Mary Of The Angelus Association

EASTER MONDAY

Acts 2:36-41

The Peter after Pentecost is a different person from the man who denied his Lord three times at the beginning of his Passion and Crucifixion.  What has happened?  Peter makes no bones about telling his audience, the "men of Israel" that they had killed their Messiah.  He also tells them that "God has raised this man Jesus to life, and all of us are witnesses to that".  Even the Pharisees were witnesses to the truth that Jesus had died at the cross.

Peter tells us all, that Jesus "has received from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit".

The change in Peter was a result of that same outpouring of the Spirit; for him and for each one of us.

Keep me safe, O God you are my hope.

Ps. 15(16) 1-2.5. 7-11.

"I keep the Lord ever in my sight: since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm."

The Easter Sequence is a liturgical poem.  It tells us with great joy that "the sheep are ransomed by the Lamb"

Gospel: Matthew 28-8-15

The women had come to the tomb to anoint Jesus' dead body with precious oils for His burial.  Instead, the tomb was empty! "And, there coming to meet them, was Jesus."  What incredible joy they would have experienced!  They had been at the cross.  They had witnessed his dead, broken and tortured body being laid in the tomb before Passover.  Now on the first day of the week, three days later, He fulfilled His promise to them. They had hoped against hope.  Their Lord Jesus was before them, beautiful, whole.  "And the women came up to him, and falling down before him, clasped his feet." 

The joy of the season of the Feast of Easter lasts for fifty days, until the Sunday of Pentecost. It is a time of celebration, and a foretaste of the eternal feast, our destiny, to be spent with Jesus, the Spirit and the Father in heaven.