March 22, 2008

• Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel!

  Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels! Exult, all creation around God’s throne! Jesus Christ, our King, is risen! Sound the trumpet of salvation! Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor, radiant in the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes for ever! Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory! The risen Savior shines upon you! Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!

  It is truly right
  that with full hearts and minds and voices
  we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father,
  and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
  
  
  For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
  and paid for us the price of Adam’s sin to our eternal Father!
  
  This is our passover feast,
  when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
  whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.
  
  This is the night
  when first you saved our fathers:
  you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
  and led them dry-shod through the sea.
  
  This is the night
  when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin!
  
  This is the night
  when Christians everywhere,
  washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,
  are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.
  
  This is the night
  when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
  and rose triumphant from the grave.
  
  What good would life have been to us,
  had Christ not come as our Redeemer?
  Father, how wonderful your care for us!
  How boundless your merciful love!
  To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.
  
  O happy fault,
  O necessary sin of Adam,
  which gained for us so great a Redeemer!
  
  
  Most blessed of all nights,
  chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!
  
  
  Of this night scripture says:
  “The night will be as clear as day:
  it will become my light, my joy.”
  
  The power of this holy night dispels all evil,
  washes guilt away, restores lost innocence,
  brings mourners joy;
  it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
  and humbles earthly pride.
  
  Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth
  and man is reconciled with God!

  Accept this Easter candle,
  a flame divided but undimmed,
  a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.
  Let it mingle with the lights of heaven
  and continue bravely burning
  to dispel the darkness of this night!

  May the Morning Star which never sets
  find this flame still burning:
  Christ, that Morning Star,
  who came back from the dead,
  and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
  your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
  Amen.

  • 9:24 pm
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