-
The OCTAVE of EASTER:
Scriptures for the Octave and Divine Mercy Sunday
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it, alleluia! (Ps. 118)
With the whole Church we rejoice at the resurrection of Christ! The Church celebrates the Easter season or Eastertide. St. Athanasius said “[t]he fifty days from the Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday are celebrated in joy and exultation as one feast day, indeed as one ‘great Sunday’“ ( General Norms of the Liturgical Calendar), but the first eight days or octave specifically celebrate the solemnity of Easter every day.
SCRIPTURES DURING THE OCTAVE
All throughout the Easter season, the first reading of the Mass is from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Throughout Easter Week we see Peter’s transformation in Christ—Peter is now strong and unafraid. He cannot be kept from preaching about Christ and sharing the Good News. And different stories of the early Church are also read through the Octave how the Risen Jesus changes lives.
The Gospel readings at Masses during the Octave of Easter include passages from the Gospels that relate various appearances of the Risen Jesus. Reflecting on these Gospel texts is a wonderful way to prolong the celebration of Easter. Each day during the Octave, we proclaim in the Gospel Acclamation: This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.
SCRIPTURES for the WEEK...
Monday within the Octave of Easter:
Acts 2: 14, 22-23 / Psalm 16 / Matthew 28: 8-15
Tuesday within the Octave of Easter:
Acts 2: 36-41 / Psalm 33 / John 20: 11-18
Wednesday within the Octave of Easter:
Acts 3: 1-10 / Psalm 105 / Luke 24: 13-35
Thursday within the Octave of Easter:
Acts 3: 11-26 / Psalm 8 / Luke 25: 35-48
Friday within the Octave of Easter:
Acts 4: 1-12 / Psalm 118 / John 21: 1-14
Saturday within the Octave of Easter:
Acts 4: 13-21 / Psalm 118 / Mark 16: 9-15
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY (The Second Sunday of Easter)
Acts 2: 42-47 / Psalm 118 / 1 Peter 1: 3-9 / John 20: 19-31
The Octave of Easter concludes on the Sunday following Easter. In the Jubilee Year of 2000, the year Saint John Paul II declared, when he canonized the religious Sister Faustina Kowalska, that the Sunday after Easter would be called Divine Mercy Sunday, as “Divine Mercy is “the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity… .”
At Mass on the Sunday of Divine Mercy, we hear the Gospel account of our Lord's appearance to the apostles on the night of the first Easter Sunday. When He appeared to them, the Risen Jesus showed them his hands and his side. He showed them his glorious wounds. These wounds reveal the divine mercy.
Through Saint Faustina, our Lord promised an abundance of graces to the faithful who devoutly observe the Sunday of Divine Mercy. Read the story of Saint Faustina’s life here.
The following prayer, from Saint Faustina's diary, seems especially timely:
“Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless, and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.” (Optional closing prayer from the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and from her diary entry, No. 950.)
