Pause for Prayer: EASTER SUNDAY

For the joy of Easter's song,

     ALLELUIA! 

 

For the joy of faith in you,
    ALLELUIA!

For the joy your Holy Spirit brings,
    ALLELUIA!

For the joy and peace of trusting you, 
    ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy of resting in your arms,
    ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy of good and faithful friends,
    ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy of life's most simple things,
    ALLELUIA!

 

For the joy of small surprises,

    ALLELUIA! 

 

For the joy of every sunrise

    and and every evening's sunset,

        ALLELUIA!

 
For the joy of days well spent,
   ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy of just a good night's sleep,
   ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy your grace affords me,
   ALLELUIA!

 

For joy that lifts me from my grief,

    ALLELUIA!

    
For the joy of word and promise kept,
   ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy of mercy's pardon,
    ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy of new beginnings,
    ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy of living 

    - one day at a time,
        ALLELUIA! 

 
For the joy of giving thanks,
    ALLELUIA! 

   
For joy that calms my fears,

     ALLELUIA!

 
For joy that eases worries,

    ALLELUIA!

 
For joy that heals old wounds,

    ALLELUIA! 

 

For the joy that gives me hope renewed,

    ALLELUIA! 

 
For joy that mends my heart, 

    ALLELUIA!

 
For joy that feeds my faith,

    ALLELUIA!

 
For joy that brings me peace,

    ALLELUIA! 

 

What - or whom - might you add to this litany? 

 

For the joy of ____________,

    ALLELUIA!  

 
For the joy that trusts 

    all shall be well,
        I praise and thank you, Lord!

            ALLELUIA!   

 

 

Halle! Halle! Halle!

    Folk tune arranged by Marty Haugen

        performed by Saint Olaf Choir

 

If a video doesn't appear below, click here!

 

1. Oh, God to whom shall we go?
You alone have the words of life.
Let your words be our prayer
and our song we sing:
Hallelujah, hallelujah.

2. I am the light of the world says the Lord.
Walk in the light of life.
All who follow my words
shall have life indeed:
Hallelujah, hallelujah. 

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NIGHT PRAYER: Saturday 4/4

The Easter Vigil opens with a Service of Light which features the Exsultet, a 1200 year old hymn of praise in honor of the Paschal Candle (the Light of Christ in our midst). Back in 1984 I combined the text of the Exsultet (a lengthy chant sung by a solo voice) with the music of Marty Haugen's The Light of Christ to give the assembly of worshipers a sung role in this Easter proclamation. I hope this will give your Easter celebration a joyful beginning!  Following the video and the text, you'll find this day's Night Prayer.   (If a video doesn't appear below, click here!) 

 

 

 

            The light of Christ surrounds us;

            the love of Christ enfolds us;

            the pow'r of Christ protects us;

            the presence of Christ watches over us.

 

            All the earth is ablaze

            with the glory of God,

            for the light has come

            to burn away the darkness.

 

            The light of Christ surrounds us…

 

            Let us fill every space

            with the sound of our joy,

            praising Christ who is living now among us.

 

            The light of Christ surrounds us…

 

            Rejoice, all you heavenly choirs of angels!

 

            Rejoice, all creation around God's throne -

            for our mighty God is victorious!

 

            Rejoice, O earth -                

            you are made radiant by such splendor!

 

            Darkness everywhere has been overcome

            by the brightness of our everlasting God!

 

            Rejoice, O Holy Mother Church -

            you are made radiant by so great a light!

 

            Let this place ring out with rejoicing,

            with the song of all the people gathered here.

 

            The light of Christ surrounds us…

 

            My brothers and sisters:

            Christ has ransomed us with his blood

            and paid for us the debt of Adam's sin,

            and with his precious blood

            washed away the penalty of original sin.

 

            This is the Paschal feast

            in which the true lamb is slain;

            whose blood hallowed the doorposts of the faithful!

 

            This is the night when first you saved our ancestors,

            you freed the people of Israel from their slavery

            and led them dry-shod through the Red Sea!

 

            This is the night when the pillar of fire

            destroyed the darkness of sin!

 

            This is the night which at this hour everywhere

            restores to grace and unites in holiness

            those who believe in Christ,

            separating them from worldly vice

            and the darkness of sin.

 

            This is the night when Jesus Christ

            broke the chains of death

            and rose in victory from the grave!

 

            The light of Christ surrounds us…

 

            Father, how wonderful your care for us!

            How boundless your merciful love!

 

            To ransom us, your servants, 

                you gave away your only Son.

 

            O happy fault!   O necessary sin of Adam

            which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

 

            O truly blessed night

            which alone deserved to know the time and the hour

            when Christ arose from the grave.

 

            It is of this night that Scripture says:

            "And the night shall be as bright as day,

            and the night shall light up my joy!"

 

            The power of this holy night dispels all evil, 

                washes guilt away,

            restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;

            it casts out hatred, brings us peace, 

                and humbles earthly pride.

 

            This is the night truly blessed   

                when heaven is wedded to earth

                    and creation is reconciled with God.

 

            The light of Christ surrounds us…

           

            As this candle shines out

            through the darkness of night,

            may the love of Christ

            burn ever in our hearts.

 

            The light of Christ surrounds us…

 

            In the East, the Morning Star

            rises bright upon us,

            in its peaceful light

            shines the glory of the Lord.

 

            The light of Christ surrounds us;

            the love of Christ enfolds us;

            the pow'r of Christ protects us;

            the presence of Christ watches over us.

           

            AMEN!

 

Night Prayer 

 

When I go to bed tonight, Lord,
I'll pray for deep and restful sleep
on this night of all nights when,
at a time known only to heaven,
you rose from the dead...

