Christ is risen! Alleluia! After “fasting” from the acclamation “alleluia” for the whole of Lent, we return to it with a vengeance at Easter. We will hear it resounding in Handel’s famous chorus from “Messiah” at our sung Easter liturgies, and we will proclaim it constantly throughout the Easter season, which lasts until Pentecost, slightly longer even than Lent. Another powerful reminder of the presence of the risen Christ among us is the Paschal candle, lit from the Easter fire during the Vigil ceremony and given pride of place on the sanctuary throughout the Easter season.
The new life that we associate with Easter is experienced particularly by those who will be baptised - at the Vigil ceremony and during the Paschal season. Throughout the Easter Octave, the first Eucharistic Prayer includes a daily prayer for the newly-baptised - for Rana, Amber and Juliet. It is this: “graciously accept this oblation of our service, that of your whole family, which we make to you also for those to whom you have been pleased to give the new birth of water and the Holy Spirit, granting them forgiveness of all their sins.” In this prayer, we could also remember Oliver, who will be received into the Catholic Church and confirmed during the Easter Vigil, and Jemima, who is to be received and confirmed later in the Easter season.
Outside the Church, many people believe that Easter is over as soon as they return to work, on the Tuesday after Easter. In the Church, though, we know that Easter “day” lasts for a whole week, known as the Octave of Easter, and then the season of Easter lasts for a further six weeks. Every day during the Octave is treated as if it were still Easter “day”. We say in the Preface, “on this day [we] laud you yet more gloriously, when Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.” And each day during the Octave, there is a double “alleluia” both in the dismissal at the end of Mass, and in the people’s response. On the Friday of the Easter Octave, we need not abstain from meat.
The Easter Octave displaces any feasts that may otherwise have fallen during that week. In other circumstances, we might have celebrated Saint Anselm of Canterbury on 21 April and Saint Mark the Evangelist on 25 April. Both of these feasts are displaced entirely this year. The feast of Saint George, patron of England, ranks as a solemnity in this country, and for that reason it is transferred from Wednesday 23 April to the nearest available date after the end of the Octave, namely Monday 28 April.
It was on 21 April in 2018 that the Holy Father received the community of the English College in Rome for an Audience in the Apostolic Palace. His baptismal name is George, of course, so I took the opportunity to wish him a happy feast-day, a couple of days in advance. He commented that there had been a move some sixty years ago to take Saint George out of the calendar, but that it was the English who had “saved” him! There was a grateful twinkle in his eye.
On the feast of Saint George in 2021, as the English College community was emerging from Covid restrictions, we invited Cardinal George Pell to celebrate and preach for us, as it was his name-day and our patronal feast. When pointing out to our distinguished guest the 17th-century ceiling fresco of Saint George in the College refectory, I claimed that it had been painted in his honour, but I don’t think I was believed!
Monday 21 April is a Bank Holiday, and as is usual on such days, there will be just one Mass celebrated at St James’s, at 10am, after which the church will be closed for the rest of the day.
Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make our Easter ceremonies so beautiful and so memorable. Thanks to the musicians, the altar servers, the readers, the M.C., the sacristan, those whose feet were washed, those who serve refreshments in the Social Centre after the 10.30 Mass, those who staff the Repository and everyone who helped to arrange the marvellous flowers that decorate the altar of repose on Holy Thursday and the main sanctuary on Easter Sunday. Every year a huge effort goes into making these beautiful ceremonies so dignified, and that effort is very much appreciated.
Next Sunday is kept as Divine Mercy Sunday, because the Gospel proclaimed on that day, from Chapter 20 of Saint John’s Gospel, is considered the moment of institution of the sacrament of reconciliation, or Confession. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld”. Devotions associated with Saint Faustina Kowalska will be held at Saint James’s Church from 2pm to 4pm and will lead into the 4pm Mass celebrated once again by Monsignor Keith Barltrop, parish priest of Saint Mary of the Angels in Bayswater. There will be opportunity for Confession during the devotions.
This same 4pm Mass on Sunday 27 April will see the return of the children’s liturgy in the Social Centre beneath the church. First Holy Communion classes start up again on 26 April. The monthly Mass with the Young Adults takes place at noon on Sunday 27 April.
As Easter this year is later than usual, we are already well into spring and the weather is better than it often is when we emerge from Lent. Father John and I wish all our parishioners a joyful and blessed Easter season.