Alleluia!

Alleluia! It’s a joy to be able to say that again. After the days of Lent, culminating in the sorrow and suffering of Christ’s Passion and Crucifixion, here we are on the other side, marveling at the miracle of the gloriously risen Christ. Alleluia!

Lent and Easter have had a special meaning for me this year. I was elected as 18th prioress of our community just as Lent began. This made for a very different Lent yet, in its own special way, it mirrored my feelings and experience. I was honored and excited to be called forth to serve by my sisters, while at the same time a whole desert of new responsibilities and cares seemed to spread out before me. It was a time when I consciously had to stop myself from feeling I needed to get the right answer and solutions all on my own. I started to learn how very supportive it is to take counsel, listen to suggestions, and then decide. I gained a heightened sense of the collective wisdom of my community. I also learned that the Spirit is always there for me if I open myself and let her blow through me. I realized I was absolutely right in perceiving that when I see myself as doing it alone, the office of prioress seems overwhelming, but if I do it with my sisters, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is a sense of peace and calmness.

Alleluia! I am grateful that, in this Easter week, I can honestly say that I feel, as Isaiah says, “confident and unafraid” as I look to the future because I am sure that “God is my rock” and the Spirit is active in our lives as we live out the Gospel of the Risen Christ, here and now, in Central Minnesota. Alleluia!

Karen Rose, OSB

Photo: Sacred Heart Chapel during Holy Week and Easter, taken by Amanda Hackett