PALM SUNDAY

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PRESENTATION OF EASTER!
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ARISE, MY LOVE

• Not a word was heard
• At the tomb that day,
• Just shuffling soldiers feet
• As they guarded the grave.
• One day, two days, three days had passed.
• Could it be that Jesus
• Breathed His Last?
• Could it be that His Father
• Had forsaken Him?

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• Turned His back on His Son
• Despising our sin?
• All hell seemed to whisper
• Just forget Him, Hes dead.
• Then the Father looked down
• To His Son and said

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CHORUS

• Arise, My Love, arise, My Love!
• The grave no longer
• Has a hold on You.
• No more deaths sting,
• No more suffering.
• Arise, arise, My Love!

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• The earth trembled
• And the tomb began to shake,
• And like lightning from heaven
• The stone was rolled away.
• And as dead men, the guards,
• They all stood there in fright,
• As the power of love
• Displayed its might.

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• Then suddenly a melody
• Filled the air,
• Riding wings of wind
• It was everywhere.
• The words all creation
• Had been longing to hear,
• The sweet sound of victory
• So loud and clear

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CHORUS

• Arise, My Love, arise, My Love!
• The grave no longer
• Has a hold on You.
• No more deaths sting,
• No more suffering.
• Arise, arise, My Love!

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• Sin where are your shackles?
• Death, where is your sting?
• Hell has been defeated.
• The grave could not hold the King.

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CHORUS

• Arise, My Love, arise, My Love!
• The grave no longer
• Has a hold on You.
• No more deaths sting,
• No more suffering.
• Arise, arise, My Love!

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SO, THIS IS EASTER!

• ALLELUIA, HE IS RISEN, ALLELUIA!

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OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

• 1. CHRISTIAN ORIGINS of EASTER
• 2. EASTER SUNDAY
• 3. READINGS
• 4. SUMMARY

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1. THE CHRISTIAN ORIGINS OF EASTER

• Overview
• Origins of the name Easter
• Judeo-Christian origins of Easter
• How the date of Easter is determined
• When was the date of the first Easter?
• The Christian Liturgical Calendar
• Easter Traditions

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Overview

• Forty-day penitential season of Lent
• Holy Week
• Octave of Easter
• Modern-day Easter is derived from two ancient
  traditions one Judeo-Christian and the other
  pagan.
• Most religious historians believe that many
  elements of the Christian observance of Easter
  were derived from earlier pagan celebrations.

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Origins of the name "Easter"

• Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre).
  She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon
  people in Northern Europe.
• The name given by the Frankish Church to Jesus'
  resurrection festival included the Latin word
  "alba" which means "white." "Alba" also has a
  second meaning "sunrise." When translated to
  German, the "sunrise" meaning was selected in
  error.
• This became "ostern" in German. Ostern has been
  proposed as the origin of the word "Easter". 

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Judeo-Christian origins of Easter

• The Christian celebration of Easter is linked to
  the Jewish celebration of the Passover.
• Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were
  observed by the ancient Israelites early in each
  new year. (The Jewish people followed the
  Persian/Babylonian calendar and started each year
  with the Spring Equinox circa March 21)
• "Equinox" means "equal night." On that date of
  the year, the night and day are approximately
  equal.

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How the date of Easter is determined

• Easter Sunday falls on the first Sunday after the
  first full moon after March 20, the nominal date
  of the Spring Equinox.
• Many sources incorrectly state that the starting
  date of the calculation is the actual day of the
  Equinox rather than the nominal date of March 20.
• Other sources use an incorrect reference date of
  March 21.

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How the date of Easter is determined(cont)

• Some dates related to Easter are celebrated on
  the following dates by the Roman Catholic and
  Protestant churches.
• Year Ash Wednesday Easter Sunday Ascension
  Pentecost
• 2002 Feb-13 Mar-31 May-9
  May-19
• 2003 Mar-5 Apr-20 May-29
  Jun-8
• 2004 Feb-25 Apr-11 May-20
  May-30
• 2005 Feb- 9 Mar-27 May-5
  May-15
• 2006 Mar-1 Apr-16 May-25
  Jun-4

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When was the date of the first Easter?

• Passover was the most important feast of the
  Jewish calendar, celebrated at the first full
  moon after the Vernal Equinox. (The Equinox
  typically occurs on March 20, 21 or 22 according
  to our present calendar)
• The Gospels differ on the date of Jesus'
  execution.

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The Christian Liturgical Calendar

• Lent
• Ash Wednesday
• Holy Week
• Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday
• Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday,
  Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday
• Ascension
• Pentecost

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Easter Traditions

• The Date of Easter
• The Cross
• The Easter Bunny
• The Easter Egg

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2. EASTER SUNDAY

• Perspective
• Our Faith
• Theme and Characteristics
• Paschal Celebration
• The Mass
• Baptism and Renewal of Baptismal Promises
• Living the Paschal Mystery
• Others

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Perspective

• Easter put everything about Jesus into
  perspective.
• Tells us what Good Friday was all about.
• What really happened on Good Friday was not an
  execution but a sacrifice, not a defeat but a
  triumph, not an end but a beginning.
• It was a beginning of a fuller life.
• Jesus rose to a glorified life of perfect
  happiness.

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Our Faith

• They saw and believed This is the testimony
  of the first witnesses, John and Peter and others
  who saw Jesus risen from the dead, and this is
  our Easter faith.
• Joy in the risen Christ should pervade the
  celebration.
• Do we feel the joy the disciples felt in the
  presence of their risen Master?

