Our Paschal Candle for this year is hand-decorated by a small Catholic artist based in Washington state. The primary artwork on the candle depicts the scene of John baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River from Matthew 3.

Today, on Mother's Day, we honor our mothers, but an often-overlooked mother to us all is the bride of Christ: Holy Mother Church. The apostles in their writings routinely likened the relationship between Christ and His Church to that of the groom and his bride. Just as God is the father of creation and exercises His authority over it, the Church, as the bride of Christ and flowing forth from Him, is the mother of creation and exercises her nurturing care and oversight of what has been entrusted to her by Him.

The Easter Proclamation, known as the Exsultet, a beautiful poem which is sung at the start of the Easter Vigil Mass to the praise of the Paschal Candle (a symbol of Christ), contains many references filled with deep theological symbolism, but one in particular stands out as rather odd. This reference is "O certe necessárium Adæ peccátum, quod Christi morte délétum est! O felix culpa, quæ talem ac tantum méruit habére Redemptórem!", often rendered in English as "O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault, that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!".

On this last Monday evening, I attended a Mass at the Newman Center at ASU, celebrated by Bishop Olmsted. This Mass, other than being special because a bishop was there, was special because of the reason that he was there: the blessing and dedication of the church’s new pipe organ.

Why is Easter on a different Sunday each year? It is the most important day in the Church’s calendar (more important than Christmas), yet the day we commemorate our Lord’s Resurrection is not fixed to a particular date like our Lord’s Birth is. Well, Easter follows a lunar, rather than a solar, calendar and is celebrated on the Sunday that follows the first full moon after March 21, the vernal (spring) equinox. Therefore, Easter cannot fall earlier than March 22 or later than April 25.

Let all Pious men and all lovers of God rejoice in the splendor of this feast; let the wise servants blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord; let those who have borne the burden of Lent now receive their pay, and those who have toiled since the first hour, let them now receive their due reward. Let any who came after the third hour be grateful to join in the feast, and those who may have come after the sixth, let them not be afraid of being too late.

Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh, and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh, and hell trembles with fear.