The Solemnity of Easter

Alleluia! 

Today the whole Church rejoices in the greatest celebration in the entire liturgical year - even greater than Christmas. For today, in the city of Jerusalem, Our Crucified and Buried Lord, rose again in all glory and power. 

As we read the familiar words of the following Gospel, may Our hearts rejoice like those of the holy women and Mother Mary when they first heard the words - Jesus is Risen: 

"When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up,they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large. On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed. He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you’” (Mark 16:1-7).

The following information on Customs for Easter is from Fish Eaters:

On this, the holiest day of the entire year, and for the entire Octave of Easter, Latin Catholics greet each other with the words of Luke 24:34, "Surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia!" ("The Lord is risen indeed!"). The person so greeted responds, "Et apparuit Simoni, alleluia!" ("And hath appeared unto Simon!"). Catholics may even answer their telephones with this greeting. An old Ukrainian legend relates that, after His Resurrection, Christ threw Satan into a deep pit, chaining him with twelve iron chains. When Satan has chewed through each of the twelve chains, the end of the world will come. All year long, the Evil One gnaws at the iron, getting to the last link in the last chain -- but too late, for it is Easter, and when the people cry "Christ is risen!" all of Satan's efforts are reversed. When the faithful stop saying the Easter acclamation, the end of time has come... 

Throughout the entire Easter Season, the Angelus prayer that is offered, when possible, at the ringing of the Angelus bells, is replaced by the joyous Regina Coeli, which begins, "Queen of Heaven rejoice, alleluia: For He whom you merited to bear, alleluia, Has risen as He said, alleluia." On this most beautiful of Feasts, the Easter table should be adorned with the best of everything -- the most beautiful china, a pure, white tablecloth, the best possible wine, flowers (especially pussy willow, lilies, and spring bulb flowers), etc., all with the colors white and gold -- symbolizing purity and glory -- and the traditional symbols of Easter predominating. And we should look our best, too; it is common for those who can afford it to buy a new outfit to wear on this day. This custom springs from the idea of "newness" inherent in the entire Season -- the new members of the Church baptized at the Vigil in their new Baptismal albs, the New Law, a new life in Christ. Read more...

Let us make Easter, the holiest day in the year, and the Octave that follows, some of the holiest days of our lives. Our entire observance of Lent was for this day - to honor the Risen King! Come, let us worship Him!

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Easter 2007: Urbi et Orbi

Here is the text of Pope Benedict XVI's Urbi et Orbi Address for Easter 2007. The Urbi et Orbi Address is given on Christmas Day and Easter each year by the Holy Father:

Dear Brothers and Sisters throughout the world,
Men and women of good will!

Christ is risen! Peace to you! Today we celebrate the great mystery, the foundation of Christian faith and hope: Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, has risen from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures. We listen today with renewed emotion to the announcement proclaimed by the angels on the dawn of the first day after the Sabbath, to Mary of Magdala and to the women at the sepulchre: “Why do you search among the dead for one who is alive? He is not here, he is risen!” (Lk 24:5-6).

It is not difficult to imagine the feelings of these women at that moment: feelings of sadness and dismay at the death of their Lord, feelings of disbelief and amazement before a fact too astonishing to be true. But the tomb was open and empty: the body was no longer there. Peter and John, having been informed of this by the women, ran to the sepulchre and found that they were right. The faith of the Apostles in Jesus, the expected Messiah, had been submitted to a severe trial by the scandal of the cross. At his arrest, his condemnation and death, they were dispersed. Now they are together again, perplexed and bewildered. But the Risen One himself comes in response to their thirst for greater certainty. This encounter was not a dream or an illusion or a subjective imagination; it was a real experience, even if unexpected, and all the more striking for that reason. “Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘peace be with you!’” (Jn 20:19).

At these words their faith, which was almost spent within them, was re-kindled. The Apostles told Thomas who had been absent from that first extraordinary encounter: Yes, the Lord has fulfilled all that he foretold; he is truly risen and we have seen and touched him! Thomas however remained doubtful and perplexed. When Jesus came for a second time, eight days later in the Upper Room, he said to him: “put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing!” The Apostle’s response is a moving profession of faith: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:27-28).

“My Lord and my God!” We too renew that profession of faith of Thomas. I have chosen these words for my Easter greetings this year, because humanity today expects from Christians a renewed witness to the resurrection of Christ; it needs to encounter him and to know him as true God and true man. If we can recognize in this Apostle the doubts and uncertainties of so many Christians today, the fears and disappointments of many of our contemporaries, with him we can also rediscover with renewed conviction, faith in Christ dead and risen for us. This faith, handed down through the centuries by the successors of the Apostles, continues on because the Risen Lord dies no more. He lives in the Church and guides it firmly towards the fulfilment of his eternal design of salvation.

