Having completed our 40-day Lenten observance, with its good Confession and penances, we come to the liturgical year’s zenith, Easter Sunday. Without the stark, penitential season of Lent, we do not see the true splendour of Easter. There is an adage among musicians and actors: “Everything is nothing.” That is to say, when the volume is always turned up without variation, after a while we get bored and tune it out. We must fast before we feast so that the feasting is more festive.
The prayers of Holy Mass contain spiritual compasses. The Post Communion prayer for the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo) on Easter Sunday provides a helpful direction: “Perpetuo, Deus, Ecclesiam tuam pio favore tuere, ut, paschalibus renovata mysteriis, ad resurrectionis perveniat claritatem.”
