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And the Mic’d Up:  The REAL Spirit of Vatican II
(Published February 25, 2015)

The principal aim of the Paschal cycle, first of all, is to prepare our hearts and souls for a worthy encounter with the Risen Christ.  We prepare ourselves for this joyful meeting by humble prayer, fasting, penance and meditation on the passion and sufferings of Christ.  This preparation culminates in Easter Confession and Holy Communion  And so, with a pure heart, we go forth to meet the Risen Christ, singing the hymn of victory:  “Christ is risen from the dead, by death He conquered death, and to those in the graves, He granted life.’

The next aim of the Easter cycle is to have us participate in Christ’s joy, victory and trump, for, just as He rose fro the dead, so we too, shall rise to new life.  “For the hour incoming,” says Christ, “in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God.  They they who have done good shall come forth unto resurrect of life; but they who have done evil, undo resurrection of judgement.”  (John 5, 28).

Our re-enacting the Easter cycle is very closely related to the church services of that season.  These services, depending on whether they bear a joyful or penitential character, put our souls in a joyful or penitential mood.  The Easer season teaches us the great and salutary lesson of salvation history, namely, that there is no glorious resurrect without a Calvary; that, like Jesus Christ, we too, must pass through the Golgotha of our life, in order to enter into the joy of the everlasting Easter heaven.

When the Easter cycle ends with Evening Prayer on Pentecost (6/8/2014), the ordinary Sundays begin.  The number of these ordinary Sundays depends upon the date of Easter; that is, if Easter comes earlier then there will be more ordinary Sundays, if later, fewer ordinary Sundays.

Letter #72 from the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, to Mother Cecilia

In Voluntate Dei!

My good and reverend Mother,

(…) Now I feel the need to send you my Easter wishes.  My Mother, what wish can I send you?  I know that crosses surround you; how many times you have to swallow bitter pills, that make your heart bleed.  It seems to me that dear Jesus surrounds you with these pains in order to give you strength, and with tender and loving voice, He says to you:  “My daughter, give these pains to Me, that they may form my arms, my heart, my steps – my whole Life, to be able to live within you.”  My Mother, it is the crosses, the sufferings united to the Divine Volition, that form the raw material in order to receive in us the life of Jesus, Who calls our littleness to live in Him and to rise in Him.

Here is my wish, my Mother:  to rise not only on Easter, but continually in Jesus; so that every pain and each one of our acts, may be the means in order to rise in the One Who loves us so much.  I believe I could not send you a more beautiful wish; and I believe you will appreciate it, more so, under the rain of unheard-of crosses and of profound humiliations.  The storms give no sign of ceasing.  Pray that He will make peace rise again from the storms, otherwise one cannot live.

My sister tells you many things and sends you her affectionate wishes.  In a special way, I send my wishes to Sister Remigia, that she may form her perfect resurrection in the Divine Will, and use every act does in order to grow in sanctity.  We must be convinced that not the great things make us saints, but the little ones, which we have in our power and which serve as the nourishment of sanctity.  I commend myself to your prayers, and leaving you rising together with Jesus, I kiss your right hand and with a thousand regards, united to my sister, I say,

Historically, the Paschal or Easter cycle began to develop much earlier than the Christmas cycle, because the feast of the Pasch was in practice earlier than the feast of the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas).  With the Easter cycle, we shall begin a more detailed explanation of the Liturgical Year.

The Easter cycle begins with the Sunday ten weeks before Easter, and terminates eight weeks after Easter.  The Easter cycle is divided into pre-paschal, i.e., the season or period before Easter, and the Easter season.  The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (March 5, 2014), and ends with the Celebration of the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday (April 17, 2014).

The Paschal Triduum begins on Holy Thursday with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper (April 17, 2014), and ends with Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday (April 20, 2014).

The Easter Season begins on Easter Sunday (April 20, 2014), and ends with Evening Prayer on the Solemnity of Pentecost (Sunday, June 8, 201).

Ordinary Time begins after Evening Prayer on the Solemnity of Pentecost (June 8, 2014) and continues until Evening Prayer of the First Sunday of Advent (November 30, 2014).

One who closely follows the Liturgical Year of our Church will readily perceive, that she re-lives each festal event in a deeply spiritual manner.  This may be observed in our feastday services which, with their profound prayers, songs, hymns and symbolic rites, place before our eyes both the factual content and the deep theology of each feast.  Therefore, it should not surprise us that the feastday services impress us so strongly and stir us to the depths of our souls.  This is why the Church diligently prepares the faithful spiritually, psychologically and physically for every feast.  Therefore the greater the feast, the greater and longer is the preparation for it, and the longer is the post-festal celebration.

This is why the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, which is the greatest feast in the Year, requires an extraordinarily long preparation as well as a long post-festal celebration which is, as it were, a prolongation of the feast of Easter.

