Parish of the Assumption of Our Lady, Old Harlow, Essex CM17 0HA

​THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY
Old Harlow, Essex CM17 0HA
01279 434203
www.catholicchurchoftheassumption.co.uk
email: [email protected]
Easter Sunday
 
20th April 2025

 
                                       MASS TIMES IN HOLY WEEK

Saturday 19th       11.00 - 12.00   Confession
                             20:00  Easter Vigil in the Holy Night
 
Sunday 20th           10:00 Solemn Mass – Easter Sunday     People of the Parish
 
Please note, there will be no 6pm Mass today
 
                                     
Tuesday 22nd         10:00 Mass – Easter Tuesday                  Vira White – RIP
                                                                                                                          
Wednesday 23rd    10:00 Mass – Easter Wednesday           
                                                                     Rachel Nee Dogley & Raymond Simeon – RIP
 
Sunday 27th           10:00 Solemn Mass – 2nd Sunday of Easter                                 Brian Davis – RIP
                                                                       (Divine Mercy Sunday)
 
                               18:00 Solemn Mass –                                People of the Parish
 
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GOSPEL REFLECTION
 
« Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed »
 

Today, “is the day the LORD has made”: this is the expression of Psalm 118, 24 that we shall be singing throughout Easter time and fills out the celebration of our Christian faith. The Father has resurrected Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, in whom He delights, because He has loved to the point of giving his life for all of us.

Let us live this Easter with plenty of joy. Christ has risen: so let us celebrate it full of joy and love. Death, sin and sadness, have today been defeated by Jesus Christ... and He has opened the doors to a new life, the real life, the life we owe to the grace of the Holy Spirit. Nobody should be sad. Christ is our Peace and our Path forever and ever. Today, He “fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes 22).

The great sign the Gospel gives us today is that Jesus' tomb is empty. We have to look no more among the dead for He who is alive has risen. And his disciples also realize his tomb is empty. They will see him risen later on; experiencing him alive in a wonderful meeting in faith. An empty tomb and apparitions will be the great signs for the believer's faith. The Gospel says: “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed” (Jn 20:8). Through his faith he realizes that the emptiness, the burial cloths, and the cloth that had covered his head rolled up in a separate place, were all signs that God had been there, signs of the new life. Love can see signs where others cannot, and small signs are enough. “The other disciple whom Jesus loved” (Jn 20:2) was led by the love he had received from Christ.

The disciples “saw and believed”; this must also be our aim. Let us renew our paschal faith; that Christ be our Lord in everything we do. Let his Life revitalize ours and let us renew the grace of the baptism we have received; let us become his apostles and disciples; let us be guided by love and announce to all our happiness to believe in Christ; let us be hopeful witnesses of his Resurrection.
 
 
Further thoughts on Today's Gospel

 “This is what should make us measure the strength of love that inflamed the soul of this woman. The disciples went away, but she did not go away from the tomb of the Lord. So it happened that she was then alone to see him, she who remained to look for him. For it is perseverance that gives effectiveness to the good work.” (Saint Gregory the Great)

 “Jesus has not returned to a normal human life in this world like Lazarus and the others whom Jesus raised from the dead. He has entered upon a different life, a new life — the vast breadth of God himself.” (Benedict XVI)

 “The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness. In about A.D. 56 St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians: ‘I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.. ’ (I Cor 15:3-4). The Apostle speaks here of the living tradition of the Resurrection which he had learned after his conversion at the gates of Damascus (Cf. Acts 9:3-18).” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 639)
 
Mons. Joan Enric VIVES i Sicília Bishop of Urgell(Lleida, Spain)
 
Courtesy of Evangeli
 
 
​​                                           www.catholicchurchoftheassumption.co.uk
                                                                       01279 434203

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