A New Light Has Dawn!
Easter Vigil
April 3, 2010- 8:00PM @ Saint Lucy
The celebration of the Resurrection and the reception of the Easter sacraments. Since Ash Wednesday we have been engaged in a struggle with sin and death-to-self. Now we spend a few hours before the Vigil service in rest, remembrance, and anticipation. more
symbols as fire, light, water, oil, and bread. The Sacramentary (the Church's book of worship) divides the liturgy of the Vigil into four elements:
+ a brief service of light, when a new fire is struck, the Easter candle is lit, and the Easter proclamation is solemnly sung;
+ the Liturgy of the Word, when the Church meditates on all the wonderful things God has
done for his people from the beginning of creation;
+ the Liturgy of Baptism, when the new members of the Church are reborn in the freshly blessed water as the day of resurrection approaches;
+ the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when the whole Church is called to the table that the Lord prepared for his people through his death and Resurrection.
In the early Church, the Easter Vigil lasted all night and unfolded into Easter morning. Today, the Easter Vigil will usually begin after sundown and take up the early evening hours. Through the course of the liturgy, daylight will symbolically unfold through the beauty of candles, flowers, music, singing, the immersion of --- or pouring of water over ----the catechumens elected for Baptism, the scents of oil used for their Confirmation, and the taste of bread and wine of the Eucharist shared by the entire assembly. “This is the night!” proclaims the Church. And what a night it is. Choirs are in full voice, organists pull out all the stops, bells of the hand and tower variety are rung, and “alleluias” fill the church! For the catechumens, they have reached the summit of their journey of faith. Easter morning follows. It marks both the final hours of the Triduum and the beginning of a 50-day celebration period in the Church calendar. The joyful music, the elegance and fragrance of lilies, and life in Christ, new or renewed, continues until Pentecost as we celebrate all that God has done for us through Jesus.
