Dear Benedict
‘Alleluia’ is one of those words for particular times and seasons, you write in chapter 15 of the Rule. In my own tradition it is not used that much, only for particularly lengthy Easter hymns from what I recall. But it’s a short word and it can be a fun one.
My daughter’s preferred response to me on social media is ‘Woot!’ I think ‘Woot!’ is a sort of ‘Alleluia!’ so maybe I’ll try replacing ‘Woot!’ with ‘Alleluia!’ and vice versa.
As you include ‘Alleluia!’ in responses at certain times of the year, so you exclude it from others, all of which gets a bit difficult to remember. As a community it might be easier to do that: a shared remembering.
COVID19 has given us much to remember and not much to ‘Woot!’ about. Last night, Greater Manchester (the boundary of which is 1100 yards away from where we live, according to my husband) entered Tier 3 of the current COVID19 restrictions. I didn’t hear many alleluias, except perhaps a few faint and ironic ones.
From Easter to Pentecost the community observing the Rule would have had much to celebrate and so Alleluia might have come more readily into worship. But now in gloomy October with grey days and bleak news there are fewer alleluias. So what if we started saying Alleluia now, and I don’t mean ironically?
Let’s hear a few more Alleluias. It might remind us who’s we are and who we follow. It might lift us from the mundane and the murky days. It might serve as a word of recommitment to the risen life and the kindom of peace and justice to which we are called. To some it might be liturgical anarchy but to others it might be a prayer, a sigh, a song.
A worshipful response: Christ is Risen, Alleluia!
Alleluia!
From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.