We may all be tempted by the disbelief of Thomas. Suffering, evil, injustice, death, especially when it strikes the innocent such as children who are victims of war and terrorism, of sickness and hunger, does not all of this put our faith to the test? Paradoxically the disbelief of Thomas is most valuable to us in these cases because it helps to purify all false concepts of God and leads us to discover his true face: the face of a God who, in Christ, has taken upon himself the wounds of injured humanity. Thomas has received from the Lord, and has in turn transmitted to the Church, the gift of a faith put to the test by the passion and death of Jesus and confirmed by meeting him risen. His faith was almost dead but was born again thanks to his touching the wounds of Christ, those wounds that the Risen One did not hide but showed, and continues to point out to us in the trials and sufferings of every human being.

“By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt 2:24). This is the message Peter addressed to the early converts. Those wounds that, in the beginning were an obstacle for Thomas’s faith, being a sign of Jesus’ apparent failure, those same wounds have become in his encounter with the Risen One, signs of a victorious love. These wounds that Christ has received for love of us help us to understand who God is and to repeat: “My Lord and my God!” Only a God who loves us to the extent of taking upon himself our wounds and our pain, especially innocent suffering, is worthy of faith.

How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world! Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking. My thoughts go to recent events in Madagascar, in the Solomon Islands, in Latin America and in other regions of the world. I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons. I look with apprehension at the conditions prevailing in several regions of Africa. In Darfur and in the neighbouring countries there is a catastrophic, and sadly to say underestimated, humanitarian situation. In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the violence and looting of the past weeks raises fears for the future of the Congolese democratic process and the reconstruction of the country. In Somalia the renewed fighting has driven away the prospect of peace and worsened a regional crisis, especially with regard to the displacement of populations and the traffic of arms. Zimbabwe is in the grip of a grievous crisis and for this reason the Bishops of that country in a recent document indicated prayer and a shared commitment for the common good as the only way forward.

Likewise the population of East Timor stands in need of reconciliation and peace as it prepares to hold important elections. Elsewhere too, peace is sorely needed: in Sri Lanka only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict that causes so much bloodshed; Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability; In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees. In Lebanon the paralysis of the country’s political institutions threatens the role that the country is called to play in the Middle East and puts its future seriously in jeopardy. Finally, I cannot forget the difficulties faced daily by the Christian communities and the exodus of Christians from that blessed Land which is the cradle of our faith. I affectionately renew to these populations the expression of my spiritual closeness.

Dear Brothers and sisters, through the wounds of the Risen Christ we can see the evils which afflict humanity with the eyes of hope. In fact, by his rising the Lord has not taken away suffering and evil from the world but has vanquished them at their roots by the superabundance of his grace. He has countered the arrogance of evil with the supremacy of his love. He has left us the love that does not fear death, as the way to peace and joy. “Even as I have loved you – he said to his disciples before his death – so you must also love one another” (cf. Jn 13:34).

Brothers and sisters in faith, who are listening to me from every part of the world! Christ is risen and he is alive among us. It is he who is the hope of a better future. As we say with Thomas: “My Lord and my God!”, may we hear again in our hearts the beautiful yet demanding words of the Lord: “If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honour him” (Jn 12:26). United to him and ready to offer our lives for our brothers (cf. 1 Jn 3:16), let us become apostles of peace, messengers of a joy that does not fear pain – the joy of the Resurrection. May Mary, Mother of the Risen Christ, obtain for us this Easter gift. Happy Easter to you all.

© Copyright 2007 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Image Source: AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, HO

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Prayer for Faith in the Risen Lord

Father, in Your love You have brought me from evil to good and from misery to happiness. Through Your blessings give me the help I need to continue in virtue. Make my faith strong and my hope sure. May I never doubt that You will fulfill the promises You have made. May I who am redeemed by the suffering and death of Christ always rejoice in His Resurrection. As I honor His glorious Resurrection, renew Your gift of Divine life within me.

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Watch a Latin Mass video!

This is a full-length Tridentine (Latin) Mass video. It was filmed on Easter Sunday in 1941 at Our Lady of Sorrows church in Chicago. The film presents the ceremonies of the Solemn High Mass in full detail with narration by Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen. Sheen explains everything that happens!

More information and other videos can found found on my category post: Traditional Latin Mass.

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Divine Mercy Sunday

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday and also Low Sunday. Likewise, it is the Octave Day of Easter. Our Lord revealed special messages concerning His Divine and Endless Mercy to St. Faustina. He appeared to her between 1930 and 1938, and on Good Friday of 1937, He asked for a special a Novena to precede this Sunday. Today we especially thank God for the merciful institution of the Sacrament of Confession. The title of "Divine Mercy Sunday" began on May 23, 2000.

Our Lord said to St. Faustina:

"My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the fount of My Mercy" (699).

