Why Attend the Easter Vigil?

CatholicMom.com ^ | March 24, 2013 | Deanna Bartalini

[Salvation]

 Why Attend the Easter Vigil?

 

By Deanna Bartalini - Posted on March 24, 2013

Why Attend the Easter Vigil?

For many years I avoided the Easter Vigil like you avoid people who have a stomach virus.  At some point in my career as a parish minister I needed to attend.  I was not really looking forward to it.  I had heard it was very long, with many readings and a long homily.  At that time I worked at our diocese’s Cathedral but even the thought of celebrating Easter with the Bishop did not tempt me.  But duty called and so off I went.

What an amazing experience it was to attend the Easter Vigil.  Yes, it was a bit longer than a usual Mass but containing such beauty and richness that when it was over I thought truly heaven and earth had met that night.

I ask you to consider attending the Easter Vigil at your parish this year.  It is especially important to do so if your parish has people who have gone through the RCIA process and are being baptized or being received into full communion with the Catholic Church.  It is your opportunity to welcome them to the family in a very visible and tangible way.  These folks may not know you or even remember you were there, but they will remember the presence of the community.

The liturgy at the Easter Vigil is full of sacramentals and sacraments; all the signs and symbols of our faith are there to lift our hearts and minds to worship.  There is fire, candlelight, water, incense, readings from the Old and New Testament to remind us of God’s plan of salvation, bread, and wine.  We possibly can celebrate three sacraments tonight, Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist with those coming into the Church.  No matter what though, we celebrate the Eucharist for the first time since Holy Thursday, bread and wine become Jesus’ Body and Blood; the tabernacle filled,  the sanctuary lamp lit to remind us again that Jesus is present.

You will not regret attending the Easter Vigil.  Go to be part of the community that welcomes its’ new members into the Catholic Church. Go to get a glimpse of heaven on earth.  Go to celebrate the Resurrection.

[Salvation]

A truly beautiful experience.

Plan to attend tonight!

[Salvation]

Easter Vigil Ping!

[Joe 6-pack]

I'll be there tonight as well, dragging along my Baptist friend who came with me last year...

I could see the veins pulsing in his temples a bit during the Litany of the Saints, but he also remarked on what a beautiful service it was afterwards...and he's coming back with me this year :-)

[Salvation]

Why Attend the Easter Vigil?
The RCIA Process -- The Rite of Acceptance
RITE OF ELECTION OF CATECHUMENS
Catholic Biblical Apologetics: The Process of Christian Initiation

How Does a Person Become a Catholic? [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: The RCIA Inquiry Stage In the Catholic Church [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: A Strong Start in the Faith: The Catholic RCIA Stages [Ecumenical]
Lutheran Wife has questions before joining Catholic Church
Belleville Bishop Braxton in Brouhaha with his priests (title mine)
A Ramble through My "New Catholic" Wish List {RCIA referenced]
Help with RCIA (Vanity)
Catholic Liturgy - Funeral Masses for a Suicide And More on Confession for RCIA Candidates
Confession for RCIA Candidates And More on the Prayer of the Faithful
RCIA and Holy Saturday

[Salvation]

Good news. What an evangelizer you are!

[Joe 6-pack]

I subscribe to the St. Francis of Assissi school of evangelization...Preach the Gospel always. When necessary, use words.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Will be singing in our Parish choir tonight and on Sunday morning, it will be the first one for our new pastor Fr. Ben should be great!

[Cicero]

I attended it for many years, and sang in the choir. But regretably I haven’t gone recently because it IS so very long. I think it would be possible to keep all the beauty while cutting back on the time a little. We have family here for Easter weekend, not all of whom go to church, and I don’t like to abandon them for almost the entire evening.

[Tax-chick]

I haven’t been in a parish that celebrated the full Easter Vigil, with all the Old Testament readings and psalms, since we moved from San Antonio in 1995. (We spent our last night there at the Easter Vigil.)

[Salvation]

At our parish we read only three of the OT readings. Always chosen by the priest.

[Salvation]

What a memory! Were you singing in the choir then?

[reagandemocrat]

After 28 years of marriage, my wife said she wanted to become Catholic, and asked me to be her sponsor. She went through RCIA seven years ago and her Easter Vigil was by far the most blessed day our family ever experienced.

We have not missed an Easter Vigil since.

Vivat Jesus.

[Salvation]

Tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. That is happening in my church this year. A long-time Catholic lady (probably in her late sixties) has her husband, a doctor, converting to the Catholic fatih.

[Salvation]

Why Attend the Easter Vigil?
The buzz on the new "Exultet": here come the bees! [Catholic Caucus]
Faith is the true ‘enlightenment,’ Pope says at Easter Vigil (1 American among those baptized)
THE EXULTET: Liturgical Treasure of the Easter Vigil
Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection: The Easter Vigil
The Sacraments of Initiation and Christian Life [Easter Vigil]

The Easter Vigil
New Catholics ‘ on fire’ for faith
New Catholics bring varied lives to the church of Oregon (850 converts)
Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil)
The Exultet
The Dark before Dawn
Easter and the Holy Eucharist(Catholic/Orthodox Caucus)
Easter Day and Easter Season
THE EASTER LITURGY [Easter Vigil] (Anglican and Catholic Rites)
Holy Saturday and the Easter Vigil
Poles visit symbolic Christ's Graves on Holy Saturday
Easter Vigil tonight
HOMILIES PREACHED BY FATHER ALTIER FOR EASTER VIGIL FROM 2002-2005
2 Paschal Candles; Lights On at Vigil And More on Washing of the Feet
RCIA and Holy Saturday

[Cicero]

Yes, that makes sense. I read that the new Pope reduced one of the services this Holy Week, presumably for similar reasons. You want the congregation to be glad they are there, not to be itching to leave.

For whatever reason, our priest at my present parish seems to enjoy taking as long as possible over everything. Whatever he intends by that, I don’t think it has the intended result—it just makes people long to get out the door. That’s definitely not what you want.

[pbear8]

There are 3 which are mandated to be read the other 4 may be read.

[Tax-chick]

Yes, and Anoreth, who was 4, was sitting beside me the entire time in her little Easter outfit. (DP kept having to take Bill, who was 1, outside.) It wrapped up about 3:00, we got a couple hours sleep at our landlord’s house, and hit the road that Easter morning for Oklahoma City. It was sad.

This year is our 20th anniversary in the Catholic Church. Anoreth is 22 now, and little Billy, as was, is 19.

[Salvation]

Gen. 22:1-18
Ex. 14:15 - 15:1
Is. 55:1 - 11
amd the Epistle from Romans

Are these the mandated ones?

[pbear8]

I checked and at least 3 from the OT are read, Ex14 must be read but the others may be chosen from the 7 OT readings. I thought for years that Creation must be read but I guess not.

[Biggirl]

It is as my parish pastor has said, “the mother of all the vigils”.