beings drenched and permeated with it, often without our realising or recognizing it.
Good Friday and the Cross – searing, humiliating, abandoning death – this too we carry deep within us – not fully overshadowing life because it is there; supported, held up and carried by the joy.
Waiting – a quiet and often heavy time. I think of Mary and those who waited at the foot of the Cross, waiting with, waiting for and then as they buried Jesus- simply waiting.
Charlie Donovan OMI died yesterday. We had been waiting, praying, holding him in our hearts. Blessed relief mixed with sorrow. Those with him sang “Salve Regina” – he was carried with that. Only days from celebrating Easter and I think of the triumphant joy that greeted Charlie as he came face to face with Jesus, with Eugene and with all who have gone before him. A new Easter joy for Charlie. It is that joy that runs deep within us that will carry us in the coming days as we say goodbye to Charlie.
I think of Eugene waiting and with the sounds of joy that re-echoed in his ears and penetrated the depths of his heart – as he greeted Charlie, face-to-face in a new way. I can picture quite vividly Charlie’s smile and joy.