Despite the pandemic and the lockdown that ensued, we celebrated the Easter Triduum, i.e., Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday and the Easter Vigil that followed, with greater solemnity. Because we are offering to God everything in union with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, our liturgical celebrations were all the more meaningful. We feel with all our brothers and sisters in the whole world who are face to face with this Coronacrisis. Though enclosed and seemingly in a permanent “lockdown and quarantine,” as contemplatives, we share their fear, suffering, and uncertainty. We follow the recommendations and guidelines of the government religiously. We continue to hope and pray that God will soon deliver us from this crisis.

So, despite the restrictions, we celebrated Easter Vigil in a solemn though modified way. And when the priest solemnly intoned:  “Lumen Christi!” as he raised the Easter Candle lit by the new flame that he had just blessed, it moved many of us to tears.

Jesus lives! He is risen from the dead!

And so we felt the assurance that our Lord is with us and will not abandon us. His loving hand is in this crisis that we all are undergoing.

Thus we have the joy of greeting you all a very Happy and Blessed Easter! We have every reason to celebrate: Our God is alive! He is “the Light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”(John 1:3)