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Theme and Characteristics

• The paschal mystery, the date and the
  resurrection of Christ is the central theme of
  the Easter cycle.
• Easter celebrated deliverance from the slavery of
  time, sin and death.
• It celebrated the deliverance as already having
  been achieved in Christ and as shared by the
  Church, the Body of Christ.

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Paschal Celebration

• Paschal celebration begins at the Grand Vigil,
  but it continues for fifty days, of which Easter
  Sunday is the first.
• The day stresses the presence of the risen Jesus
  among his own, leading us to the fullness of
  faith. Renewal of baptismal promise.
• It also brings the Holy Triduum to a close.

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The Mass

• Easter Sunday is really the continuation of the
  season inaugurated at the Easter Vigil and flows
  from it.
• If the Easter Vigil Mass was like an earthquake
  that sends out shock waves, then the resurrection
  event reverberates most strongly on Easter
  Sunday, then throughout the fifty days of the
  Easter seasons (Paschal Time).
• The shock waves reach every Sunday of the year
  and every Mass on weekdays.

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Baptism and Renewal of Baptismal Promises

• Easter Sunday is an ideal time to celebrate
  baptism.
• Renewal of baptismal promises gives us
• the opportunity for welcoming God who wants to
  live in us through our full and free commitment.

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Living the paschal mystery

• The Church does not limit her celebration of her
  Lords resurrection to Easter Sunday but
  continues it until the day when the Lord sends
  his Spirit.
• The reason for this unbroken celebration is that
  Pentecost marks the full impact of salvation on
  the world, and the outpouring of Gods life upon
  us.

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Others

• Adult neophytes will return on Sunday morning to
  share the Eucharist with the wider parish
  community.
• For some people, Easter morning is the occasion
  of an infrequent visit to the church, and the
  Eucharist of Easter day is an opportunity to hear
  the gospel anew.
• Others will return after the Vigil for another,
  and in their mind a more traditional, Easter
  celebration.

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Others (Cont)

• For regular churchgoers, the great vigil had no
  place in their devotional background. The
  Eucharist on Easter morning is for them the
  primary celebration of the major Christian
  festival.
• Some will simply be unable to attend the Vigil
  and wish to worship on Easter morning.
• All need to feel that something important is
  happening, that the Church is celebrating the
  resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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3. READINGS

• 1st Reading Acts 1034 37-43
• 2nd Reading Colossians 31-4
• Gospel John 20 1-9

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1st ReadingActs 103437-43

• You knowwhich was proclaimed
• anointed with the Holy Spirit
• andpower
• God was with him
• hanging him on a tree
• God raise himthird day

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1st ReadingActs 103437-43 (Cont)

• not to allwitnesses
• and drank with him
• to preach to the people
• judge of the living and the dead
• prophetswitness
• through his name

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2nd Reading Colossians31-4

• If you have been raised.Christ
• Set your mindthings above
• where Christ is seated
• not on things that are on earth
• you have diedyour lifeChrist
• When Christappears
• you also be appear.glory

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GOSPEL John 201-9

• first day of the week
• Mary Magdalene
• stone had been moved away
• They have taken the Lord
• Peter and the other disciple
• He saw and believed
• as yet they did not understand

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4. SUMMARY

• Easter requires more of us than the repetition of
  the paschal mystery.
• We are being challenged to move beyond an
  intellectual witnessing and to live the
  resurrection in our daily life.
• It is a slow maturing process of dying and rising
  with Jesus Christ.
• We must encounter him in our own lives.
• How would we describe our daily lives?

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4. SUMMARY (Cont)

• Do we grasp the trophies and ideologies of this
  world that promise security and peace?
• Do we place our ultimate concern only in the
  rewards of the world?
• Do we hold back and play safe when it comes to
  our relationship with the Father?
• As long as we continue to love with our heart set
  on the things above, we will be Christs
  witnesses in Spirit and Truth!  

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SOME QUOTES

• The secularized version negates the Gospel
• The Resurrection should really be understood as
  a metaphor for renewal rather than a historical
  event. Resurrection as a metaphor, Easter as a
  time of renewal in the broadest sense, simply
  proposes that there are occasions, when people
  should together stop and think about where they
  and their communities are heading.
• Easters relevance, in The Sydney Morning
  Herald, April 2, 1999

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SOME QUOTES

• The Resurrection is interior to the Cross (St
  John of the Cross)our rising takes place in the
  midst of our suffering. It is not that we go
  through suffering waiting for the resurrection to
  happen in our lives rather we experience the
  Resurrection of Jesus right in the center of our
  pain and suffering. That is why the saints could
  rejoice in their suffering which unites them to
  Christ and thereby to his cross, which is always
  joined to his resurrection. Our suffering is
  redeemed by the Resurrection of Jesus, whose own
  suffering and death carried the seeds of the
  Resurrection inside them. 
• Murray Bodo, The Way of St Francis.

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SOME QUOTES

• Resurrection can become for each of us a daily
  experience. Every slight pain, every small
  anxiety, misunderstandings, disappointments and
  lifes contradictions all of these are
  experiences of little deaths. Our daily hurts and
  every one of them, have within them the joy of
  resurrection. 
• Basil Hume, To be a Pilgrim, 97

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HAPPY EASTER!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION!