Easter Sunday
Numbers, Chapter 14, Verse 9
Only do not rebel against the LORD!
You need not be AFRAID of the people
of the land, for they are but food for us! Their protection has left
them, but the LORD is with us. Do not fear
them.”
There’s
a happy thought. The Israelites were a hard people, but little did they know
that God would turn that around to Him being food for us. Yes, we are all hard
people. Yes, we eat our young. Look at the comments coming out of Planned
Parenthood about making so much money from tissue sales they will be driving
Lamborghinis.
Looking
at the world we can see that more and more there is a battle between the light
and the dark. Look at advertising, marketing, media, politics; all are fighting
either for Him who is or him who thinks he is. Choose but choose to wisely-do
not fear them.
Our Lady tells us the battle is already won-their protection has left them!
ON KEEPING
THE LORD'S DAY HOLY[1]
DIES ECCLESIAE
The Eucharistic Assembly:
Heart of Sunday
The presence of the Risen Lord
31. "I am with you always, to the
end of the age" (Mt 28:20). This promise of Christ never ceases to
resound in the Church as the fertile secret of her life and the wellspring of
her hope. As the day of Resurrection, Sunday is not only the remembrance of a
past event: it is a celebration of the living presence of the Risen Lord in the
midst of his own people.
For this presence to be properly
proclaimed and lived, it is not enough that the disciples of Christ pray
individually and commemorate the death and Resurrection of Christ inwardly, in
the secrecy of their hearts. Those who have received the grace of baptism are
not saved as individuals alone, but as members of the Mystical Body, having
become part of the People of God.(38) It is important therefore that they come
together to express fully the very identity of the Church, the ekklesia,
the assembly called together by the Risen Lord who offered his life "to
reunite the scattered children of God" (Jn 11:52). They have become
"one" in Christ (cf. Gal 3:28) through the gift of the Spirit.
This unity becomes visible when Christians gather together: it is then that
they come to know vividly and to testify to the world that they are the people
redeemed, drawn "from every tribe and language and people and nation"
(Rev 5:9). The assembly of Christ's disciples embodies from age to age
the image of the first Christian community which Luke gives as an example in
the Acts of the Apostles, when he recounts that the first baptized believers
"devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and the prayers" (2:42).
Easter Sunday[2]
WHAT is the feast of
Easter?
The celebration of the day on which
Jesus Christ, according to the predictions both of Himself and the prophets, by
His almighty power, reunited His body and soul, and arose alive from the grave.
Why is Easter Sunday
sometimes called Pasch or Passover?
It is from the Latin Pascha, and
the Hebrew Phase, meaning “the passing over” because the destroyer of the
firstborn in Egypt passed over the houses of the Israelites who had sprinkled
the transom and posts of the door with the blood of the paschal lamb and
because the Jews were in that same night delivered from bondage, passing over
through the Red Sea into the land of promise. Now we Christians are by the
death and resurrection of Christ redeemed and passed over to the freedom of the
children of God, so we call the day of His resurrection Pasch or Passover.
How should we observe
the feast of Easter?
We observe the feast in such manner
as to confirm our faith in Jesus Christ and in His Church, and to pass over
from the death of sin to the new life of grace.
What is the meaning
of Alleluia, so often repeated at Eastertime?
“Alleluia”
means “Praise God.” In the Introit of the Mass of the day the Church introduces
Jesus Christ as risen, addressing His heavenly Father as follows “I rose up and
am still with Thee, alleluia; Thou hast laid Thy hand upon Me, alleluia. Lord,
thou hast proved me, and know me; Thou hast known my sitting down and my rising
up.”
Prayer.
O God, who this day didst open to
us the approach to eternity by Thy only Son victorious over death, prosper by
Thy grace our vows, which Thou dost anticipate by Thy inspirations.
EPISTLE, i. Cor. v.
7, 8.
Brethren:
Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened.
For Christ, our Pasch, is sacrificed. Therefore, let us feast, not with the old
leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth.
Explanation.
The Apostle selected the leaven as
a type of the moral depravity from which the Christian community and every
individual Christian should be free. Let us, therefore, purge out the old
leaven of sin by true penance, that we may receive our Paschal Lamb, Jesus, in
the Most Holy Eucharist with a pure heart.
GOSPEL. Mark xvi.
1-7.
At that time:
Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought sweet spices, that
coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of
the week, they came to the sepulcher, the sun being now risen. And they said
one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the
sepulcher?
And looking, they
saw the stone rolled back: for it was very great. And entering into the
sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white
robe: and they were astonished. Who saith to them: Be not affrighted: you seek
Jesus of Nazareth, Who was crucified: He is risen, He is not here: behold the
place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth
before you into Galilee: there you shall see Him, as He told you.
