Saturday, April 6 : Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Christ has been raised from the dead: you also, arise! … It is the Day of the Resurrection, and this beginning of a new world has good auspices! Let us then keep the feast with joy: let us embrace one another with the kiss of peace!… Yesterday the Lamb was slain… and Egypt bewailed her firstborn… but we were protected by a precious blood. Today we have clean escaped from Egypt and from Pharaoh, that cruel tyrant… We have been delivered from our servitude and there is none to hinder us from keeping the feast of our exodus in honor of our God or from celebrating that feast, “not with the old leaven… but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”… Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I am glorified with him; yesterday I died with him; today I live again with him; yesterday I was buried with Christ; today I rise with him. So let us bring our offerings to him who suffered and rose again for us… Let us offer ourselves, the possession most precious to God, and most fitting. Let us give back to the image of God within us the beauty that belongs to this image. Let us recognize our dignity; let us honor our archetype. Let us know the power of the mystery, and for what Christ died. Let us make ourselves like Christ since he made himself like us; let us become God through him since he became man for our sake. He assumed the worse that he might give us the better; he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich; he took upon himself the form of a servant that we might receive back our liberty; he came down that we might be exalted; he was tempted that we might conquer; he was dishonored that he might glorify us; he died that he might save us; he ascended that he might draw us to himself who were lying in sin. Let us give all, offer all that we are to him who gave himself as a ransom for us. Conscious of the Easter mystery we can do nothing better than offer ourselves by becoming for Christ all that he became for us. (Biblical references: Ex 12 ; Ex 5:2 ; 1Cor 5:8 ; Gn 1:26 ; 2Cor 8:9 ; Phil 2:7)

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team