The Roman Missal: Easter Sunday and Easter Week (English) 1

The Masses of Easter Sunday and of the days of Easter Week (Monday to Saturday), in English, as printed in the Rev. F. C. Husenbeth's Missal for the use of the Laity (London, 1853), in the form used from the Council of Trent until the liturgical reform of the 1950s: Introit, Prayer, Epistle or Lesson, Gradual, the Easter Sequence Victimæ paschali, Gospel, Offertory, Secret, Communion and Postcommunion. Low Sunday and the rest of Eastertide are in a later book. This is the English only; the Latin of the chants and psalms is to be added. The words in square brackets are the Missal's own headings and directions. A liturgy of the Catholic Church, not scripture.

1[Easter Sunday.]

2Introit. Ps. cxxxviii. I arose, and am still with thee, alleluia: thou hast laid thy hand upon me, alleluia: thy knowledge is become wonderful, alleluia, alleluia. Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me: thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up. Glory, &c.

3Prayer. Deus qui. O God, who this day didst open to us the approach to eternity by thy only Son victorious over death; prosper our vows by thy grace, which thou dost anticipate by thy inspiration. Through the same Lord, &c.

4Epistle. 1 Cor. v. 7—8. Brethren, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened: for Christ our pasch is sacrificed. Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

5Gradual. This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice therein. Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Alleluia, alleluia. Christ our Pasch is immolated.

6Sequence. Let Christians offer praises to the Paschal victim. The Lamb has redeemed the sheep: Christ who was innocent has reconciled sinners to his Father. Death and life have contended in a wonderful conflict: the leader of life who was dead, reigns alive. Tell us, O Mary, what didst thou see on the way? I saw the sepulchre of Christ who is alive, and the glory of him rising again, Angelical witnesses, his sudarium and burial cloths. Christ my hope is risen: he will go before you into Galilee. We know that Christ arose truly from the dead: do thou, O conqueror and king, have mercy on us. Amen. Alleluia.

7[This Sequence is said every day of Easter Week.]

8Gospel. St Mark xvi. 1—7. At that time, Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they come to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen: and they said one to another, Who shall roll back the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And looking, they saw the stone rolled back: for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe, and they were astonished: who saith to them, Be not affrighted; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he is risen, he is not here; behold the place where they laid him: but go, tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee: there you shall see him, as he told you.

9[Credo.]

10Offertory. The earth trembled and was still, when God arose in judgment. Alleluia.

11Secret. Accept, we beseech thee, O Lord, the prayers of thy people with the oblation of sacrifice; that initiated in the paschal mysteries, by thy operations, it may profit us as a remedy for eternity. Through our Lord, &c.

12[Preface. Te quidem, &c. Communicantes, and Hanc igitur, as in the ordinary of the Mass, page 18, and they are said during the week.]

13Communion. Christ our Pasch is immolated, alleluia: therefore let us feast in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

14Postcom. Spiritum. Pour forth upon us, O Lord, the spirit of thy love, that, by thy mercy, thou mayest make those of one mind whom thou hast fed with the paschal mysteries. Through our Lord, &c.

15[After Dominus vobiscum, the Priest says, Ite, missa est, Alleluia, alleluia, and the Acolythe answers Deo gratias, Alleluia, alleluia. And the same is said till Low Sunday.]