Why did the holy women desire to
anoint the body of Jesus with sweet spices?
The
women wanted to anoint Jesus’ body out of love for him. This love God rewarded
by sending to them an angel, who rolled back the great stone from before the
mouth of the sepulcher, comforted them, and convinced them that Christ was
really raised from the dead. From this we learn that God always consoles those
who seek Him. The angel sent the holy women to the disciples to console them
for Christ’s death, and in order that they might make known His resurrection to
the world. St. Peter was specially named not only because he was the head of
the apostles, but because he was sadder and more dispirited than the others on
account of his denial of Our Savior.
How did Our Savior prove that He
was really risen from the dead?
Our
Lord proved Himself risen by showing Himself first to the holy women, then to
His disciples, and finally to five hundred persons at once. His disciples not
only saw Him, but ate and drank with Him, not once only, but repeatedly, and
for forty days.
It
was through combat and inexpressible sufferings that Our Savior gained victory.
So also, with us we gain heaven only by labor, combat, and sufferings shall we
win the crown of eternal life; though redeemed by Christ from the servitude of
Satan and sin, we shall not be able to enter the kingdom of Christ unless,
after His example and by His grace, we fight till the end against the flesh,
the devil, and the world; for only he that perseveres to the end shall receive
the crown (n. Tim. ii. 5).
Easter Calendar[3]
Read: Easter does not just last for a
day! Take time to read about the span of the Easter season today.
Reflect: Take extra time with the readings
today practicing lectio divina. . . .
Pray: O God, who on this day, through
your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to
eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord's
Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the
light of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns
with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Collect,
Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord, Mass During the Day, Roman Missal, Third Edition, International
Commission on English Liturgy)
Act: Christ is Risen! Spread the Good
News!
Paschaltide[4]
This is the day the Lord hath made;
let us be glad and rejoice therein. - Ps. 117.24
With
this antiphon, the Church proclaims Easter Sunday the greatest day of the year.
For the Christian believer every day is, of course, a celebration of Jesus
Christ's resurrection from the dead, as is every Mass. Yet daily rejoicing
pales in comparison to that of the Sunday Mass, since Sunday is the day that
the resurrection took place, the "eighth" day of the week signifying
a new creation and a new life. And these Sundays of the year, in turn, are
dwarfed by Easter, the Feast of Feasts celebrated in the newness of the vernal
moon and in the rebirth of springtime. Easter is the Christian day par
excellence.
The
commemoration of our Lord's physical resurrection from the dead provides not
only the crucial resolution to the Passion story, but to several liturgical
themes stretching back over the past two months.
·
Easter
ends the seventy days of Babylonian exile begun on Septuagesima Sunday by restoring the Temple that was destroyed on Good
Friday, i.e. the body of Jesus Christ.
·
It
ends the forty days of wandering in the desert begun on Ash Wednesday by giving us the Promised Land of eternal life.
·
It
ends the fourteen days of concealment and confusion during Passiontide
by revealing the divinity of Jesus Christ and the meaning of His cryptic
prophecies.
·
It
ends the seven days of Holy Week
by converting our sorrow over the crucifixion into our jubilance about the
resurrection.
·
And
it ends the three days of awesome mystery explored during the sacred Triduum by
celebrating the central mystery of our faith: life born from death, ultimate
good from unspeakable evil. It is for this reason that all the things that had
been instituted at one point or another during the past penitential seasons
(the purple vestments or the veiled images) are dramatically removed, while all
the things that had been successively suppressed (the Alleluia, the Gloria in
excelsis, several Gloria Patri's, or the bells) are dramatically restored.
The
Easter season (or Paschaltide, as it is traditionally known) is not an
undifferentiated block of joy but one that consists of several distinct stages.
The first is the Easter Octave, lasting from Easter Sunday to the former "Low"
Sunday which is now Divine Mercy Sunday. These eight days comprise a prolonged
rejoicing in our Savior's victory over death and in the eternal life given to
the newly baptized converts. In fact, Christian initiates used to receive a
white robe upon their baptism on Holy Saturday night and would wear it for the
rest of the week. They would take off these symbols of their new life on the
following Sunday, which in Latin is called Dominica in albis depositis as a
result of this practice. (The English name, Low Sunday, was used as a contrast
to the high mark of Easter). For centuries the first Sunday after Easter was
also the day when children would receive their first Holy Communion, often with
their father and mother kneeling beside them. So meaningful was this event that
in Europe it was referred to as the "most beautiful day of life."
(Significantly, both customs are encapsulated in Low Sunday's stational church,
the basilica of St. Pancras (see Station Days):
St. Pancras, a twelve-year-old martyr, is the patron saint of children and
neophytes).
