Magical Moments: Lenten Lauds

You know when you discover something magical, something that really sings to your soul, and you want to wrap it up and bring it home?

I felt that way at Mt. Calvary in Santa Barbara listening to Lauds.

I attend Good Samaritan Episcopal up in UTC, but when I heard St. Paul’s was having a retreat at Mt. Calvary last June, I knew I had to go. It would be my first time since the fire and their move to their new location.

And so I rediscovered monastic prayer. I say “rediscover” because the first time I frequently got lost and was so busy trying to get it that it didn’t click with me.

But last June it did. At the last session, we debriefed about our experiences and I exclaimed how much I’d loved chanting the offices (Mt. Calvary does Lauds, Vespers and Compline: aka morning, evening, bedtime prayers) and wanted to keep doing it.

Karla Holland-Moritz bubbled up, all excited and of the same mind, and we exchanged emails.

Before I knew it, I had gathered a quartet of women who loved to chant: Karla, my Good Sam friend Verdery Kassebaum, and Helena Chan, also of St. Paul’s. We met in each other’s homes once a month to chant different offices and different versions of those offices and after some months of this, we settled upon the simplest, and the one closest to my heart. It is the version the Mt. Calvary monks use: “Lauds and Vespers” put together by the Camaldolese monks in Big Sur.

We wanted to share this beyond our small group and after a one-off at Good Sam, we were set to chant Lauds in the Cathedral’s chapel every Saturday morning in Lent. We first chanted it on March 19, and my, was it magical.

The acoustics are just amazing in the chapel... it felt as if our soft chanting slowly filled the chapel like water bubbling up into a well. Our praises of chanted psalms felt full of a quiet joy. It was my turn to lead the prayers of the people, and it seemed like the prayers filled not just the chapel, but the entire cathedral.

It was that magic moment unwrapped and recreated all over again.

It’s my hope that even if you find it a bit confusing, you’ll persist and let it become something that will resonate with you and with God, like our chanted words did last Saturday.

Lauds is chanted in the Cathedral every Saturday during Lent at 8:00am. The last chance is on April 16. I hope it’s a tradition we can continue not just at the cathedral, but also in other parishes.

Has there been some magical moment that you’ve wanted to capture and recreate? Did you succeed?


Leanne Shawler is a member of Good Samaritan Episcopal Churchand works there part-time as Communications Director. Because she was born and raised Australian, other magical moments include the smell of rain-washed eucalyptus and Tim Tams.