EASTER SUNDAY - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed:
let us celebrate the feast then, in the Lord. 1 COR 5:7-8

ACTS 10:34,37-43

My Soul's Beloved,

I, like Peter and every baptized Catholic, have received the Holy Spirit and power, and I must use that power to make You known and loved. I must witness to the Good News and how it has transformed my life. Amid troubles, You give peace. In sorrow, joy. In anxiety, calm. You, O Lord, by the power of Your glorious Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, remind us of our own destiny. If we die with You we shall live with You. If we live with You we will also reign with You.

Peter, who denied You not once but three times, now filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly testifies to the Good News of salvation. No longer afraid but filled with zeal and fire, he testifies all that he experienced and witnessed as Your disciple. In Your Resurrection, Lord, is our hope, and our hope will not be in vain. For You are someday the redeemed will be.

Peter addressed Cornelius and his household: ‘Now I, and those with me, can witness to everything he did throughout the countryside of Judaea and in Jerusalem itself: and also to the fact that they killed him by hanging him on a tree, yet three days afterwards God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses God had chosen beforehand. Now we are those witnesses – we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead – and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people and to tell them that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or dead. It is to him that all the prophets bear this witness: that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name.’

PSALM 117(118):1-2,16-17,22-23

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love has no end.
Let the sons of Israel say:
‘His love has no end.’

The Lord’s right hand has triumphed;
his right hand raised me up.
I shall not die, I shall live
and recount his deeds.

The stone which the builders rejected
has become the corner stone.
This is the work of the Lord,
a marvel in our eyes.

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

COLOSSIANS 3:1-4

My Soul's Beloved,

Thank You, for the new life I have in You. Thank You, for the Church. Thank You, for the Sacraments that assist me in my pilgrim journey from this life to the next. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, thank You for calling me by name and for assuring me that You have gone ahead to prepare a place for me, so where You are, I too may be eternally.

Thank You, for the hope I have in You, Lord. It enables me to walk with faith through this valley of tears with my gaze fixed on You. The lives of saints who have made the journey before me are witnesses that if we keep our gaze not on the world and wordly things but on heavenly things and strive with the help of the rich graces available to us in the Sacraments, we will at the end of our lives, be with You forever. A life hidden in You, Lord, is a life that is richly blessed. Keep me hidden in Your Sacred Heart and grant that I may be Yours forever.

Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.

JOHN 20:1-9

 

My Soul's Beloved,

You spoke to Your disciples often about Your passion, death, and resurrection, yet when Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb and found the stone moved away from the entrance, instead of immediately recalling Your promise that You would rise on the third day, she thought someone had taken Your Body away. Distraught, she runs to Simon Peter and John to tell them what she had discovered. They, too, instead of remembering that You said You would rise on the third day, also come running to the tomb to discover that all Mary had said was true. 

John reaches the tomb first but waits for Peter to enter before him, and see for themselves the linen cloths lying on the ground, whereas the cloth used to cover Your Head was neatly folded and kept by itself. John says that when he saw this, he believed. Recalling what Scripture said that You would rise from the dead, he finally understood what it meant. Death could not hold You, triumphing over death, You won the victory of sin, death, and hell, and all who believe are saved.

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.