The WORD today reminds me that Christ is Risen
and has won over sin and death.
The gospel tells us different
accounts/stories about Christ’s rising from the dead. We see how the disciples
and those close to him first experienced His rising and winning over sin and
death.
Today is a very joyful and victorious day! If at Christmas,
Christ was born which signifies the start of our salvation history, today, we see
Jesus rising from the dead, which signifies Christ’s victory over sin and death – the
completion of His mission and of our salvation.
It is very fitting that we are given time to prepare
for Easter. We were also given 40 days to prepare for Christmas during Advent,
but sometimes we get caught up in the busyness of the season and do not get to
prepare spiritually as much as we should. However during lent, I believe we are
able to prepare more, starting from Ash Wednesday where we fast and abstain,
every Fridays where we abstain, and Good Friday where we also fast and abstain.
It is also the season where we usually sacrifice or give up something, to
be one with
Christ in denying our self and to be closer to God as we give up things for Him.
We should be joyful today, not just because we can
already stop our Lenten sacrifices, but because we celebrate and commemorate God’s great
love and power. With
it comes the task, like the disciples in the first reading, to proclaim God’s kingdom and preach the gospel with our lives. With Christ’s rising
and victory comes our call to do our part to proclaim it.
The celebration does not end today. We can still
continue to offer our sacrifices. For those who feel they have not given
enough, we can still offer new sacrifices of self-denial or love offerings to
God. And God’s call to act, to preach his word, to proclaim his kingdom, is
here, and he is waiting for our response.
Christ is Risen…let us make him
more alive through our lives.
What is the significance of Easter for me? How was my
lenten experience this year? Do I feel that aside from Christ's victory over
sin and death, lent is about his immense love for me? What happens next? Do I feel happy and victorious despite the situation we are in? What is God telling me today?
May we celebrate Easter and God's victorious and saving
love through our lives.
Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you
for another day to live. Thank you for new beginnings. Thank you for Easter!
Thank you for all the blessings you continue to give me and my loved ones.
Lord, I thank you for your great love for me, and thank you for your great
power over sin and death. Lord, sorry for not doing my best and giving my best
to prepare during lent. Sorry for being busy. Sorry for all my excuses. Lord, I
feel that I have not given enough, that there is still a lot of room for you in
my life, so I ask that you help me continue offering sacrifices and love
offerings so that you may continue to fill my life with your love. May I
overflow with your love so I can share you generously to others. Help me
respond to your call to action to bring you to others, and make you more alive
through the way I live. May I make the most out of my life, and make Easter
last not just today. With the covid pandemic, use me and make me an instrument of your love to others. Amen.
Blessed Easter Sunday!
In Christ,
-g-
April 12, 2020
Easter Day - The Resurrection of the Lord; St. Joseph Moscati
FIRST READING
Peter proceeded to speak and said: “You know what has happened
all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about
doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in
Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. This man God raised
on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to
us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he
rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that
he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To him all
the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive
forgiveness of sins through his name.”
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be
glad. or R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Israel say, “His mercy endures forever.”
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. or R. Alleluia.
“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power; the right hand of the LORD is exalted. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. or R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. or R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Israel say, “His mercy endures forever.”
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. or R. Alleluia.
“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power; the right hand of the LORD is exalted. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. or R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. or R. Alleluia.
SECOND READING
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.
or:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.
or:
Brothers and sisters:
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
SEQUENCE
Victimae paschali laudes
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
Offer your thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeems; Christ, who only is sinless, Reconciles sinners to the Father.
Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous: The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal. Speak, Mary, declaring What you saw, wayfaring.
“The tomb of Christ, who is living, the glory of Jesus’ resurrection;
Bright angels attesting, the shroud and napkin resting.
Yes, Christ my hope is arisen; to Galilee he goes before you.”
Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining. Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning! Amen. Alleluia.
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
Offer your thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeems; Christ, who only is sinless, Reconciles sinners to the Father.
Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous: The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal. Speak, Mary, declaring What you saw, wayfaring.
“The tomb of Christ, who is living, the glory of Jesus’ resurrection;
Bright angels attesting, the shroud and napkin resting.
Yes, Christ my hope is arisen; to Galilee he goes before you.”
Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining. Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning! Amen. Alleluia.
ALLELUIA
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed; let us then feast with joy in the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed; let us then feast with joy in the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GOSPEL
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb
early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from
the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom
Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we
don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and
came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there,
but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb
and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not
with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other
disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw
and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise
from the dead.
or at an afternoon or evening mass:
or at an afternoon or evening mass:
That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
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