Christ is Risen!!!

I love Easter Vigil beginning after sundown, the faithful in the darkened church and the deacon singing Lumen Christi as the Paschal candle is lit and the light spreads! Darkness isn't some thing. It's the absence of light. In candlelight, he chants the Exultet!!! I love all the readings telling the greatest story in the world--I will never tire of all the marvelous things God has done for us. I cannot get through this night without crying because to have personally experienced the saving grace of our Lord Jesus, to remember that I was dead and now I'm alive, cannot be contained. It harkens to an office reading from Holy Sat. “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
 
Msgr. McInerney spoke about the shape of our baptismal promises. Before professing our faith, we must first reject Satan and his works--sin, dysfunction, division. He made a very interesting observation. The greatest obstacle to faith isn't intellectual, rather behavioral. People simply do not want to change their behavior. We cling to those empty promises of the devil.

Matt Maher's song Christ is Risen is a great encouragement.

Let no one caught in sin remain
Inside the lie of inward shame
We fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to Him who showed great love

And bled for us
Freely You've bled for us

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave ...

 

My friends, have a very happy and blessed Easter!!! Here's a link to many of my favorite Easter hymns. It's a marvel to have such good theology in rhyme and song :)