Tornadoes & Tranquility –
April 19, 2026 –
In this corner of the world, the liturgical calendar and the seasonal cycles tend to compliment one another well, and sometimes rather emphatically!
This year, as Lent tumbled into Passion Week, then the Triduum into Eastertide, snow and chill alternated with warmth and bursts of light – as well as occasional flashes of lightning, shouts of thunder, reservoir-filling rains, and – get this – FIVE tornado warnings within just one week! And it was the week of our annual community retreat, to boot.
But while Easter cards are usually all bunnies and daffodils, wasn’t Christ’s Resurrection, well, quite earth-shattering? Didn’t he break the bonds of death and conquer hell and arise both completely himself and somehow all new? Considering all that, our moments of renewing tranquility intermingled with crashes of bigger-than-us Risen Reality have seemed quite apropos – even Providential, perhaps.
Fr. Isaac Slater, ocso, our recent, excellent retreat director, would certainly suggest as much. He used the classic text, Abandonment to Divine Providence, as the foundation of his daily conferences, which were really beautiful glimpses into his own radical, fresh, and devoted personal practice of continuous surrender to the all-good, all-loving, all-light will of God.
After Vespers in the Library one evening – where we were obliged to wait out the several storms – he regaled us with lively stories of his college days, his current brother monks, and his beloved desert fathers. A contemplative truly steeped in the Divine Providence, he helped to turn an untimely tornado warning into an impromptu delight!
(Oh and…speaking of impromptu delights – Can we please just sneak in a snapshot of this year’s lamb cake, sporting bunny ears?!)
Now, after all the whirlwind of wily weather and Paschal mystery, retreat profundity and holy frivolity, this post is going to press as Emmaus Sunday draws to a quiet close. The sky is clear blue, the sun is setting softly upon vibrantly green hills (all that rain!), the crabapple tree outside Church is all abud in pastel pink, the Compline bell calmly begins to ring…
And so it is, like in the breaking of the bread, sometimes we get to see him as he is – Jesus always loving us into being, always working all things together for the good, always making all things new.
Alleluia!