This is the night, Lord,

which restores to grace 

and unites in holiness

all who believe in you....

This is the night

whose light pierces the darkness

and rescues us from sin...

This is the night

when you broke the chains of death

and rose in victory from the grave!

The power of this holy night 

dispels all evil, 

washes guilt away, 

restores lost innocence, 

brings mourners joy; 

casts out hatred,

brings us peace, 

and humbles earthly pride. 

This is the night truly blessed

when heaven is wedded to earth 

and creation is reconciled with God! *

So I shall sleep in peace, Lord,

trusting that even in the dead of night

your risen life beats within me

and that I, too, shall rise:

    when morning dawns tomorrow;

    and at the end of all my days;

    and when at last you come again,

    and death shall be no more!

Amen.

 

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On Saturday, it was hopeless...

 

 

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Pause for Prayer: HOLY SATURDAY

The Dead Christ by Mantegna

 

On Holy Saturday the Church waits at the Lord's tomb, meditating on His suffering and death.  Mantegna's painting is a compelling image, confronting us with the reality of Jesus' death...

 

On this day, Holy Saturday, the altar is left bare and Mass is not celebrated.

Only with the solemn vigil during the night does the Easter celebration begin with a spirit of joy that overflows into an Easter season of fifty days.

Writing in the fourth century, St Epiphanius of Salamis offers us his beautiful appreciation of Holy Saturday.  What he describes here is what we mean when we say of Christ in the Apostles Creed:

    He suffered, died, and was buried.
    He descended into Hell; 

    the third day he rose again from the dead.

Upon his death, Christ went to the nether world to set free the souls of all who had died awaiting his victory over death - beginning with our first parents...

 

    Something strange is happening—

        there is a great silence on earth today, 

            a great silence and stillness. 

    The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. 

    The earth trembled and is still 

        because God has fallen asleep in the flesh 

            and has raised up all who have slept 

                ever since the world began. 

    God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. 

    He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.

    Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness 

        and in the shadow of death, 

    he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve:

        He who is both God and the son of Eve. 

    The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, 

        the weapon that had won Him the victory. 

    At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, 

        struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: 

            “My Lord be with you all.” 

    Christ answered him:

            “And with your spirit.” 

    He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: 

            “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, 

                and Christ will give you light.”

 

      - St Epiphanius of Salamis

 

A Prayer for Holy Saturday

- by Kerry Greenhil 

This is the hardest time to pray:
after the drama and catastrophe,
before the angels and the big reveal.

The passion, the agony, the desperate grief
have given way to numbness
and absence
in this time in between.

God seems to be offstage,
preparing for the final scene,
taking care of ancient souls in other worlds
or clothing the hidden, broken body
in resurrection glory.

So let our prayer this day be plain
and to the point:
May God be with us in the waiting,
and may we wait with hope,
today
and every time in between.

Amen.

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Stations of the Cross and NIGHT PRAYER

I'm posting Night Prayer early because it's based on the Stations of the Cross and some here might want to pray the Stations this afternoon.  

 

The "stations" are a Lenten devotion whose roots go back to the fourth century ,when pilgrims to the Holy Land would trace the steps of Jesus from Pilate's house to Calvary.  Later, for those who could not travel to the Holy Land, images were erected both outdoors and in churches so that believers could make a virtual pilgrimage and pray their way with Jesus on his way to Calvary.

The stations many of us grew up with number 14.  Of these, some are based in the scriptural accounts of Jesus' last hours and some are not.  For example, while 3 of stations recount Jesus falling under the weight of the Cross, there is no scriptural basis for his having fallen even once. Likewise, the scene of a woman named Veronica wiping the face of Jesus comes not from the bible but from a pious tradition.  

 

Now, however, there's an alternative.  On Good Friday 1991, Saint John Paul II introduced a new set of Stations - still 14 - but all of them based on the gospel accounts of Jesus' suffering and death.  

Here, then, are two videos: the first offers the older form of the Stations and the second the scripture-based devotion.  You'll find the first presentation very plain and simple, leaving most of the praying to the viewer while the second format leads you prayerfully through the scenes in the gospel that tell the story of Jesus' suffering and death.  

 

Following the videos you'll find today's Night Prayer...

 

If two videos don't appear below, click here!

 

Stations of the Cross - by iChurch.org

 

 

Stations of the Cross: 

    by Saint John Paul II Catholic High School

 

 Night Prayer

 

Jesus, my brother,

    in accepting your Cross

    you took on your shoulders

    the weight of my sins and offenses,

    the heft of my faults and my failings... 

Jesus, my friend,

    when you shouldered your Cross

    you bore the brunt of my pride and resentments,

    my lies and deceit, my temper and anger...

 

Jesus, my Lord,

    the Cross you took up scraped and bruised your flesh

    with the splinters of my indiscretions,

    my hasty, foolish and imprudent choices...

Jesus, my brother, my friend, my Lord,

    you carried me on your shoulders that day,

    you took on the weight of my unfaithful heart

        to save and redeem me, to mend and to heal me,

        to free and forgive me of all my sins,

    that I might have life I don't deserve,

        won by your love, 

        sealed in your blood,

        given for me 

        on the arms of your Cross...

 

O Jesus, Son of the living God:

    have mercy on me, a sinner...

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

and asleep, rest in your peace.

Amen.

 

Tonight's song is below the image...

 

 

Tonight's song is a beautiful, haunting setting of an old hymn,

including some instrumental interludes for your personal prayer...

 

What Wondrous Love Is This by Fernando Orgtega

 

If a video doesn't appear below, click here! 

 

 

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