Easter Friday 2026: Making Sense of Saint Brigid's Day to Easter
4:45 PM Friday.
Surprise Greetings, Duffy in Vermont! You probably weren't expecting to hear from me again quite so soon, and I am writing to you this time from a different blog than usual. This blog is New Monasticism with Jonathan, not Jesus with Jonathan. I'm writing you because I have been looking back over my Lent blog posts, and it looks to me like I had a fairly significant spiritual healing this time around the liturgical calendar, almost like the growth spurt of a sprout or seedling. Before I get any farther into what might seem like self-congratulation, let me quickly say that I believe this growth spurt happened because I received just the right encouragement from my support network, including my faith-based contacts. In particular, I think my intensive collaboration with you - first from Advent to Epiphany, and then from Quinquagesima to Easter - has been a pivotal stimulus.
It's clear, looking back on our liturgical year 2026 collaboration with some Easter Friday hindsight, that Quinquagesima Sunday in particular was a turning point. I clearly recall researching Saint Brigid with deep fascination that day. I learned that she is Ireland’s patroness saint, that she founded a double monastery for men and women, and that the day celebrates Irish creativity, feminine energy, and ancient traditions (including Imbolc). I felt a very strong message from the Trinity and from Saint Brigid that I, too, might be called to help found or co-found an American New Monastic Order for women and men.
I don't live in an observatory, of course, but in a small second-floor bungalow attic with limited viewing windows. But I am not complaining. On the contrary, I treasure all the more those special moments when I am able to observe such celestial wonders from my blessed vantage point. Sitting on my meditation cushion in front of my Imbolc candle, I turned my attention to some inspiring music and beautiful visuals on YouTube:
I was so impressed by the music and the moment that I left a comment under the video:
"American here in upstate New York. Listening to this soundtrack at 5:30 PM EST on Feb 1, 2026, while praying to Saint Brigid for world and inner peace. My Imbolc candle is lit and I am watching the Snow Moon rise in the east. Candlemas tomorrow. Thank you for this!"
During this Saint Brigid's day prayer session, I was overcome by the conviction I had received a genuine message from God to move forward with the founding of a New Monastic Order. This led, among other things, to my 12 February 2026 blog post titled Order of the Vegan Heart? I don't know yet if I am just riding out a wave of spiritual grandiosity - I can understand why Sister Laurel might be inclined to say that I am being presumptuous - or if this is a much more firmly tempered conclusion.
At any rate, I decided in the immediate aftermath of that 12 February blog entry that I needed to firm up my idiosyncratic personal monastic horarium (my weekly calendar) first, on the one hand, and that I needed to take a deep dive into the Rule of Saint Benedict second, on the other.
As far as my personal rule is concerned, I didn't adhere that closely to the finely detailed Lent 2026 Horologion I proposed on Shrove Tuesday, but I did make reasonably good progress this Lent laying down the conceptual foundation and habitual temporal orientation that might work for my long-term personal horarium. I currently have twelve daily watches and one weekly watch dedicated to the Friday sunset-Saturday sunset Sabbath. I probably need to add a second weekly watch for the Lord's Day on Sunday.
Regarding my urge to take a deep dive into the Rule of Saint Benedict starting on 2 May 2026 - strictly following the schedule for its summer reading in Benedictine monasteries - it's intriguing to note that May 2 is the day after Beltane is celebrated in Ireland and Scotland! Saint Brigid, in contrast to Saint Benedict, followed a Celtic Christian "Dual Day" tradition, rooted in the practices of the early Jerusalem Church, that kept the Saturday Sabbath as a rest day, and observed the Lord's Day on Sunday. Saint Benedict's Rule and most of the Catholic monasteries do not observe a Saturday Sabbath to this day.
To provide a solid backdrop for my deep dive into Saint Benedict's Rule, I've been writing here about The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality by Greg Peters. Chapter 12 of this book features a masterful summary of the Protestant rebuttal to my monastic impulses, as spearheaded by Luther and Calvin. I may have to answer the Protestant rebuttal (if I can) before I take any monastic vows, including annual or Lustrum (five-year) vows, even if they are only non-denominational lay hermit vows.
Well, my friend Duffy, it's 6:47 PM and we are getting close to Sabbath candle-lighting at 7:14 PM. I pray you have had a good week, that you have a good weekend, and that we are able to talk again soon. If your experience has been anything like mine, this first week of Easter hasn't so much been an abrupt end of the work we did in Lent (and catapult through a celestial Easter Sunday portal into a completely new world) as it has a time of incremental integration and stock-taking.
As you can imagine, I am very curious if you have decided to remain permanently vegan on some days of the week, but I don't want you to feel pressured in that regard on my account. You must listen to your conscience and follow the guidance of your Diocese. God sent the Israelites quail as well as manna in Exodus 16. If the manna that gets us from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land of climate stabilization by 2060 is a whole-foods, plant-based diet, then the quail that God has sent to help us reach the Promised Land is processed vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian foods, including lab-grown animal proteins.
Thanks for reading. Have a blessed weekend. Talk to you soon.
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