How the monks prepare for major feast days

At Mother of Redeemer Monastery, the days leading up to a major feast unfold with a quiet, deliberate rhythm. Walk through the cloister in the week before Christmas or Easter, and you will find the monks chanting the hours earlier, fasting more strictly, and gathering for extra periods of silent adoration. The work of preparation is not a last-minute scramble but a slow spiritual crescendo that begins weeks ahead.

For Catholics in Australia, who often celebrate Christmas under summer skies in Adelaide or Brisbane, the rhythm of a Northern Hemisphere monastic calendar may seem far removed from everyday life. Yet the universal Church binds believers together across hemispheres. When the monks in Louisiana sing the Exsultet at the Easter Vigil, they join voices raised in cathedrals from Sydney to Perth, where the faithful also gather to welcome the Resurrection.

The monks understand that feast days are not simply dates on a wall calendar. Each one marks a mystery of faith that deserves careful spiritual preparation. Just as a pianist practices scales before a concert, the community prepares its heart, voice, and home before the great celebrations. The work draws from the ancient Rule of Saint Benedict, the writings of monastic fathers, and the lived experience of a community dedicated to prayer.

In the sections that follow, we step behind the cloister walls to see how the Olivetan Benedictine monks of Plaisance ready themselves for the year's major feasts. Each practice is offered here as an invitation for anyone, anywhere, to enter into these sacred seasons more deeply.

The long lead time of anticipation

Preparation for a feast day often begins a full month in advance. The abbot gathers the community to announce the approaching solemnity, and the schedule of prayer, work, and meals adjusts gradually. Sundays during the lead-up period take on a brighter tone in the chanting, and the daily readings from the breviary shift to focus on the coming mystery.

This long lead time echoes the way Australian parishes mark the seasons of Advent and Lent. Parishes in Melbourne and Sydney often host speaker series, retreat days, and communal penance services in the weeks before Christmas or Easter. The monks apply that same patient intentionality to their cloistered life, trusting that grace ripens slowly when given room to grow.

By starting early, the community avoids the exhaustion that comes from cramming spiritual work into a single day. The monks learn to live toward the feast rather than rush toward it, and this becomes a teacher for the whole heart.

Rehearsing the sacred liturgy

The liturgical celebrations of major feasts require careful preparation of texts, music, and ceremonial gestures. Several weeks before Christmas, for instance, the monks gather to rehear the chant settings of the Mass and the Divine Office. Cantors practice the intonations, the schola rehearses the responsories, and those who read at Mass polish the proclamation of the readings.

For monks who have spent decades chanting the psalms, the preparation feels less like learning something new and more like fine-tuning a beloved instrument. Even so, the work demands humility. A slipped note or an uncertain gesture can pull a mind away from prayer, so the brothers spend hours refining each small detail.

Visitors who arrive for the celebration often notice how smoothly the liturgy flows, but few realise how much invisible work precedes the public moment. That hidden preparation is part of the offering itself.

Fasting and simplified meals

Fasting has always been part of how the Church prepares for great feasts. In the monastery, the fast intensifies as the feast approaches. On the eve of a major solemnity, the monks typically take only one simple meal, and meat is set aside for the entire preparatory week. The refectory becomes a place of quiet anticipation rather than conversation.

Australians who observe Lenten fasting will recognise something of this rhythm. Parishes in Hobart and Perth often coordinate communal fasting intentions, with families giving up a favourite food or meal as a form of solidarity. The monks carry that same spirit into their daily life, allowing physical hunger to remind them of the deeper hunger for God.

When the feast day finally arrives and the table is filled with festive fare, the joy of eating together carries the memory of the fast within it. The body remembers, and the soul gives thanks.

Extended hours of adoration

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is another cornerstone of monastic preparation. In the days before a major feast, the monks take turns keeping watch before the Eucharist through the night. One monk may sit in the chapel while his brothers sleep, offering silent prayer for the Church and the world.

This practice resonates with Australian Catholic life in surprising ways. Communities in Brisbane and Adelaide have begun organising overnight adoration vigils before major feasts, drawing young adults and families who want to mark the occasion with deeper prayer. The monastery model offers a centuries-old pattern that laypeople are rediscovering in their own parishes.

For the monks, these nocturnal hours are a form of spiritual labour. The weariness of staying awake becomes its own offering, joined to the vigilance the Gospel calls for in every generation.

Crafting the sacred environment

Feast days also call for the visible church to be prepared. The sacristan and his helpers spend days cleaning the chapel, polishing the brass, and arranging flowers with an artist's care. For solemnities like Christmas and Easter, greens and lights transform the worship space into a glimpse of heavenly glory.

In a country like Australia, where seasonal flowers differ so greatly from those of Europe or North America, this work takes on a local character. Lilies may give way to waratahs or native banksias, and the visual language of the feast is translated into the colours of the Southern Hemisphere.

The environment matters because human beings worship with their whole selves. A carefully prepared chapel lifts the heart, helping the monks enter more fully into the mystery they celebrate.

Reading and reflection

Beyond the liturgy, the monks also prepare intellectually. The community reads from commentators such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, whose writings continue to shape Benedictine life today. Those wishing to explore this heritage can learn more about Saint Bernard's influence on our spirituality.

Personal reading forms another layer. Each monk chooses a few texts to meditate on during the preparatory days, often drawing from the desert fathers, the Carmelite mystics, or contemporary spiritual writers. The goal is not academic study but contemplative absorption, letting the words sink deep into the heart.

This practice of reading also shapes how the monks understand their vocation. Holding ancient wisdom and present realities together in a single attentive gaze, the seasons of preparation offer space for that reflection.

Welcoming pilgrims and visitors

A feast day at the monastery is rarely a private affair. Pilgrims, oblates, and guests often travel to Plaisance to join the monks in prayer. In the days before the celebration, the guest master prepares hospitality, the kitchen team plans meals, and the grounds are readied to receive visitors.

This welcome extends across the oceans. Australians planning a pilgrimage to the United States sometimes include a stop at the monastery as part of a wider journey. The monks are honoured to receive them and to share in the universal joy of the feast.

Welcoming guests also requires spiritual preparation. The monks pray for those who will come, asking that each visitor may encounter Christ in the liturgy and the silence of the cloister. For those who sense a vocation to this way of life, exploring contemporary monastic life is often the first step on a longer journey.

The work of preparing for major feasts depends entirely on the stability of the monastic community. The chanting, the fasting, the vigil hours, and the welcome of pilgrims are sustained by the daily faithfulness of the monks and by the generosity of those who support them. Intercessory prayer in particular forms a quiet backbone of the monastery's life, as friends and benefactors carry the community's needs before the Lord. Those who feel drawn to this ministry are warmly invited to explore intercessory prayer.

If you would like to help the monks continue this ancient rhythm of preparation, your prayers and gifts make a real difference. Consider becoming a spiritual benefactor, scheduling a retreat at the monastery, or joining the monks in prayer through the livestream of the Divine Office. To support the planned chapel expansion or to arrange a visit, please reach out through the monastery website and share in the joy of these sacred seasons.