Easter: April 19th
Easter Wednesday
MASS READINGS
April 19, 2017 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
O God, who gladden us year by year with the solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection, graciously grant that, by celebrating these present festivities, we may merit through them to reach eternal joys. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Recipes (1)
Activities (2)
Prayers (9)
- Easter Week Table Blessing
- Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Season (2nd Plan)
- Easter Prayers (for the Octave of Easter)
- Divine Mercy Novena
- Annunciation Novena
- Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Week (1st Plan)
- Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter (1st Plan)
- Novena for the Annunciation
- Victimae Paschali: The Easter Sequence
Old Calendar: Easter Wednesday
Today the Gospel relates the story of the disciples and Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Through the holy Eucharist we are drawn deeper and deeper into the saving death and glorious resurrection of the immortal Christ. Like Cleophas and Luke of Emmaus we are Table-guests of Christ, we know Him, our crucified and risen Lord, in the breaking of the Bread; our cold hearts begin to burn, our blind eyes are opened, and our souls are filled with that paschal peace and joy with which these two disciples hastened from Emmaus back to Jerusalem on that first blessed Easter evening. — Vine and Branches, Martin Hellriegel, 1948.
The Octave of Easter, throughout which formerly servile work was forbidden, was one continual feast in the Church's eyes. Each day the newly baptized attended Mass at a Stational Church, at which they received Holy Communion. In the evening they went to St. John Lateran for the office of Vespers.
The Fruits of Our Lord's Resurrection
Yes, my dear brethren, all these things are true. Our Lord rose again in glory; He entered again into that glory that was His by nature with the Father before the world was made. Through His obedience unto death, God hath exalted Him and given Him as man that Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord to the glory of the Father. And He is now ever seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us.
And not merely in the highest heavens, as it were afar off. He sheds His mercies broadcast on the earth. As He forgave sins, He gave to others on earth as His ambassadors that same power. Later, by the lakeside, we see Him giving a charge to St. Peter: "Feed My lambs, be shepherd of My lambs: feed My sheep." And since then there have been many shepherds, striving as Our Lord Himself to be good shepherds and distributing His bounties. And once again by that great commission He sends forth the fruits of His Resurrection: "All power is given Me in heaven and on earth. As the Father bath sent Me, so do I send you. Going, teach, baptize . . . and I am with you till the consummation of the world." As St. Gregory comments on this passage: "As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you; that is, as the Father who is God bath sent Me who am God, so I who am Man send you who are men." In this way, whilst going before to prepare many mansions above for His faithful, He provides for us wayfarers on the earth every help and consolation and joy abundant.
Thus, as the Angel predicted, all flesh shall see the salvation of God —all who will take it to themselves. Thus are we redeemed, thus reinstated; thus given supernatural life, with a right to eternal life. Now, above all things, we have ready access to the throne of the Most High. We may exclaim: "O God, awful in purity, terrible in majesty, we draw near, mindful indeed of our past coldness and neglect, of past sin; mindful of our low estate; and yet with all confidence, with the joy and freedom of children. Remember our dignity, for we are bought with a great price; remember our frailty but to extend Thy hand in succor." Today as we gather round the priest at the altar—the altar whereon the Precious Blood of Calvary continues to flow—we offer to God a worthy adoration, a worthy expression of gratitude: we are given the grace to repent and our repentance is accepted; and every other grace we ask through the merits of our Risen Saviour will assuredly be ours.
S. Anselm Parker, O.S.B., M.A., excerpted from The Message of the Gospels