1. The Priest Goes to the altar – Christ Goes to Mount Olivet.
2 The Priest Commences Mass – Christ Begins to pray.
3 The Priest Says Confiteor – Christ Falls down and sweats blood.
4 The Priest Goes up and kisses the altar – Christ Is betrayed by Judas with a kiss.
5 The Priest Goes to the Epistle side – Christ Is captured, bound, and taken to Annas
6 The Priest Reads the Introit – Christ Is falsely accused by Annas and blasphemed.
7 The Priest Goes to the middle of the altar and says the Kyrie eleison – Christ Is brought to Caiphas and there three times denied by Peter.
8 The Priest Says the Dominus vobiscum – Christ Looks at Peter and converts him.
9 The Priest Reads the Epistle – Christ Is brought to Pilate.
10 The Priest Says the Munda cor meum at the middle of the altar – Christ Is taken to Herod and mocked.
11 The Priest Reads the Gospel – Christ Is taken back to Pilate and again mocked.
12 The Priest Uncovers the chalice – Christ Is shamefully exposed.
13 The Priest Offers bread and wine – Christ Is cruelly scourged.
14 The PriestCovers the chalice – Christ Is crowned with thorns.
15 The Priest Washes his hands – Christ Is declared innocent by Pilate.
16 The Priest Says the Orate Fratres – Christ Is shown by Pilate to the people with the words, Ecce Homo.
17 The Priest Prays in a low voice – Christ Is mocked and spit upon.
18 The Priest Says the Preface and the Sanctus – Christ Is preferred instead of Barrabas and condemned to crucifixion.
19 The Priest Makes the Memento for the living – Christ Carries the cross to Mount Calvary.
20 The Priest Continues to pray the Canon in a low voice – Christ Meets His Mother and the other pious women.
21 The Priest Blesses the bread and wine with the sign of the cross – Christ Is nailed to the cross.
22 The Priest Elevates the Sacred Host – Christ Is raised on the cross.
23 The Priest Elevates the chalice – Christ Sheds blood from the five wounds.
24 The Priest Prays in a low voice – Christ Sees His afflicted Mother at the cross.
25 The Priest Says aloud, Nobis queque peccatoribus – Christ Prays on the cross for men.
26 The Priest Says aloud the Pater noster – Christ Says the seven last words on the cross.
27 The Priest Breaks and separates the Host – Christ Gives up His spirit and dies.
28 The Priest Lets a small portion of the sacred Host fall into the chalice – Christ His soul descends to Limbo.
29 The Priest Says the Agnus Dei – Christ Is acknowledged on the cross as the Son of God by many bystanders.
30 The Priest Administers Holy Communion – Christ Is laid in the tomb.
31 The Priest Cleanses the chalice – Christ Is anointed by pious women.32 The Priest Prepares the chalice again – Christ Rises from the dead.
33 The Priest Says the Dominus vobiscum – Christ Appears to His Mother and the disciples.
34 The Priest Says the last prayers – Christ Teaches for forty days.
35 The Priest Says the last Dominus vobiscum – Christ Takes leave of His disciples and ascends to heaven.
36 The Priest Gives the benediction to the people – Christ Sends down the Holy Ghost
37 The Priest Says the Ita Missa est and the last Gospel – Christ Sends the apostles into all parts of the world to preach the Gospel.

Excerpt from the Seventh Hour: From 11 PM to Midnight

But I already hear the clamor of Your enemies, who are coming to take You. Who will defend You in Your state? But here You are, stirring Yourself as though rising again from death to life, looking at me, and saying to me, “O soul, are you here? Have you then been spectator of My pains and of the so many deaths I suffered? Know that in these three hours of most bitter agony in the Garden, I enclosed in Myself all the lives of the creatures, and I suffered all of their pains, and their very death, giving My own Life to each one of them. My agonies will sustain theirs; My bitternesses and My death will turn into a fount of sweetness and Life for them. How much souls cost Me! Were I at least requited! You have seen that while I was dying, I would return to breathe again, those were the deaths of the creatures that I felt within Me!”

My panting Jesus, since You also wanted to enclose my life in You, and therefore also my death, I pray You, for this most bitter agony of Yours, to come to my assistance at the moment of my death. I have given You my heart as refuge and rest, my arms to sustain You, and all of my being at Your disposal; and—O, how gladly I would give myself into the hands of Your enemies, to die in Your place! Come, O Life of my heart, at that moment, to return to me all I have given You: Your Company, Your Heart as bed and rest, Your arms as support, Your labored Breath to alleviate my labors; in such a way that, in breathing, I will breathe through Your Breath which, like purifying air, will purify me of any stain, and will dispose me to enter the Eternal Beatitude.

Even more, my sweet Jesus, then You will give Your very Most Holy Humanity to my soul, so that, in looking at me, You may see me through Yourself; and in looking at Yourself, You may find nothing for which to judge me. Then You will bathe me in Your Blood; You will clothe me with the candid garment of Your Most Holy Will; You will adorn me with Your Love, and giving me the last kiss, You will let me take flight from earth unto Heaven. And what I want for myself, do it for all the agonizing; clasp them all in Your embrace of Love, and giving them the kiss of their union with You, save them all and allow no one to be lost!