Easter is the "Feast of feasts", the "Solemnity of solemnities", the "Great Sunday", and the unalloyed joy and gladness of all Christians. Festive solemnity should mark all the Masses celebrated on Easter Sunday, the supreme day of the Christian year.

From the first words of the Preface, the unrivalled motive for our joy is expressed: If it is right to praise You, Lord, at all times, how much more so should we not glorify You on this day when Christ our Passover was sacrificed, for He is the true Lamb who took away the sins of the world, who by His Death destroyed our death and by His Resurrection restored our life.

Easter means, then, Redemption obtained — sin destroyed, death overcome, divine life brought back to us, the resurrection of our body which is promised immortality. With such a certitude, we should banish all trace of sadness.

Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: "This is the day which the Lord has made." Throughout the octave we shall sing of the unequalled joy which throws open eternity to us. Every Sunday will furnish a reminder of it, and from Sunday to Sunday, from year to year, the Easters of this earth will lead us to that blessed day on which Christ has promised that He will come again with glory to take us with Him into the kingdom of His Father.

Collect
O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son,
have conqured death and unlocked for us the path to eternity,
grant we pray, that we who keep the solumnity of the Lord's Ressurection
may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit
rise up in the light of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. AMEN


From the Catholic News Agency: catholicnewsagency.com