Rightly devoted... (Easter Saturday)

"You've got to pray to Our Lady.  

When you lose devotion to Our Lady 

you're out there with the wolves." - Mother Angelica

 

"Do you, then, be also careful always to join

to your daily visit to the most Blessed Sacrament

a visit to the most holy Virgin Mary in some church,

or at least before a devout image in your own house.  

If you do this with tender affection and confidence,

you may hope to receive great things from this most gracious Lady,

who, as St Andrew of Crete says, always bestows great gifts

on those who offer her even the least act of homage."

St Alphonsus Ligouri

Rightly devoted... (Easter Saturday)

"You've got to pray to Our Lady.  
When you lose devotion to Our Lady 
you're out there with the wolves." - Mother Angelica

 

"Do you, then, be also careful always to join

to your daily visit to the most Blessed Sacrament

a visit to the most holy Virgin Mary in some church,

or at least before a devout image in your own house.  

If you do this with tender affection and confidence,

you may hope to receive great things from this most gracious Lady,

who, as St Andrew of Crete says, always bestows great gifts

on those who offer her even the least act of homage."

St Alphonsus Ligouri

Authentic Christian vitality ... (Easter Friday)

"Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a consequence, 

restores to him lost strength and increases his vitality.  Spiritual food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself.  Thus the effect proper to this Sacrament is the conversion of a man into Christ, so that he no longer lives, but Christ lives in Him; consequently, it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual strength

he had lost by his sins and defects, and of increasing the strength of his virtues."

St Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences, d.12, q.2, a.11

 

"The real test of the Christian vitality

of the village, the parish, the diocese and the nation

is found in the answer to the question:

What place 

does the Holy Eucharist 

have in your lives?"

St John Paul II

Painting:  Stanislav Sidorov

The wealth of His love... (Easter Friday)

In Christ who is the source of my strength 

I have strength for everything.  - Phil 4:13

"Love makes the heart leap and dance.

Love makes it exult and be festive.

Love makes it sing and be silent as it pleases.

Love grants it rest and enables it to act.

Love possesses it and gives it everything.

Love takes it over completely and dwells in it.

And Holy Communion is the mansion of love."

St. Veronica Giuliani

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!”

"The Christian should be an Alleluia

from head to foot!"~ St Augustine

 “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)