Easter is the most important Christian festival. Christians celebrate,
based on their faith, that Jesus rose from the dead
Invitation
May I take this opportunity to draw your attention to the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation aims to share with you the joy of the Gospel. Everyone, without exception,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day
Consideration
Is it not strange that Peter and John – surely the founders of the early Christian Church – continued to go to the temple as usual after Jesus’ death and resurrection? It is clear that the apostles did not immediately grasp the sacrificial nature of Jesus’ death, nor did they appreciate the implications of breaking bread and sharing wine. They did gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Jesus, as He had asked them to do. But it was still too early to realise that this ritual would one day replace the Temple liturgy. The Acts of the Apostles is the account of that evolution, of a growing faith in the Resurrection. The disciples hesitate, but the Lord knows their trials and tribulations; time and again He appears to them to make it clear that He is alive. In the Emmaus story, the emphasis is on the journey one must undertake to experience the nearness, the presence of the Lord. The disciples on their way to Emmaus seem to carry with them nothing but sorrow, confusion, disillusionment and homesickness. It is in these situations that the Lord Jesus makes himself present – in the most humble of signs – and walks the difficult path with us.
Where do I see Jesus on my path? Do I allow Him to enter fully into it?
FIRST READING Acts 3, 1-10
What I have, I give to you: “In the name of Jesus: Use your feet!”
From the Acts of the Apostles
In those days, Peter and John went up to the temple
at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
There was a man there who had been lame from birth;
and every day he was carried to the temple gate
called the Beautiful,
to sit there and ask for alms
from the people entering the temple.
When he saw Peter and John
who were just about to enter the temple,
he asked them for alms.
Peter, as well as John, looked intently at him and said:
“Look at us.”
He fixed his gaze on them,
expecting to receive something from them.
But Peter said:
“I have no silver or gold,
but what I have I give you.
“In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene:
walk!”
He took him by the right hand
and helped him to his feet.
At that very moment, strength came into his feet and ankles;
with a leap he stood up,
began to walk,
and went into the temple with them, walking and leaping,
whilst he glorified God.
All the people saw that he was walking and glorifying God.
They recognised him as the man
who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple;
and they were beside themselves with amazement;
at what had happened to him.
RESPONSORIAL Ps. 105(104), 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9
Never forget the wonders the Lord has done.
or: Alleluia. (Ps. 32:5b)
Glorify the Lord and worship his Name,
proclaim his deeds to the nations.
Sing to him and play the strings for him,
tell of all his wondrous works.
Rejoice in the holy Name of the Lord,
rejoice, you who follow Him.
Trust in Him, in his mighty arm,
seek His Face always.
You, the offspring of his servant Abraham,
you sons of Jacob, his beloved.
The Lord, He is our only God,
what He decrees applies to the whole earth.
His covenant remains in force for ever,
what 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 the Lord has made,
we shall celebrate it with joy.
Alleluia.
SEQUENCE
Let us praise the Lamb of Easter,
honour the Lamb of God with offerings.
Yes, the Lamb saves the sheep,
Christ, through His innocence,
brings us poor sinners to the Father.
Death and life, O wonder,
must struggle together.
He who died, He lives, He is our King.
Tell us, Mary,
what is it that you have seen?
Christ’s tomb that was empty,
the glory of Him who has risen,
angels as witnesses,
the sweat cloth and the shroud.
My hope, my living Christ!
Behold, He goes before you to Galilee.
Truly Christ is risen: He rose from the dead.
O King, our Hero, grant us peace. Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 24, 13-35
They recognised Him in 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 of Jesus’ disciples were on their way to a village,
called Emmaus,
which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.
They were talking to one another about all that had happened.
Whilst they were talking like this
and exchanging thoughts,
Jesus himself came up to them
and walked with them.
But their eyes were kept from recognising him.
He asked them:
“What is this conversation
that you are having with one another as you walk?”
They stood still, looking sad.
One of them, called Cleopas, spoke up and said to Him:
“Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem,
that You do not know what has happened there in these days?”
He asked them:
“What then?”
They replied to Him:
“That concerning Jesus of Nazareth,
a man who was a prophet,
mighty in deed and word,
in the sight of God and of all the people;
how our chief priests and rulers
handed Him over,
to have Him condemned to death,
and how they crucified Him.
And we had hoped,
that He would be the One to redeem Israel!
“But with all this, it is already the third day
since those things happened.
“However, a few women among us have
confused us;
they had gone to the tomb early in the morning,
but had not found his body,
and they came to say,
that they had also seen angels,
who declared that He was alive again.
“Then some of our number went to the tomb,
and they found it just as the women had said,
but they did not see Him.”
Then He spoke to them:
“O foolish ones,
who are so slow of heart
in believing all that the prophets have spoken!
“Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer all these things
in order to enter into His glory?”
Beginning with Moses, He explained to them from all the prophets
what referred to Him in all the Scriptures.
So they came to the village where they were going,
but He pretended He had to go on.
They urged Him:
“Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is drawing to a close.”
Then He went in to stay with them.
Whilst He was at table with them, He took bread,
said the blessing,
broke it and gave it to them.
Then their eyes were opened and they recognised Him,
but He vanished from their sight.
Then they said to one another:
“Did not our hearts burn within us,
as He spoke to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
They set out at once and returned to Jerusalem.
There they found the Eleven gathered with the others.
These said to them:
“The Lord has truly risen;
He has appeared to Simon.”
And they, in turn, told what had happened on the road
and how He had been recognised by them
when He broke the bread.
Laudato Si
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCIS
On Care for Our Common Home
80. Nevertheless, God, who wishes to act with us and to count on our cooperation,
is also able to bring good out of the evil we
do, because “the Holy Spirit possesses an infinite ingenuity, proper
to the divine mind, which can untangle even the knots of the most
complex and impenetrable human affairs”.
In some way, He has chosen to limit Himself in the creation
of a world that requires development, and where many things that we
regard as evil, dangers or sources of suffering are, in reality,
part of the birth pangs that urge us to with the Creator.
He is present in the innermost depths of every thing
without determining the autonomy of his creature, and this too
gives rise to the legitimate autonomy of earthly realities.
This divine presence, which guarantees the survival and development of
every being, “is the continuation of the creative act”.
The Spirit of God has filled the universe with potentials that make it possible
for something new to continually spring forth from the bosom of things.
“Nature is nothing other than the ratio of a certain art, especially the
divine art, which is inscribed in things, whereby things
themselves move towards a certain goal. As if the shipbuilder were to
allow the wood to move of its own accord to take on the shape of the ship”.
To be continued…
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this edition is taken fromThe New Bible Translation,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Reflections from Liturgical Suggestions for Weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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