kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth

Alleluia, Christ is risen!
He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

A happy and blessed Easter
to everyone.

For a new day has dawned and the way to life stands open

At last we come to the great day of Easter. This is the day we have been building up to throughout the season of Lent, and especially the last few days from Palm Sunday, through Holy Week, to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday to this glorious Easter Day. We can rejoice with Christians through the past twenty centuries, because our Lord and Saviour has broken the chains of death and hell, and risen to a glorious new life.

Today we can look at the world in a fresh light; for a new day has dawned and the way to life stands open.

The Church can be filled with faith and hope; for a new day has dawned and the way to life stands open.

Easter is my favourite season of the Christian year. With Christmas we seem to rush headlong into it, never pausing to draw a breath. But with Easter, we build up to it slowly, we take the time to really prepare for it throughout Lent. And it hasn’t been overtaken by the commercialism and cynicism that haunts the Christmas season. Yes, we have the Chocolate Easter Eggs on sale virtually from Christmas onwards; but there isn’t the same mad spending spree, with people racking up huge debts, that we have at Christmas. There are signs of new life everywhere, at least in this hemisphere, and even when Easter is as early as it is this year.

But, far more importantly than all of that, Easter is also so central to what the Christian faith is all about. Without Easter and the resurrection it symbolises, Christianity is nothing. St Paul tells us: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14). The whole of Christianity rests on this fact, that Christ has defeated the chains of hell and death, and was raised to new life. That is what we are celebrating today, this brand new day that has dawned.

May you know the warmth of Christ’s love this Easter, for a new day has dawned and the way to life stands open.

God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
you have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope;
for a new day has dawned
and the way to life stands open
in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Additional Collect for Easter Day
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Alleluia, Christ is risen!
He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

Bring us out of the prison of our despair

The depths of despair are a terrible place. I thank God daily for bringing me through my own difficult times; and pray that I never go back there. I think the phrase “prison of our despair” is an incredibly apt description of what it feels like.

What must it have been like for those disciples after the crucifixion? They’d had so much hope; hope that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and all the hope that gave them for the future. But, for them, their hopes were dashed by the crucifixion. It’s no wonder they slunk away, tired and defeated people. They didn’t have what we have. They didn’t have Easter Day. The despair they felt must have been terrible. It’s hard enough to lose a loved one, but to lose them to such a barbaric death as crucifixion, to see the one they loved die in so much agony, must have been almost too much to bear. I wonder if they were left with any hope at all, and doubt really that they could have been.

Thank God we do have something the disciples didn’t have that first Good Friday and Holy Saturday; we do have Easter Day.

In the depths of our isolation
we cry to you, Lord God:
give light in our darkness
and bring us out of the prison of our despair;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for Easter Eve
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council