Paschaltide Customs
The Easter Kiss and Greeting.
The day that the risen Christ
appeared to His apostles, breathed the Spirit on them, and wished them peace is
the day that Christians greet each other with special fraternal affection.
Early Latin Christians embraced each other on Easter with the greeting, Surrexit
Dominus vere ("The Lord is truly risen"). The appropriate
response is Deo gratias ("Thanks be to God"). Greek
Christians, on the other hand, say, Christos aneste ("Christ is
risen"), to which is answered, Alethos aneste ("Truly He is
risen"). The mutual kiss and embrace last throughout the Easter Octave.
Blessings.
There was a time in both the
Eastern and Western churches that no one would dream of eating unblessed food
on Easter. Priests would either visit families on Holy Saturday night and bless
the spread made ready for the following day, or they would bless the food
brought to church after the Easter Sunday Mass. The old Roman ritual attests to
this tradition by its title for Food Blessings: Benedictiones Esculentorum,
Praesertim in Pascha - "The Blessings of Edibles, especially for
Easter".
New
Clothes & the Easter Parade.
Most people are familiar with the
old-fashioned images of ladies bedecked in crisp new bonnets and dapper escorts
during the annual Easter parade. What at first blush appears to be no more than
a spectacle of vanity, however, is a combination of two deeply religious
practices. The first is the custom of wearing new clothes for Easter.
This stems from the ancient practice of newly baptized Christians wearing a
white garment from the moment of their baptism during the Easter Vigil until
the following week. The rest of the faithful eventually followed suit by
wearing something new to symbolize the new life brought by the death and
resurrection of Christ. Hence an old Irish saying: "For Christmas, food
and drink; for Easter, new clothes." There was even a superstition that
bad luck would come to those who could afford new clothes for Easter but did
not buy them. The second practice is the Easter walk, in which the faithful
(mostly couples) would march through town and country as a part of a religious
procession. A crucifix or the Paschal candle would often lead the way, and the
entourage would make several stops in order to pray or sing hymns. The rest of
the time would be spent in light banter. This custom became secularized after
the Reformation and thus became the "Easter parade" so popular before
the 1960s.
Easter
Eggs.
Two kinds of activities (besides
eating) surround this famous feature of Paschal celebration. The first is the decoration
of the egg, a custom that goes back to the first centuries of
Christianity. Colored dyes are the easiest way this is done, though different
customs from various cultures sometimes determine which colors are used. The
Chaldean, Syrian, and Greek Christians, for example, give each other scarlet
eggs in honor of the most precious blood of Christ. Other nations, such as the
Ukrainians and Russians, are famous for their beautiful and ornate egg
decorations. Egg games are also a familiar part of Easter merriment.
Most Americans are familiar with the custom of Easter egg hunts,
but there are other forms as well. Egg-pecking is a game
popular in Europe and the Middle East (not to mention the White House lawn),
where hard-boiled eggs are rolled against each other on the lawn or down a
hill; the egg left uncracked at the end is proclaimed the "victory
egg."
The Dancing Sun.
There is an old legend that the sun
dances for joy or makes three cheerful jumps on Easter morning. In England and
Ireland families would place a pan of water in the east window to watch the
dancing rays mirrored on it. Other "sun" customs involve some kind of
public gathering at sunrise. Greeting the daybreak with cannons, gunfire,
choirs, or band music was once very popular, as was holding a prayer service,
followed by a procession to the church where Mass would be offered.
"Sacred" Theater.
According to some scholars the
beautiful sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes sung during the Easter Mass
in the traditional Roman rite is the inspiration for the development of medieval religious drama.
The poem's dialogic structure, with its question and answer format, became the
foundation on which more lines were added until a separate play was formed.
This play, in turn, inspired the composition of the other medieval
"mystery" plays held on Christmas, Epiphany, Corpus Christi, and so
on. Solemn vespers and benediction were a traditional part of every Sunday
afternoon in many parishes, but especially so on Easter. Perhaps one reason for
this was the medieval custom of Easter
fables where, prior to the service, the priest would regale the
congregation with amusing anecdotes and whimsical yarns. This served as a sort
of antidote to the many sad or stern Lenten sermons of the previous weeks.
The entire Octave of Easter
constitutes an extended exultation in Christ's victory over death. Obviously,
the two most important days of this Octave are the two Sundays. As mentioned
elsewhere, Low Sunday was once the day that the neophytes took off their white
robes and resumed their lives in the daily world, and it was also the
traditional time for children to receive Holy Communion. Other days of the
Octave, however, also had distinctive customs of their own.
