Dear friends,

As we celebrate this beautiful feast of Christ's Resurrection, we would like to wish you a very happy Easter! As the 50 days of this Paschal season unfold, each new day brings reason to search for the holy joy and peace we are promised in Christ. Jesus's presence and victory over death might not always be immediately obvious in our lives or in our world: St. Mary Magdalen mistook the risen Lord for the cemetery's gardener (Jn 20:5), other disciples thought Him rather clueless pilgrim (Lk 24:18), and St. Paul had to reassure the early Christians that their hope in Christ was for more than "this life only" (1 Cor 15:19). Yet, as the Prologue of John proclaims, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall never overcome it" (Jn 1:5). In the monastery, we place our lives on this hope and faith. As we live out the Paschal mystery through our baptism and vows, we are then able to witness to this hope for others, most particularly through our community's public celebration of the liturgy.

Our Easter Vigil this year was graced with clear and star-filled skies, and we were happy to welcome many guests for our liturgies throughout the Triduum. One young woman from the city actually camped further up the Valley in order to be near and participate more fully in our monastery's celebration of the Triduum. Such dedication, and testimonies of guests' encounters with the Lord in our chapel, offers us encouragement and hope as we continue to pray for suitable land on which to build a new guesthouse for monastic hospitality and retreatants. We hope to be able to share more on this in our upcoming summer newsletter, and ask your continued prayers for this intention.

Please be assured of our daily prayers for you and your loved ones, and for all the beautiful prayer intentions that you send to us. May the Risen Lord grant us peace in our days, and increase our confidence that His "love is stronger than death" (Song 8:6-7).  

God bless,
your sisters of Queen of Peace Monastery