One Minute Reflection – 13 April – Easter Monday, Readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33, Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11, Matthew 28:8-15
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed and ran to announce the news to his disciples. … Matthew 28:8
REFLECTION – “Today, the Church continues to say: “Stop. Jesus is Risen.” And this is not a fantasy. The Resurrection of Christ is not a celebration with many flowers. This is beautiful but this is not it. It is something more. It is the mystery of the discarded stone which becomes the foundation of our existence. Christ is Risen. And with faith in the Risen Christ, we too, pebbles on this earth of pain, tragedy, acquire meaning amid so many calamities. The sense to look beyond, the sense to say: “Look, there is no wall; there is a horizon, there is life, there is joy, there is the cross with this ambivalence. Look ahead, do not close within yourself. You pebble, acquire meaning in life because you are a pebble near that rock, that stone which the evil of sin discarded”. Brothers and sisters, this is what I wanted to say to you. Go home today repeating in your hearts: “Christ is Risen”. … Pope Francis – Easter Sunday, 16 April 2017
PRAYER – Lord God, You bring us joy through the Easter mysteries. Continue to be bountiful to Your people, lead us from darkness to the perfect freedom, by which the joy that gladdens our way on earth, will be fulfilled in heaven. May the prayer of your angels and saints, with Mary the Mother of our Saviour and our Mother, grant us peace and strength. We make our prayer through our Lord, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, God forever amen.
The beautiful ancient Easter sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes can be said or sung before the Gospel everyday during the Octave:
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!++
Christ is Risen! He is Truly Risen, Alleluia! – 22 April – Monday of Easter Week
The Easter praise of Christ
Saint Melito of Sardis (Died 180)
Apostolic Father of the Church, Bishop and Martyr
An excerpt from his Easter Homily
We should understand, beloved, that the paschal mystery is at once old and new, transitory and eternal, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal. In terms of the Law it is old, in terms of the Word it is new. In its figure it is passing, in its grace it is eternal. It is corruptible in the sacrifice of the lamb, incorruptible in the eternal life of the Lord . It is mortal in his burial in the earth, immortal in his resurrection from the dead.
The Law indeed is old but the Word is new. The type is transitory but grace is eternal. The lamb was corruptible but the Lord is incorruptible. He was slain as a lamb. he rose again as God. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, yet he was not a sheep. He was silent as a lamb, yet he was not a lamb. The type has passed away; the reality has come. The lamb gives place to God, the sheep gives place to a man and the man is Christ, who fills the whole of creation. The sacrifice of the lamb, the celebration of the Passover and the prescriptions of the Law have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Under the old Law and still more under the new dispensation, everything pointed toward Him.
Both the Law and the Word came forth from Zion and Jerusalem but now the Law has given place to the Word, the old to the new. The commandment has become grace, the type a reality. The lamb has become a Son, the sheep a man and man, God.
The Lord, though he was God, became man. He suffered for the sake of those who suffer, He was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave but He rose from the dead and cried aloud: Who will contend with Me? Let him confront Me. I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised men from their graves. Who has anything to say against Me? I, He said, am the Christ, I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one and taken men up to the heights of heaven – I am the Christ.
Come, then, all you nations of men, receive forgiveness for the sins that defile you. I am your forgiveness. I am the Passover that brings salvation. I am the lamb who was immolated for you. I am your ransom, your life, your resurrection, your light, I am your salvation and your king. I will bring you to the heights of heaven. With my own right hand I will raise you up and I will show you the eternal Father.
Thought for the Day – Easter Monday of the Easter Octave – 2 April 2018
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the Figure of our spiritual resurrection.
“So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Hail!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”… Matthew 28:8-10
Let us represent to ourselves anew, the glory of the Sepulchre of Jesus.
“In this way we enter the depths of the Paschal mystery. The astonishing event of the resurrection of Jesus is essentially an event of love: the Father’s love in handing over His Son for the salvation of the world; the Son’s love in abandoning Himself to the Father’s will for us all; the Spirit’s love in raising Jesus from the dead in His transfigured body. And there is more: the Father’s love which “newly embraces” the Son, enfolding Him in glory; the Son’s love returning to the Father in the power of the Spirit, robed in our transfigured humanity. From today’s solemnity, in which we relive the absolute, once-and-for-all experience of Jesus’s Resurrection, we receive an appeal to be converted to Love; we receive an invitation to live by rejecting hatred and selfishness and to follow with docility in the footsteps of the Lamb that was slain for our salvation, to imitate the Redeemer who is “gentle and lowly in heart”, who is “rest for our souls” (cf. Mt 11:29).”
