This Sunday, Easter Sunday, is celebrated as a ‘Solemnity with Octave’ that finishes on the Second Sunday of Easter.
In the letter on the preparation and celebration of the Easter feasts given by the Congregation for Divine Worship, it says: “The celebration of Easter is prolonged throughout the Easter season. The fifty days from Easter Sunday. to Pentecost Sunday are celebrated as one feast day, the ‘great Sunday’.
The Sundays of this season are regarded as Sundays of Easter and are so termed; they have precedence over all feasts of the Lord and over all solemnities. Solemnities that fall on one of these Sundays are anticipated on the Saturday…This sacred period of fifty days concludes with Pentecost Sunday, when the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, the beginning of the Church, and the start of its mission to all tongues and peoples and nations are commemorated.”
May we keep the Easter spirit alive in our hearts as we journey through the season. As we do so this year, we will be celebrating the Sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist (First Holy Communion) beginning with Confirmation on April 30th. Please keep all those preparing to receive these sacraments in your prayers.
The clergy of the parish wish to thank all who helped in any way during Holy Week and through the Easter Triduum to prepare and celebrate the liturgies in Holy Rosary and in Ballintotis and we wish all our parishioners and their loved ones, wherever in the world they may be, a very happy and peaceful Easter.