That we may recognize Him... (Easter Wednesday)

   “People today want Christ without His Church. 

They want the King without His Kingdom."

Timothy Cardinal Dolan

“The disciples on the road to Emmaus so wanted to see Jesus, the One they came to know and love, the One who died on the cross.  And, yet, they did not even recognize Him as He approached and walked along with them.  It was only as He explained the Scriptures (Liturgy of the Word) and broke the Bread (Liturgy of the Eucharist) that their eyes were opened to recognize the Risen Christ. 

My dear friends, the same two elements remain with us today – and they do so because of the Church!  Would we still have the Scriptures proclaimed to us today, or the Eucharist celebrated today, if it were not for the Church?  Just as Christ opened the eyes of his disciples, He comes to open our eyes to His living presence in our midst today.

So again, I say to you: Stay close to Christ.

Ask the Lord to strengthen your faith that you may recognize Him in the Sacred Scriptures and in the Eucharist. 

I read a quote recently ... The quote is from the French writer, Francois Mauriac.  I believe it is quite relevant for us ...‘If you are friends with Christ, many others will warm themselves at your fire… On the day you no longer burn with love, many will die of the cold.’”

Bishop Paul D Etienne

Painting above: Friend of the Humble (Supper at Emmaus), Leon-Augustin Lhermitte (1892)
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Divine Mercy Novena Day #6
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It is up to us...to tell... (Easter Tuesday)

So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ 

and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.  

Now it is required that those who have been given a trust 

must prove faithful.  ...You are fools for Christ, 

but you are so wise in Christ! - I Cor 4: 1,2,10

"Our people are becoming like Mary of Magdala

when she came to the tomb. 

'They have taken the Lord from the tomb,

and we don't know where they put Him' (Jn 20:2).  
It is up to us... to tell our people 

where our Risen Savior is. 

    The Blessed Sacrament is our Risen Savior

with all the power of His love and mercy flowing

out to those who come into His presence! 

This is where we must run, like Peter and John. 

This is where we must bring everyone. 

For each hour will advance the day when the 

light of His love and mercy will shine out, and then 

like Him, His people will be resurrected."

Excerpt from Letters to a Brother Priest

 Rev. Fr. Vincent Martin Lucia and Rev. Msgr. Josefino Ramirez 

Top image: The Three Marys at the Tomb, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Bottom image: The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre, by Dan Burr

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Divine Mercy Novena Day #5
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Allelujah is our song... (Easter Monday)

  The first eight days of the Easter season 

("Bright Week") make up the Octave of Easter 

and celebrated as Solemnities of the Lord.  

Singing the Easter sequence, Victimae Paschali Laudes, at 

Mass throughout the Octave is recommended, though not required.  

At the end of Masses during the Easter Octave, the dismissal, 

as at Easter, is sung by the deacon or priest; to which the people 

respond in song,“Thanks be to God, Alleluia! Alleluia!”

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"The Christian should be an Alleluia

from head to foot!"- St Augustine

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 “Let us keep the holy feast of Pascha and then, 

adding day by day the holy Pentecost, which 

we regard as feast upon feast, we shall keep 

the festival of the Spirit." - St Athanasius (4th c)

"We are an Easter people

and 'Allelujah' is our song."

St Augustine  

"...  we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing. ...

Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbor, “Praise the Lord!” and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions."- Excerpt from St. Augustine's discourse on the Psalms (Ps. 148, 1-2: CCL 40, 2165-2166)    

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Divine Mercy Novena Day #4

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Death, where is thy sting? - He is Risen! ...

"This is the night of which it is written: 

The night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night 

for me, and full of gladness. The sanctifying power of this 

night dispels all wickedness, washes faults away, restores 

innocence to the fallen, and joy to the mourners, drives 

out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty."  

From Exultet, intoned during Easter Vigil 

(beautiful full text linked below)
Click here: Paschal Proclamation (Exsultet) • Recording Easter Proclamation -Holy Saturday

"Poor death, where is your sting? Poor hell, 

where is your triumph? Christ steps out of the tomb 

and you are reduced to nothing!

