During the three days of the Easter Triduum, every year, for many years now, the Sisters of Charity have proposed an experience of living together, sharing, prayer and service.
During these three days, a group of young people live together with the sisters, housed in the premises of St Joseph House, sharing rooms for the night, bathrooms and some household services. This year the theme for the young people was ‘In every heartbeat…I seek Your face’.
After breakfast together, the mornings are spent in personal prayer and reflection on the Word; we also rehearse songs together for the celebrations. Yes, because the service performed is to animate with song and music the celebrations on Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the San Vittore prison in Milan. In just a few hours we are ‘miraculously’ transformed into a real choir, and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we really succeed!
The celebrations take place in the afternoon and are very touching and heartfelt.
In the evening, after sharing the meal, we experience moments of prayer, characterised by recollection, expectation and silence, in Eucharistic adoration, in commemoration of Jesus’ Passion, but also in a spirit of celebration and joy at His Resurrection.
This year, we have been accompanied in our reflection by characters from the Gospel who went through darkness before meeting Jesus; one of these was Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews who experiences a tormented night and goes to the Lord, who presents him with hope, a lovable God who enlightens us and tells us to put love first. It is the light of this love that enables us to see clearly the face of God, which we often fail to recognise.
We experienced one of the most profound moments of sharing on this aspect, focusing on the inaccurate vision we sometimes have of the Lord, and recovering His true face in the words of the Gospel.
Many were the living experiences that characterised this Triduum, and many were the encounters we had the opportunity to have.
What we have lived is an extraordinary experience that we wish everyone to live, because it changes the perception of oneself and of others, the perception of the place of prison and of those inside…
Being able to meet prisoners without judging them, made us experience how it is possible and good to live relationships by accepting each other for who we are and in our mystery and beauty, and not for what we look like or what we have done, giving each other the hope of a new beginning.
In short, this Triduum allows for a change, a passage… an Easter!
Chiara Maria, Easter 2024
