Invitatory
Lord, open thou my mouth.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Invitatory Antiphon
Alleluia, the Lord is risen, alleluia.
Psalm 94 (95)
Come let us praise the Lord with joy: let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Invitatory Antiphon
Alleluia, the Lord is risen, alleluia.
Hymn
The strife is o’er, the battle done;
The victory of life is won;
The song of triumph has begun:
Alleluia!
The powers of death have done their worst,
But Christ their legions hath dispersed;
Let shout of holy joy outburst:
Alleluia!
He closed the yawning gates of hell;
The bars from heaven’s high portals fell;
Let hymns of praise His triumph tell:
Alleluia!
Lord, by the stripes which wounded Thee,
From death’s dread sting Thy servants free,
That we may live and sing to Thee:
Alleluia!
Amen.
Psalmody
Antiphon 1
Blessed is the man who walks in the law of the Lord, alleluia.
Psalm 83 (84)
How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.
For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones:
Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever.
Blessed is the man whose help is from thee:
In his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps,
In the vale of tears, in the place which he hath set.
For the lawgiver shall give a blessing, they shall go from virtue to virtue:
The God of gods shall be seen in Sion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob.
Behold, O God our protector: and look on the face of thy Christ.
For better is one day in thy courts above thousands.
I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners.
For God loveth mercy and truth: the Lord will give grace and glory.
He will not deprive of good things them that walk in innocence:
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon 1
Blessed is the man who walks in the law of the Lord, alleluia.
Antiphon 2
Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord, alleluia.
Canticle — Isaiah 2:2–5
And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go, and say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths:
For the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people:
And they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation: neither shall they be exercised any more to war.
O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon 2
Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord, alleluia.
Antiphon 3
Sing to the Lord a new canticle, alleluia.
Psalm 95 (96)
Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing ye to the Lord and bless his name: shew forth his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the Gentiles: his wonders among all people.
For the Lord is great, and exceedingly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens.
Praise and beauty are before him: holiness and majesty in his sanctuary.
Bring ye to the Lord, O ye kindreds of the Gentiles, bring ye to the Lord glory and honour:
Bring to the Lord glory unto his name.
Bring up sacrifices, and come into his courts:
Adore ye the Lord in his holy court.
Let all the earth be moved at his presence.
Say ye among the Gentiles, the Lord hath reigned.
For he hath corrected the world, which shall not be moved:
he will judge the people with justice.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, let the sea be moved, and the fulness thereof:
the fields and all things that are in them shall be joyful.
Then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice before the face of the Lord, because he cometh:
because he cometh to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with justice, and the people with his truth.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon 3
Sing to the Lord a new canticle, alleluia.
Short Reading
Romans 10:8b–10
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart. This is the word of faith, which we preach. For if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For, with the heart, we believe unto justice; but, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.
Short Responsory
The Lord is risen from the tomb, alleluia, alleluia.
— The Lord is risen from the tomb, alleluia, alleluia.
Who for our sake hung upon the tree.
— Alleluia, alleluia.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
— The Lord is risen from the tomb, alleluia, alleluia.
Benedictus Antiphon
Have confidence: I have overcome the world, alleluia.
Benedictus
Luke 1:68–79
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him, all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Benedictus Antiphon
Have confidence: I have overcome the world, alleluia.
Intercessions
Christ the Lord has risen from the dead and lives forever to intercede for us. Let us pray to him, saying:
Risen Lord, hear us.
Thou art the stone rejected by the builders which became the cornerstone,
— make us living stones in thy Church.
Thou didst reveal thyself to the disciples in the breaking of bread,
— remain with thy faithful people at every altar.
Thou didst bring peace to the fearful apostles,
— bring courage to Christians suffering persecution throughout the world.
Thou hast overcome the world,
— strengthen all who labor under discouragement, confusion, or grief.
Thou art seated at the right hand of the Father,
— lead the faithful departed into the light of thy resurrection.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil. Amen.
Concluding Prayer
May the power of the Holy Ghost come upon us, O Lord, we pray: that we may keep faithfully thy will in our minds and express it in a devout manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
Paradox of the Day
The Christian does not deny the darkness of the world; he simply insists that the darkness has already lost.
G.K. Chesterton Quote
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
Chestertonian Reflection
Our Lord says something astonishing in today’s Gospel. He does not promise that the apostles will avoid distress. He promises precisely the opposite. “In the world you shall have distress.” Modern people often imagine religion as a kind of emotional insurance policy against storms. Christianity is much stranger than that. Christ foretells the storm in exact detail — and then commands confidence anyway.
That is because Christian confidence is not optimism. Optimism merely guesses that things may improve. Christian hope announces that the decisive battle has already been won.
The apostles are about to scatter. Saint Peter himself will tremble before a servant girl. Yet Christ speaks of peace at the very moment the world appears strongest. Why? Because evil always appears largest just before dawn. The Cross looked like the triumph of death only because men had not yet seen Sunday morning.
The modern world is filled with clever despair. It constantly tells us civilization is collapsing, truth is dying, families are breaking, and darkness is inevitable. Christianity calmly replies: perhaps — but the tomb is still empty.
A Christian can therefore walk through chaos with extraordinary serenity. Not because he trusts himself, but because he trusts a King who has already walked out of His grave.
That is the secret of Easter courage. The worst thing is never the last thing.
Chesterton Radio
Broadcasting from Atchison — where the bells still ring over the river, and the resurrection still greets the dawn