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Written Post – Fr George: Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, 7 and 8 April 2012

Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday,

7 and 8 April 2012

 

“Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified; He is not here; for  He has  risen even  as He said.”  Mt. 28:5

            The Solemnity of the Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday is the most joyful of  feasts.  It is Jesus’ triumph over death and a  pledge of our own resurrection from the dead at the end of our life. The Angel tells this to the  women at the tomb  in today’s gospel (Mk. 16:1-7): “Do not be terrified. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here.” Mk. 16: 6.   St. Peter also tells us how important is Christ’s Resurrection from the dead:  “That through His name all who believe in Him may have forgiveness of sins in His name.” Acts 10:43  With our baptism, we have been cleansed  of  sin through Christ’s sacrifice as  we see in today’s Epistle (I Cor. 5:7-8): “Brethren, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened: For Christ our Pasch is sacrificed.” I Cor. 5:7  By Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection, we have been freed from sin and reborn to eternal glory in heaven.

 

Jesus Conquers Death and Sin

            Dom Gueranger in his “Liturgical Year,” Vol. 7 calls Easter “the feast of feasts, and the solemnity of solemnities…It is on this day that the mission of the Word Incarnate attains the object towards which it has hitherto been tending: man is raised up from his fall and regains what he had lost by Adam’s sin. 

            “Christmas gave us the Man-God; three days have scarcely passed since we witnessed his infinitely precious Blood shed for our ransom; but now, on the day of Easter, our Saviour Jesus is no longer  the victim of death; He is a conqueror, who destroys death, child of sin, and proclaims life, that undying life which He has purchased for us.  The humiliation of his swathing-bands, the sufferings of his agony and cross, these are passed; all is now glory—glory for himself, and glory for us. On the day of Easter, God regains, by the Resurrection of the Man-God, his creation such as he made it at the beginning; the only vestige now left of death is sin, the likeness of which the Lamb of God deigned to take upon himself. Neither is it Jesus alone that returns to eternal life; the whole human race also has risen to immortality  together with our Jesus. ‘By a man came death,’ says the Apostle; and by a Man the Resurrection of the dead; and as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.’”  (I Cor. 15:21-2) Gueranger, p. 1-2

 

Easter Sunday Is the Renewal of Creation           Again, Dom Gueranger recounts the glory of Christ’s Resurrection on the first day of the week “…whereby He conquered death and proclaimed life to the world.  It was a favoured day of the week that he had, four thousand years previously, created light; by selecting it now for the commencement of the new life which he graciously imparts to man, he would show us that Easter is the renewal of the entire creation.  Not only is it the anniversary of his glorious Resurrection to be, henceforward, the greatest of days, but every Sunday throughout the year is to be a sort of Easter, a holy and sacred day. The Synagogue, by God’s command, kept holy the Saturday or the Sabbath in honour of God’s resting after six days of the creation; but the Church, the Spouse, is commanded to honour  the work of her Lord. She allows the Saturday to pass—it is the day on which her Jesus rested in  the sepulchre; but, now that she is illumined with the brightness of the Resurrection, she devotes to the  contemplation of his work the first day of the week; it is the day of light, for on it he called forth material light (which was the first manifestation of life upon chaos), and on the same, he that is the ‘Brightness of the Father’  (Heb. 1:3) and ‘the Light of the world,’ (Jn. 8:12),rose from the darkness of the tomb.” Gueranger, p. 16-7

 

The Eighth Day—of Eternity—

Our New  Sabbath

Dom Gueranger reminds us, “Let then, the week with its Sabbath pass by; what we Christians want is the eighth day, the day of eternity, the day whose light is not intermittent or partial, but endless and unlimited. Thus speak the holy Fathers, when explaining the substitution of the Sunday for the Saturday. It was indeed, right that man should keep, as the day of his weekly and spiritual repose, that on which the creator of the visible world had taken his divine rest; but it was a commemoration of the material world only.  The Eternal Word comes down into the world that he has created; he comes with rays of his divinity clouded beneath the humble veil of our flesh; he comes to fulfil the figures of the first Covenant. Before abrogating the Sabbath, he would observe it as the day of rest, after his Passion, in the silence of the sepulchre; but, early on the eighth day, he rises to life, and the life is one of glory.  ‘Let us,’ says the Abbot Rupert, ‘leave the Jews to enjoy the ancient Sabbath, which is a memorial of the visible creation. They know not how to love or desire or merit aught  but earthly things…They would not recognize this world’s creator as their king, because he said: “Blessed are the poor” and  “Woe to the rich!”  But our Sabbath has been transferred from the seventh to the eighth day, and the eighth is the first. And rightly was the seventh changed into the eighth day, because we Christians  put our joy in a better work than the creation of the world… ‘Let the lovers of the world keep a Sabbath for its creation; but our joy is the salvation of the world, for our life yea and our rest is hidden in Christ in God.’” Gueranger, p. 17

 

“If you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father.”  Col. 3:1

Let us then seek the eternal Sabbath of the eternal light and rest which Jesus has purchased for us by His Precious Blood. Our true home is in heaven! Our salvation, the fruit of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, is guaranteed if we, seek the things that are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father.”  Col. 3:1

 

Easter Novena of Masses

The Masses from the Easter Vigil, 7 April 2012 to Divine Mercy Sunday  15 April 2012  will be offered for all the Relatives and Benefactors of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. May God bless you all for all the good that you do for the Friars and Sisters of Lanherne

 

Divine Mercy Sunday

First Sunday after Easter, 15April 2011

 

Jesus Himself  requested the Feast of  Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter (during the Easter Octave).  He promised:  “The Soul that will go to confession (within eight days before or after the Feast), receive Holy Communion, shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.  On that day all the Divine floodgates though which grace flow are opened… My mercy is so great that no mind, be it man or angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.” Diary Divine Mercy, #699,/II, #138.

 

10:00 AM  Sunday Holy Mass

11:30 AM (after Mass) Exposition of  the                 Most Blessed Sacrament

2:00 PM  Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Rosary  and Confessions

3:00 PM Divine Mercy Chaplet & Homily   and Benediction

After the Divine Mercy Services, there will be tea at St. Joseph’s Hall. All are welcome.

Saturday,  5 May 2012

  10 AM to 5:30 PM

A Day With Mary

10:00 AM Procession and Crowning of Our Lady, Holy Mass (Latin Mass – Extraordinary Form), Consecration of the Church Community to Our Lady and the Five Joyful Mysteries of the  Rosary.

12 Noon  Lunch Break

(Please bring packed lunch).

1:00 PM Exposition and Outdoor Procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Sermon on Our Lady by Fr. Agnellus Murphy, FI. Silent Adoration, Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Five Sorrowful Mysteries.

3:00 PM  Tea Break in St. Joseph’s Hall

3:45 PM Sermon on Our Lady by Fr. George M. Roth, FI, Via Lucis (Stations of the Cross with Our Lady), Act of Consecration, Benediction, Enrolment in the Brown Scapular and Conferment of the Miraculous Medal.

5:30 PM   Finish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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