Chaplain's Message

Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, three days after he was crucified by Romans around 30 A.D. The particular day of the week on which Christ rose from the dead would have been Sunday, the first day of the week after the Jewish Sabbath. Early Christians celebrated every Sunday like it was Easter. There was no annual commemoration of Easter early on, but by the second and third centuries, there came to be an annual celebration of Easter, and the celebration later grew.

Easter marks the last day of Holy Week, which consists of several days that each carry their own significance. These include: 

• Palm Sunday: commemorating when Jesus entered Jerusalem
• Holy Thursday: commemorating the Last Supper and washing of feet 
• Good Friday: commemorating Jesus' crucifixion and death
• Easter Sunday: commemorating the resurrection of Jesus

Easter Mass is one of the longest iterations of the Catholic Mass. For our parish, the Easter Vigil begins after sunset on Saturday night and includes many special elements, such as blessing a fire in the plaza and consecrating a new Christ candle, which is lit from the blessed fire.

Then we follow the newly lit Christ candle, which is being carried by a deacon, and process with unlit candles into a darkened church. Once we’re all inside, we experience the spreading of the Light of Christ throughout the church as we light our individual candles from the Christ candle. Once all are in place, and with our candles burning, we listen as the Exsultet is sung/proclaimed and salvation history is recounted through various scriptures, songs, and prayers. After the Liturgy of the Word, we then move into the Rites of Initiation for those who have been preparing through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) for the past several months. 

This year we are blessed to have 30 people being baptized! Having been given the necessary authority to do so by our Archbishop, Fr. James will confirm all 30 of these people, and now, fully Catholic, they will join the rest of the Body of Christ in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where they will receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the very first time. 

As you might imagine, this is a long Mass, but oh, what a glorious experience! I would love to see as many of our sisters as humanly possible attend all of the magnificent, deeply spiritual liturgies of Holy Week. It is the high point of the entire year!

As is sung in the Exsultet:

Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven,
exult, let Angel ministers of God exult,
let the trumpet of salvation
sound aloud our mighty King's triumph!

Be blessed! 

---Deacon Stacy Millsap