Pope Benedict 23 March 2008
Adorable Lord, bestow on us grace to rise spiritually, by leaving the tomb of indifference, to lead a life of fervour.
At Easter we recall the words God spoke to Moses concerning the Paschal solemnity: For it is the Phase – that is, the Passage – of the Lord. Now we celebrate the Passage of our Lord from Death to Life and think upon our own passage from a life of tepidity to one of fervour, from an imperfect to a holy life. Jesus, in leaving the Tomb, disengaged Himself from the winding-sheet in which His Sacred Body had been wrapped; this should make us understand that we must extricate ourselves from the imperfections and bad habits, which for so long a time have kept out souls bound and motionless for good. If we rise with Jesus and set ourselves free from the paralysed state in which our evil inclinations have retained us, they will infallibly disappear. Our Risen Lord was clothed with the power of agility to teach us to despise all resistance of nature, to pass quickly out of its reach, to triumph over every obstacle and that our souls should tend upwards to Him alone. If we are indeed risen with Christ we shall seek the things that are above and our whole being will be spiritualised, responding with agility to the promptings not of nature, but of grace. May we be enabled fully to enter into the Mystery of the Resurrection-Life of Jesus and to receive the plenitude of His favours, offered to us at this time especially.
Jesus, in rising from the Sepulchre, clothed in light, wills that we should understand what is the beauty of a soul disengaged from the ties of nature and renewed in the spiritual life. The soul, like Jesus, becomes luminous, the Holy Spirit enlightens it interiorly, by filling it with the knowledge of divine things; it is possessed of a lustrous beauty and its virtues shine visibly, contributing to the edification of others. By the impassibility of the Body of Jesus, we comprehend that grace raises the soul, by means of holy courage, above temptations; it renders it invulnerable against the darts of the enemies of its salvation and gives it the power of mastering its downward tendencies. Such are the happy privileges granted to His faithful ones, who lovingly enter into the spirit of the Mystery of Easter. Sufferings indeed we must still endure, for we are still on this side of the grave but if they serve only to raise us near to Jesus, we may be said to share already in the effects of His impassibility. We range ourselves therefore around Him, to rejoice at the sight of the glory He received in His Resurrection and to honour the marvellous capabilities of His Adorable Body, by rendering ourselves worthy, by our fervour, to participate in them spiritually.
O my Saviour, I thank You for the favour You accord me, permitting me to partake in the glorious privileges of the new life You began. Make me to be entirely renewed in the spirit of my mind so that, freed from the servitude of sense and natural affections, I may rise constantly towards You, with a pure and generous heart.
Aided by the grace Jesus bestows, I will endeavour to reproduce spiritually in myself, the capabilities observable in His Sacred Humanity after the Resurrection.
If by the Spirit, you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live.
Father de Brant, Growth in the Knowledge of Our Lord volume 2, 1882
The beautiful ancient Easter sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes can be said or sung before the Gospel every day during the Octave:
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!++
Quote of the Day – 17 April Easter Monday – 2nd Day of the Easter Octave
“There flowed from His side water and blood. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born:- from baptism, the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from His side, it was from His side that Christ fashioned the Church, as He had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim:- Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh! As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from His side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after His own death.
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united His bride to Himself and what food He gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with His own blood those to whom He himself has given life.’
One Minute Reflection – 17 April – Easter Monday 2nd Day of the Octave
Meditation for the Day: Help us put our baptism into action.
The women were frightened and yet very happy,
as they hurried from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples.
— Matthew 28:8
REFLECTION – “We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism. If we ask what this kind of burial means and what benefit we may hope to derive from it, it means first of all making a complete break with our former way of life and our Lord Himself said that this cannot be done unless a man is born again. In other words, we have to begin a new life and we cannot do so until our previous life has been brought to an end. When runners reach the turning point on a racecourse, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another…….Baptism cleanses the soul from the pollution of worldly thoughts and inclinations: You will wash me, says the psalmist and I shall be whiter than snow. We receive this saving baptism only once because there was only one death and one resurrection for the salvation of the world and baptism is its symbol.”………St Basil the Great
Prayer – Loving Father, How do I live the baptismal promises I made again over the weekend? I want to live my life in service of You.
Help me to carry the gift of faith I received from You. Help me to welcome those who joined the church in baptism.
Guide me and give me the courage to live my faith, to accept Your love. Amen
AnaStpaul 
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