Our former Abbot, now Bishop Hugh of Aberdeen, used to say that the celebration of Easter is the most important event in the monastic year.
This year we were helped in our celebration by the presence of young people who filled our guest houses for Holy Week and especially the Triduum. Two of them had asked, by way of exception, to be received into the Catholic Church and confirmed at our Paschal Vigil. They were Grace (Benedicta) Tseng of Durham University, and Ethan (Hieronymus) Kim of St. Andrews University. Fr. Abbot performed this ceremony, with a special faculty from Bishop Hugh.
Our guests assisted at the main liturgies with serving, also with reading, and playing the organ; and one sang a part in the Passion narrative.
This year our Paschal Vigil began at 11.00 and ended at 2.15 in the morning. But as one of our guests remarked, there was not a boring moment in it. Easter night was favoured with fair weather; but on Easter Day rain meant we had to abandon our usual pre-Mass procession. No rain could dampen our Easter joy, though, or prevent the continuation of all our Easter celebrations, in praise and thanksgiving, in song, in silence, in liturgy, and in fraternal festivity within the monastic community.