Easter is the most important Christian feast. Christians celebrate from
their belief that Jesus rose from the dead
Invitation
May I hereby call your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with you the joy of the Gospel.
Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening his heart
to the healing effect of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
First of all, a marginal comment: Isn’t it strange that Peter and John – after all the founders of the young Christian Church – go to the temple after Jesus’ death and resurrection as they did before? It is clear that the apostles did not immediately understand the sacrificial nature of Jesus’ death, nor did they appreciate the implications of breaking the bread and sharing the wine. They did come together to celebrate supper in remembrance of Jesus, as He had asked them to do. But it was too early to realize that this ritual would one day replace the liturgy of the Temple. Acts is the account of that evolution, of a growing faith in the resurrection. The disciples hesitate, but the Lord knows their trial and error; again and again he appears to them to make it clear that he lives. In the Emmaus story, the emphasis is on the journey one must make to experience the closeness, the presence of the Lord. The disciples on their way to Emmaus seem to carry only sorrow, confusion, disillusionment, homesickness. It is those situations where the Lord Jesus comes present – in extremely meager signs – and travels the difficult road with us.
FIRST READING Acts 3, 1-10
What I have I give you: “In the name of Jesus: Use your feet!”
From the Acts of the Apostles
In those days Peter and John once went to the temple
at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
There was a man there who had been lame from birth
and was carried every day to the temple gate
called the Beautiful One :
To ask alms while seated there
to the people who were entering the temple.
When he saw Peter and John
who were about to enter the temple
he asked for alms.
Peter, as well as John looked at him sternly and said :
“Look at us.”
He fixed his gaze on them
expecting to get something from them.
Yet Peter spoke :
“Silver or gold I have not
but what I have I give you.
“In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene :
Use your feet!”
He took him by his right hand
and helped him up.
At the same time, strength came to his feet and ankles,
with a leap he stood up,
started to walk
and went running and jumping with them into the temple
while he was glorifying God.
All the people saw that he was walking and glorifying God.
They recognized him as the man
who was always begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple
and they were beside themselves with wonder
at what had happened to him.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 105(104), 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9
Never forget the miracles that the Lord did.
Or : Alleluia. (Ps. 32, 5b)
Glorify the Lord and worship his Name,
Proclaims to the nations his deeds.
Sing to Him and pluck the strings for Him,
recount all his wondrous works.
Go ye great upon the holy Name of the Lord,
Rejoice, ye that follow Him.
Abide in Him, in his mighty arm,
seek always his Face.
Ye offspring of his servant Abraham,
ye sons of Jacob, his beloved.
The Lord, He is our only God,
what He decrees is true for all the earth.
For ever his covenant remains in force,
which He has promised for a thousand generations.
The covenant He once made with Abraham,
the oath He once swore to Isaac.
ALLELUIA Ps. 118(117), 24
Alleluia.
This is the day, which the Lord has made,
we will celebrate it in gladness.
Alleluia.
SEQUENCY
Let us praise the Lamb of Easter,
let us honour the Lamb of God with sacrifice.
Yes the Lamb saves the sheep,
Christ through his innocence
lead us poor sinners to the Father.
Death and life, oh miracle,
must fight together.
Who died, He lives, He is our King.
Tell us, Mary,
what is it you have seen?
The emptiness of Christ’s tomb,
the glory of Him who rose again,
angels as witnesses,
the sudarium and the shroud.
My hope, my Christ alive!
Behold He goeth before thee into Galilee.
Truly Christ is risen : Rose from the dead.
O King, our Hero, give us peace. Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk 24, 13-35
They recognized Him by the breaking of the bread.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
On the first day of the week
two disciples of Jesus were on their way to a village
called Emmaus
and which lay sixty stadia from Jerusalem.
They were talking to each other about everything that had happened.
While they were talking
and exchanging views,
Jesus himself came to them
and He walked with them.
But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
He asked them :
“What is this conversation
that you are having with one another on the way?”
With a troubled face they remained standing.
One of them, whose name was Kléopas, took the floor and spoke to Him :
“Art Thou then the only stranger in Jerusalem,
that Thou knowest not what hath happened there these days?”
He asked them :
“What then?”
They answered Him :
“That with Jesus the Nazarene,
a man who was a prophet,
mighty in deed and word
in the sight of God and of all the people.
How our high priests and governmental officials
delivered Him up
to have Him condemned to death
and how they beat Him on the cross.
And we lived in the hope
that He was going to be the one to redeem Israel !
“But with all this it is already the third day
since those things happened.
“Well some women from among us
have confused us ;
they had gone to the grave early in the morning
but had not found his body
and they came to say
that they had also had an apparition of angels
who declared that He was alive again.
“Thereupon some of us went to the tomb
and they found it as the women had said,
but they did not see Him.”
Now He spoke to them :
“O unwise ones,
who are so slow of heart
in believing all that the prophets have said!
“Did not the Messiah have to suffer all this
to enter into his glory?”
Beginning with Moses, He explained to them from all the prophets
what all the Scriptures had to do with Him.
Thus they came to the village to which they were going,
but He pretended to go further.
They urged Him :
“Stay with us, for it is already evening and the day is drawing to a close.”
Then He went in to stay with them.
As He lay down with them, He took bread,
pronounced the blessing,
broke it and gave it to them.
Now their eyes opened and they recognized Him,
but He disappeared from their sight.
Then they said to one another :
“Did not our hearts burn within us ,
as He spoke to us on the way and opened up the Scriptures to us?”
They immediately got up and returned to Jerusalem.
There they found the eleven gathered with the people of their group.
These declared :
“The Lord is truly risen,
He has appeared to Simon.”
And they for their part told what had happened on the way
and how He was recognized by them
at the breaking of the bread.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
An integral ecology
137. Since everything is closely interrelated and the current problems call for a view that takes into account all aspects of the global crisis, I propose to dwell now on a reflection on the different elements of an integral ecology that clearly includes human and social dimensions.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical Suggestions for Weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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