Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
8:30 AM Mass
While it can just be said that the Mass of the Easter Vigil is the first and foremost liturgical celebration of the Resurrection, nonetheless the celebration of Mass on the morning of Easter Sunday still retains an exalted place in the paschal season. This latter liturgy had been introduced by the seventh century.
The first reading of the Mass is from the Acts of the Apostles (10:34, 37-43). We are presented with Saint Peter’s proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles of Caesarea gathered in the house of the centurion Cornelius. Peter proclaims that after the death of Jesus “God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen…by certain witnesses God had chosen beforehand. Now we are those witnesses – we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead”.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians (3:1-4) is the second reading. In it we are reminded that our true and lasting joy is not to be found in the things of earth but the things of heaven, won for us by our crucified and risen Saviour – “Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on things here on earth, because you have died, and now the life you life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.”
An alternative second reading is given from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 5:67-8). In it we hear the verses that is also used for the Communion verse “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; let us celebrate the feast, then, by getting rid of all the old yeast of evil and wickedness, having only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Following the second reading there is a special liturgical composition known as the “sequence”. The Sequence (Sequentia) is the liturgical hymn of the Mass, which occurs on four feasts: Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi and Our Lady of Sorrows. This is sung before the Alleluia verse.
This sequence, Victimae Paschali may be recited or sung on all the days in the Easter Octave:
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
offer sacrifice and praise.
The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;
and Christ, the undefiled,
hath sinners to his Father reconciled.
Death with life contended:
combat strangely ended!
Life's own Champion, slain,
yet lives to reign.
Tell us, Mary: say
what thou didst see upon the way.
The tomb the Living did enclose;
I saw Christ's glory as He rose!
The angels there attesting;
shroud with grave-clothes resting.
Christ, my hope, has risen:
He goes before you into Galilee.
That Christ is truly risen
from the dead we know.
Victorious King, Thy mercy show!
Amen. Alleluia.
The Gospel from John (20:1-9) tells us of Peter and the other disciple’s visit to the empty tomb. We are reminded of the faith of the unnamed disciple “he saw and he believed.”
Following the Gospel and the homily, the Renewal of Baptismal Promises as found in the Easter Vigil takes the place of the Creed. Mass then continues in the usual manner; however, if Eucharistic Prayer I is selected, the two insertions used with the Roman Canon in the Easter Vigil are again used in this morning’s liturgy.*
*See James Monti, The Week of Salvation, Our Sunday Visitor, Indiana, USA, 1993 for more information