Holy Saturday Vigil Mass in Holy Night Of Easter 2013

Scripture readings for the Saturday Easter Vigil Mass are here 

Update : Pope Francis Easter Vigil Homily Full Text  
Click here
 

Women Arriving At The Tomb by He Qi
Image source 

Gospel Luke 24 1-12

 At daybreak on the first day of the week
the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus
took the spices they had prepared
and went to the tomb.


They found the stone rolled away from the tomb;
but when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.



Easter Morn He Qi
Image source


While they were puzzling over this, behold,
two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.
They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. 



Image b He Qi.

They said to them,
“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised.


Cartoon by Steve Breen. Source


Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners
and be crucified, and rise on the third day.”


And they remembered his words.



Easter morning III He Qi
Image source

Then they returned from the tomb
and announced all these things to the eleven
and to all the others.


The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James;
the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,
but their story seemed like nonsense
and they did not believe them.



 Image Source- by Liz Lemon Swindle.

Image of Peter and John running to tomb - this is from the Day Mass of Easter Sunday - a different Gospel account with two disciples running to the tomb.

 
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb,
bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone;
then he went home amazed at what had happened.



Awake, O Sleeper
I order you, O sleeper, to
awake.





I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. 

Rise from the
dead, for I am the life of the dead. 


Rise up, work of my hands, you who
were created in my image. 


Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in
me and I am in you.


 Together we form only one person and we cannot be
separated.


From The Office of Readings for Holy Saturday. (Ancient Homily)


This Is The Night

A wonderful reflection from Irma Zaleski

 from Lay Apostolate of Madonna House

which begins :

"Of all the wonderful moments that the Church provides for us in its
great annual cycle of feasts and celebrations, there is one that that
moves me perhaps the most deeply. That is the moment during the Liturgy
of Holy Saturday, when the deacon stands by the burning flame of the
Paschal candle and proclaims the great hymn of wonder and praise: the
Exultet.



   
"Rejoice, O Mother Church, Exult in glory!... "This is
the night, when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin, are restored
 to grace and grow united in holiness. This is the night when Christ
broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave! This is
the night…."


Click here for the rest of the article.

The video below is the sung version of the revised translation of the Exultet with embedded lyrics.

 Click here for my accompanying post on the lighting of the Paschal Fire and Candle at the Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass with the same video of the sung Exultet.





He Makes All Things New 
 Andrew Peterson

I love this song....


Come broken and weary, 
come battered and bruised
my Jesus makes all things new,
 all things new 


Come lost and abandoned, 
come blown by the wind
He'll bring you back home again, 
home again

Chorus: 

Rise up oh you sleeper awake
The light of the dawn is upon you
Rise up oh you sleeper awake
He makes all things new
All things New 

 Come frozen with shame, 
come burning with guilt
my Jesus, He loves you still,
 loves you still

Chorus 

The world was good, 
the world is fallen, 
the world will be
redeemed, 
The world was good,
the world is fallen, 
the world will be
redeemed

So hold on to the promise,
 the stories are true, 
My Jesus makes all things new
 (The Dawn is upon you)

Chorus




The Great Chain Of Being

"St. Bonaventure (1221– 1274) took the intuitive genius of St Francis of Assisi and spelled it out into an entire philosophy.
God is “within all things but not enclosed; 
outside all things but not excluded; 
above all things but not aloof; 
below all things, but not debased.” 
Bonaventure was the first to speak of God as one “whose centre
 is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”
Therefore “the origin, magnitude, multitude, beauty, fullness, activity and order of
all created things” are the very “footprints” and “fingerprints” (vestigia) of God, according to this Doctor of the Church.

Now that is quite a lovely and a very safe universe to live in. 
Welcome home!"

Richard Rohr, Adapted from Hope Against Darkness (p. 136)


"In every man and woman, a wound is opened by failures, humiliations, a
bad conscience.
It may have been opened at a time when we needed
infinite understanding and no one was there.


Transfigured by Christ, the
 wound turns into a locus of energy, a creative wellspring from which
will arise communion, friendship and understanding."


Brother Roger of Taize 

 From Fifth Responsorial Psalm of The Holy Saturday Vigil Mass



"You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation."


 Jesus and The Woman At The Well
Image source



Now The Green Blade Riseth 




I have heard The hymn "Now The Green Blade Riseth," played like a dirge
 but this one played on hand bells bursts with energy and life -
 to me it conveys beautifully the excitement and joy of Easter Resurrection.
(Note- The camera work on this is distinctly dodgy.)




Lyrics

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.


In the grave they laid him, Love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.


Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.


When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.



Thanks be To God. Alleluia !!
Wishing everyone Easter Blessings, 
Peace, Love, Hope and Joy.

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