·
Easter
Monday was
reserved as a special day for rest and relaxation. Its most distinctive feature
is the Emmaus walk, a leisurely constitution inspired by the Gospel
of the day (Luke 24.13-35). This can take the form of a stroll through field or
forest or, as in French Canada, a visit to one's grandparents.
·
Games
of mischief dating to pre-Christian times also take place on Easter
Monday and Tuesday. Chief among them is drenching customs,
where boys surprise girls with buckets of water, and vice versa, or switching
customs, where switches are gently used on each other.
·
Easter
Thursday in Slavic
countries, on the other hand, was reserved for remembering departed loved ones.
Mass that day would be offered for the deceased of the parish.
·
Finally,
Easter
Friday was a favorite day for pilgrimages in many parts of
Europe. Large groups would take rather long processions to a shrine or church,
where Mass would be offered.
Divine Mercy Novena[5]
Third Day - Today Bring Me All Devout and Faithful Souls.
Most
Merciful Jesus, from the treasury of Your mercy, You impart Your graces in the
great abundance to each and all. Receive us into the abode of Your Most
Compassionate Heart and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by that
most wondrous love for the heavenly Father with which Your Heart burns so
fiercely.
Eternal
Father turn Your Merciful gaze upon faithful souls, as upon the inheritance of
Your Son. For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, grant them Your blessing and
surround them with Your constant protection. Thus, may they never fail in love
or lost the treasure of the holy faith, but rather, with all the hosts of
Angels and Saints, may they glorify Your boundless mercy for endless ages.
Amen.
Novena for the Poor
Souls[6]
O Mother most
merciful, pray for the souls in Purgatory!
PRAYER OF ST.
GERTRUDE THE GREAT O Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of
Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world
today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory and for sinners everywhere— for
sinners in the Universal Church, for those in my own home and for those within
my family. Amen.
PRAYER FOR THE
DYING O Most Merciful Jesus, lover of souls, I pray Thee, by the agony of Thy
most Sacred Heart, and by the sorrows of Thine Immaculate Mother, to wash in
Thy Most Precious Blood the sinners of the whole world who are now in their
agony and who will die today. Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have mercy on the
dying! Amen.
ON EVERY DAY OF
THE NOVENA V. O Lord, hear my prayer; R. And let my cry come unto Thee. O God,
the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant unto the souls of Thy
servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that through our devout
supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired, Who livest
and reignest world without end. Amen.
SUNDAY O Lord
God Almighty, I beseech Thee by the Precious Blood which Thy divine Son Jesus
shed in the Garden, deliver the souls in Purgatory, and especially that one
which is the most forsaken of all, and bring it into Thy glory, where it may
praise and bless Thee forever. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION ONE-PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
CHAPTER THREE-THE LIFE OF PRAYER
Article 1-EXPRESSIONS OF PRAYER
II. Meditation
2705 Meditation is above all a quest. the mind seeks to
understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and
respond to what the Lord is asking. the required attentiveness is difficult to
sustain. We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them:
the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts
of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality,
the great book of creation, and that of history the page on which the
"today" of God is written.
2706 To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own by
confronting it with ourselves. Here, another book is opened: the book of life.
We pass from thoughts to reality. To the extent that we are humble and faithful,
we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to
discern them. It is a question of acting truthfully in order to come into the
light: "Lord, what do you want me to do?"
2707 There are as many and varied methods of meditation as
there are spiritual masters. Christians owe it to themselves to develop the
desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds
of soil in the parable of the sower. But a method is only a guide; the
important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along the one way of
prayer: Christ Jesus.
2708 Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and
desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our
convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our
will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the
mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful
reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the
knowledge of the love of the Lord.
PRAYERS AND TEACHINGS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The Beatitudes[7]
The fuller account and the more prominent place given the Beatitudes in St. Matthew are quite in accordance with the scope and the tendency of the First Gospel, in which the spiritual character of the Messianic kingdom — the paramount idea of the Beatitudes — is consistently put forward, in sharp contrast with Jewish prejudices. The very peculiar form in which Our Lord proposed His blessings make them, perhaps, the only example of His sayings that may be styled poetical — the parallelism of thought and expression, which is the most striking feature of Biblical poetry, being unmistakably clear.
The text of St. Matthew runs as
follows:
·
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
(Verse 3)
·
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the
land. (Verse 4)
·
Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be
comforted. (Verse
5)
·
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall
have their fill. (Verse
6)
·
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain
mercy. (Verse 7)
·
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall
see God. (Verse 8)
·
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be
called the children of God.
(Verse 9)
·
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. (Verse
10)
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Purity
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
· Make reparations to the Holy Face
·
30
Days with St. Joseph Day 21
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