Christus vincit! An Easter wish

As ever, while Lent sometimes seemed to creep by, the holy days of the Easter Triduum passed in a whirlwind of events, activities and emotions. From the intimacy and promise of the Last Supper, via the agony in the garden and the horror of the Lord’s Passion, all the way to the unimaginable wonder of the empty tomb.

“Do not be afraid!
I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.
He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples,
‘He has been raised from the dead,
and he is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him.’
Behold, I have told you.”

What we thought was an ending, what we still too often think as a conclusion, is in fact the very opposite: Jesus is risen, and thus something new begins. We have not reached the end of a story, but began a completely new one.

The tomb is empty, Christ is not there. Let’s not linger where life ended, but go forward to the fullness of life, victorious over death.

A blessed Easter!

Back to square one for the monks on Schiermonnikoog

A – hopefully temporary – setback for the four Cistercian monks on Schiermonnikoog, as they decided to abandon their building plans for a new monastery. Initially, as I wrote before, the plans for a low building with a single light tower was met with approval by the island’s inhabitants. The monks cite “serious and harmful division” caused by the plans as the reason to abandon them.

^A impression of the monastery according to the now abandoned plans

Since their arrival in early 2015, the monks have expressed no greater wish than to be able to live in peace with the population of Schiermonnikoog. Over the course of the past years they have endeavoured to introduce themselves to the people and be as open as possible about their plans. That is why the building plans were not even formal yet when the monks abandoned them just before Easter.

The criticism against the plans focussed on the ease with which the monks were seemingly able to formalise their plans – Schiermonnikoog is a national park, so having building plans approved can be a lengthy and bureaucratic process – as well as the height of the tower, planned to rise some 14 meters above the dunes in an area otherwise marked by holiday homes. Somewhat more surprising, the monks were also criticised for the luxury of their planned accomodations…

The change of plans does not mean that the monks plan to leave the island. Soon they will be looking at alternate plans – and possibly an alternate location on the Island as well.