Easter Monday

Celebrate the “Emmaus Walk” tradition and Carry the joy of the Resurrection wherever your feet take you today. Visit someone and share a meal.

Emmaus Walk: Easter Monday was considered a holiday — a day of relaxation, rest, and special festivities. One particular custom was a long-held event in Europe. It was called the Emmaus Walk. Families and groups of friends and relatives would go on foot to nearby fields, forests, or mountains for an afternoon of fun and fellowship. Following a picnic lunch, they would spend the afternoon playing games, dancing, singing, and conversing. 

The "Emmaus Walk", derives its name from the gospel passage for the day, which recounts the meeting of the disciples with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. This tradition continues for the Monks at Saint Vincent. Prior to Vatican II, Easter Monday was a day the lay brothers would get an extra "Hemina".

In Germany, the young children would play games specific to Easter and would also enjoy performing some of the ancient folk dances of their ancestors. Most of the time, these German events were celebrated in a field called Osteranger which means, “Easter field.” In Poland, their outings on Easter Monday were large picnic celebrations that often included the whole town. They gathered in the “Emmaus” grove. 

Solemnity of Easter Sunday!!

EASTER SUNDAY

Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining. (Sequence of Easter Sunday)

Reflection.

On Easter Sunday, the Church is recollected in contemplation of the risen Christ. Thus she relives the primordial experience that lies at the basis of her existence. She feels imbued with the same wonder as Mary Magdalen and the other women who went to Christ's tomb on Easter morning and found it empty. That tomb became the womb of life. Whoever had condemned Jesus, deceived himself that he had buried his cause under an ice-cold tombstone. The disciples themselves gave into the feeling of irreparable failure. We understand their surprise, then, and even their distrust in the news of the empty tomb. But the Risen One did not delay in making himself seen and they yielded to reality. They saw and believed! Two thousand years later, we still sense the unspeakable emotion that overcame them when they heard the Master's greeting: "Peace be with you.'"....
...Christ's Resurrection is the strength, the secret of Christianity. It is not a question of mythology or of mere symbolism, but of a concrete event. It is confirmed by sure and convincing proofs. The acceptance of this truth, although the fruit of the Holy Spirit's grace, rests at the same time on a solid historical base. On the threshold of the third millennium, the new effort of evangelization can begin only from a renewed experience of this Mystery, accepted in faith and witnessed to in life.... Pope John Paul II

Lenten Fact

Mass is to be celebrated on Easter Day with great solemnity. It is appropriate that the penitential rite on this day take the form of a sprinkling with water blessed at the Vigil, during which the antiphon Vidi aquam, or some other song of baptismal character should be sung. The fonts at the entrance to the church should also be filled with the same water. The tradition of celebrating baptismal Vespers on Easter Day with the singing of psalms during the procession to the font should be maintained where it is still in force, and appropriately, restored. The paschal candle has its proper place either by the ambo or by the altar and should be lit at least in all the more solemn liturgical celebrations of the season until Pentecost Sunday, whether at Mass, or at Morning and Evening Prayer. After the Easter season the candle should be kept with honor in the baptistry, so that in the celebration of Baptism the candles of the baptized may be lit from them. In the celebration of funerals, the paschal candle should be place near the coffin to indicate that the death of a Christian is his own passover. The paschal candle should not otherwise be lit nor placed in the sanctuary outside the Easter season.

Prayer

God our Father, creator of all, today is the day of Easter joy. This is the morning on which the Lord appeared ot men who had begun to lose their hope and opened their eyes to what the scriptures foretold: that first he must die, and then he would rise and ascend into his Father's glorious presence. May the risen Lord breathe on our minds and open our eyes that we may know him in the breaking of bread, and follow him in his risen life. Grant this 
through Christ our Lord. Amen.