Memory and Mourning: The Passion in Our Lenten and Easter Journey
Led by Grammy® Award winner and Director of the Notre Dame Folk Choir Dr. J.J. Wright, experience The Passion, a new artistic production combining Scripture with original poetry and set to original music. Through Christ’s Passion, we learn to encounter suffering and incarnate love, to behold one another in our “not-enoughness.” As we enter the upcoming Lenten and Easter seasons, journey with the Folk Choir and some of our closest collaborators through the development, rehearsal, and performance process of The Passion. Along the way, we will explore the Passion and Resurrection in light of the most pressing issues on the minds of our students, including the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the role of women in the Church, and climate change.
Experience the Episode
Presented by Notre Dame Folk Choir
Does your heart always match the Church calendar? Join the Folk Choir for a candid discussion on navigating the disconnect between personal struggles and liturgical joy. As they prepare for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the group explores how leaning into grief, anger, and consolation can actually deepen worship. Discover how to bring your authentic emotional self to the liturgy and find unity in shared song.
Click below to watch the video of this conversation.
Click below to listen to the audio podcast of this conversation.
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Meet the Student Speaker: Meg Beuter '24
Meg Beuter ’24 is a from Nashville, TN studying English and American Studies with a minor in Education, Schooling, & Society. Her home on campus is Howard Hall, and her favorite Folk Choir songs are Mukasa’s “Mimina Neema” and Waddell’s “Rosa Mystica.” As Social Media Coordinator for the Notre Dame Folk Choir, Meg is looking forward to spreading the joy of the Folk Choir’s work as far as possible and involving the whole choir while doing so. She hopes to use social media and communications to welcome everyone into the loving presence of Folk Choir, whether they are a friend or a stranger. She is also excited to continue working on the choir’s Passion Project leading up to the Holy Land tour in May 2022!
Meet the Speaker: Tristan Cooley
Tristan Cooley is a poet, librettist, and fiction writer from Silver Spring, MD, and served as the librettist for The Passion. He holds a BFA from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and an MA from CUNY, Brooklyn College. He makes his home in Vermont. Current collaborators include the University of Notre Dame Folk Choir under the direction of J.J. Wright, and the theatrical production house Sounds & Voices, led by Dominic Mekky and Franky Rousseau.
A Lenten 2026 Reflection from the Notre Dame Senior Alumni
Dear Alumni and Friends,
While a student at a Catholic grade school, our class walked over to the Church to attend The Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. On the Sunday following, our family attended Mass wearing our Easter finest to celebrate the Risen Lord. It wasn’t until I was an adult, and the mother of three children, that I started to experience the emotions of the Passion week. We waved palms on Palm Sunday, washed others feet on Thursday evening, stood by the cross on Good Friday afternoon keeping watch and rang our bells hard and loud at Saturday night Mass, watching the candlelight be replaced by bright lights as we celebrated the fact that Christ Had Risen.
It was only at this moment in my life that I felt dread on Palm Sunday knowing what was to come later in the week. I felt shame for my lack of empathy and understanding on Thursday and Friday as Jesus was condemned to death and betrayed by his closest friends. I was crushed by heartbreak on Friday for Jesus and his mother as he was beaten and abused. I harbored terror at the inhumane way in which Jesus was killed. Ultimately, I felt failure as a Catholic and Christian, because I doubted that I would have been strong enough of a believer to stand by Jesus’ side when he needed me most.
Over the years I have taken solace in the fact that I am not alone in my failures. I am and would have been in good company. My salvation has come in the form of my religious faith that has provided a consistent Liturgy and Liturgical calendar throughout the years. The liturgy allows me to enter into the Passion week with my own set of emotions. It does not judge me as to whether these emotions are appropriate emotions. It does not demand that I feel any specific emotion at a specific time. It does allow me to enter into a story of a life with God. This story is bigger than myself. This story provides me with a community of believers who lift me up and are there for me. In turn it allows me to support others in need.
As “seniors” we have lived the majority of our lives and have many memories which evoke a myriad of emotions—often when we least expect them. We need to allow for these memories and give ourselves the opportunity to experience joy, sorrow, and grief. We need to ask God for the strength to forgive ourselves and others, as God has already forgiven us.
My Mom used to tell me “Give your worries to God because he will be up all night anyways.”
Mary Ann Topping ‘79
Operations Officer
Notre Dame Senior Alumni Board