Christ rises and the angels are wild with delight.
Christ rises and life is set free.
Christ rises and graves are emptied of dead.

Oh yes, for He broke from the tomb like a flower, a 

beautiful fruit: the first fruit of those already gone.

All glory be His, all success and power . . .
forever and ever." - St John Chrysostom

Excerpt from Easter homily - 387 AD

Above: The Resurrection of Christ - Vatican Museum Tapestry Gallery

  

From Pope Leo XIV, Easter vigil homily, 2026:

"Just as the women rushed to tell the disciples, we too

should desire to set out tonight from this Basilica to

bring to all the good news that Jesus has risen and 

that having risen with Him through His power, we too 

can give life to a new world of peace and unity."

 

Christ is risen to go before us:
our Brother to the Father,
our Priest to the Altar.
our Saviour to the world!

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen!

 Alleluia!     Alleluia!     Alleluia!

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From our first Pope: 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
By His great mercy we have been born anew to 

a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ 

from the dead and to an inheritance which is . . . 

kept in Heaven for you. - 1 Peter 1:3

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Divine Mercy Novena Day #3

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Keeping vigil... in silence and in trust... (Holy Saturday)

   Holy Saturday is sacred as the day of the Lord's rest; it has been called 

the "Second Sabbath" after creation. The day is and should be the most calm 

and quiet day of the entire Church year, a day broken by no liturgical function 

and is chiefly a day of solemn vigil for the Lord’s resurrection. 

HOLY SATURDAY

"Holy Saturday is the day of God’s silence. It must be a day of silence. We must do everything possible so that it is a day of silence, as that Day, which was the day of God’s silence.  Jesus placed in the sepulcher shares with the whole of humanity the tragedy of death as a silence that speaks and expresses love as solidarity with all those ever abandoned, which the Son of God reaches filling the emptiness that only the infinite mercy of God the Father can fill. God is silent, but out of love. In this day love, that silent love, becomes expectation of life in the resurrection. We think of Holy Saturday: it will do us good to think of the silence of Our Lady, “the Believer,” who in silence awaited the Resurrection. Our Lady must be the icon for us of that Holy Saturday. To think much of how Our Lady lived that Holy Saturday, in expectation. It is a love that does not doubt, but that hopes in the Lord’s word, and which becomes manifest and splendid on Easter day." 

Pope Francis, Wednesday Audience, 03/23/16

"The last day of the Holy Week:  a fruitful stillness before the breathtaking action of the night. 

Perhaps only the greatest Russian writers have succeeded 

in painting it as it is, a pause, a last moment of waiting, 

made holy by the Lord's rest in the tomb.

The Church is waiting at the tomb and weeps.  

She sees where the Lord has been laid, where the woman had 

buried Adam, where man is buried where he had come to grief 

through her evil counsel. She sees it and weeps. She weeps at the 

Lord's tomb, as the Lord wept for Lazarus: for sin which killed 

the giver of all life. But her tears are soft, and she is at peace. . . .

The death of Adam has lost its terrors in the tomb 
of Christ. The death for obedience' sake has snuffed out sin. 

No longer does a massa damnata blunder on from sin to sin 

and death to death, but the body of the obedient Christ 

rests in hope.  A foreboding of the happy chance of fault 

which merited such and so great a redeemer. It is a foreboding 

of the blessedness of suffering earning 'the name which is 

above all names', and the 'glory of God the Father', which 

makes the seers — men and the Church — at peace 

and full of hope." - D. Aemiliana Löhr, The Great Week

“Today a great silence reigns on earth, 

a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because 

the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God 

has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have 

slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search 

for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep." 

From ancient homily, Liturgy of the Hours, Holy Saturday

Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday - YouTube (7:47 mins)

"... Holy Saturday...the more I reflect on it, the more 

this seems to be fitting for the nature of our human life:  

we are still awaiting Easter; we are not yet standing 

in the full light but walking toward it full of trust." 

- Pope Benedict XVI, Milestones: Memoirs, 1927-1977 

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Divine Mercy Novena:  Day #2

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