Ending and Beginning

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice! Tonight the holy penitential season of Lent is ended. Fasting and weeping are put away. Tears and sorrow are removed. Your salvation is completed.

And yet, this is but the end of the beginning. For on this holy night, we keep solemn vigil. We keep watch for the One who comes in the Name of the Lord, the coming King. St. Augustine wrote:

In that life for the attainment of the peace of which we labor, and which Truth promises to us in the resurrection after the death of this body or at the end of this world, we shall never sleep, just as we shall never die. For what else is sleep but a daily death which does not completely remove man hence nor detain him too long? And what else is death but a very long and very deep sleep from which God arouses man? Therefore, when there is no death, there is likewise no sleep, the image of death. Finally, there is no sleep except that of mortals.

The Works of the Lord

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“The right hand of the Lord has struck with power!” With great power and might, the mighty arm of the Lord has gone forth into the deep darkness, and He has struck with all the power of heaven. The Lord of Hosts has stretched forth His hand and has triumphed gloriously!

Christ our Lord has been crucified and has died. And this is glorious in our eyes! For this is the great glory by which the Lord of heaven stretches forth His mighty right hand. He does not stretch forth His hand in warfare. He does not stretch forth His hand to smite the sinners from the earth. He does not stretch forth His hand to drub Satan into the ground before the world's eyes.