Today is the day to turn to God again and live again the joy of Easter - Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead! For information on this day including the Chaplet and the Image of Divine Mercy, see Faustina.org

Concerning the image at the top of this post, Our Lord told St. Faustina: "I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory." (48)

St. Faustina, ora pro nobis!

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The Easter Octave

"Alleluia, alleluia. Christ our Pasch is sacrified" (Alleluia, 1962 Missal)

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Easter 2006: Urbi et Orbi

As we celebrate the joy of Easter Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI is also celebrating his 79th birthday. Let us please pray one Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for his health and intentions.

Pope Benedict XVI has gave his traditional Urbi et Orbi address after the Easter Sunday Mass attended by thousands.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives at St. Peter's Basilica to celebrate Easter Sunday Mass.

Here is part of his Urbi et Orbi address:

May the risen Lord grant that the strength of his life, peace and freedom be experienced everywhere. Today the words with which the Angel reassured the frightened hearts of the women on Easter morning are addressed to all: "Do not be afraid! ... He is not here; he is risen" (Matthew 28:5-6). Jesus is risen, and he gives us peace; he himself is peace. For this reason the Church repeats insistently: "Christ is risen -- 'Christós anésti.'"

Let the people of the third millennium not be afraid to open their hearts to him. His Gospel totally quenches the thirst for peace and happiness that is found in every human heart. Christ is now alive and he walks with us. What an immense mystery of love! "Christus resurrexit, quia Deus caritas est!" Alleluia!

© Copyright 2006 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana [adapted]

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Regina Coeli

During this Easter season from Easter Sunday until the end of the Octave of Pentecost, the Angelus prayer said at 6 AM, Noon, and 6 PM, is replaced with the Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven):

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia:
R. For he whom you merited to bear, alleluia,

V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. Because the Lord is truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray. O God, who by the Resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, granted joy to the whole world: grant, we beg you, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, his Mother, we may lay hold of the joys of eternal life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. (Roman Breviary)

A partial indulgence is obtained through the saying of this prayer, but if one does not know the words to this prayer, they may still receive it if they just pray 5 Hail Marys.

Listen to the Regina Caeli chanted by clicking here.

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Jesus Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

It was on this night that Our Savior, lying in tomb because of our sins, rose again and broke the firm chains of sin and death forever. Christ defeated satan and the powers of darkness at the Cross, and this night, He rose again as victor over death. By rising, we proclaim that He "restored our life". Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead! And, now we too may one day hope to rise again in splendor with a new Heaven and a new Earth with Christ as the Light of the World.

But, in our world we still see people living in the darkness of sin. They embrace hared, bigotry, indecency, and other attacks on God's laws. We, my brothers and sister, must be mirrors of Christ's light. We must bring this light into others' hearts. Do nothing other than observe the Commandments of Christ and His Church so as to bring others into His light. This is the most important thing we can do. For in baptism we were buried in Christ so that after our death we might hope to share in the Resurrection. Tonight I had the privilege to see around 14 people enter the Catholic faith. It was a beautiful sight. We must continue to pray that others will enter the fullness of the truth.

And when the sabbath was past, 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 come to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And looking, they saw the stone rolled back. For it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, 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. (Mk 16:1-7)

In the celebrations tonight thousands of people entered our faith of Jesus Christ included many fellow bloggers. Please welcome them. I just read about a married Lutheran minister that also just entered the Church as a Catholic priest. President Arroyo of the Philippines, a Catholic, has also promised to stop executing prisoners as part of her Easter message. Jesus Christ's light is shinning in the world and we must continue to bring this light. We must be carries of His light as we were reminded tonight.

If you did not attend the Vigil, I at least ask you to listen to the beautiful Easter Proclamation:


And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. (Matthew 28:18-20).

May all who sleep in Christ rise again to eternal life. Amen.

Let us make Easter, the holiest day in the year, and the Octave that follows, some of the holiest days of our lives. Our entire observance of Lent was for this day - to honor the Risen King! Come, let us worship Him!

More wonderful information from Fish Eaters

Image Sources: Believed to be in the Public Domain

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Easter Proclamation

In just a few hours I will attend the Vigil Mass of Easter and see several people received into the Church. If you are not attending the a Vigil Mass, I encourage you to listen to the Easter Proclamation over the computer. I love this prayer - it is so beautiful when we proclaim the triumphant Resurrection of Our Savior.

Please keep praying for everyone that will enter the Church tonight.

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The Coming Easter Vigil

It was on this night that He passed from death to life!

Tonight at the Easter Vigil, thousand will enter the Catholic Church as we recall the Resurrection of Our Crucified Savior. By this action, He freed us all from the certainty of hell so that we might enter Heaven. The rest is up to how we live our own lives.

Tonight please keep Lise in your prayers as she was just reconciled with the Church after leaving for many years. She needs your prayers. Please also keep these people in your prayers because they will enter the Church this year: New Catholics for 2006.

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