Easter Sunday: This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad!

As at Christmas, the station is made at Saint Mary Major, on this greatest feast of the whole year. The Church never separates Jesus and Mary, and today, in one and the same triumph, she honors the Mother and the Son.

Before all else, the Risen Christ offers the homage of His gratitude to His Father in Heaven (Introit). In her turn the Church gives thanks to God inasmuch as by the victory of His Son, He has reopened the way to Heaven, and implores Him to assist us that we may attain this, our final goal (Collect).

For this, Saint Paul tells us, just as the Jews eat the Paschal Lamb with unleavened bread, so we must feast on the Lamb of God, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (Epistle and Communion), that is free from the leaven of sin.

In the Gospel and the Offertory we read of the coming of the holy women to the sepulcher to embalm our Lord. They find an empty tomb but an angel proclaims to them the great mystery of the Resurrection. Let us joyfully keep this day on which our Lord has restored life to us in His own rising from the dead (Easter Preface), and affirm with the Church that "the Lord is risen indeed", and like Him, make our Easter a passing to an entirely new way of life.

Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum, alleluia: posuisti super me manum tuam, alleluia: mirabilis facta est scientia tua, alleluia, alleluia – I arose, and am still with Thee, alleluia: Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me, alleluia: Thy knowledge is become wonderful, alleluia, alleluia.

(Psalm 138, from the Introit of Mass)