EASTER SATURDAY; SAINT PETER CANISIUS (1579 A.D.)

EASTER SATURDAY

[Commemoration]

SAINT PETER CANISIUS
Confessor and Doctor of the Church

DOUBLE / WHITE
 The life of a baptized Christian must exemplify sincerity, honesty, and charity. Such basic character is necessary for the sublime "new creature" who is born through the Sacrament of Baptism. Though not given the distinctive power to consecrate and absolve, every baptized person shares in a very real way in the priesthood of Christ through membership in Christ. This royal dignity empowers the Christian to receive all the other sacraments, and especially to offer the Mass through the hands of the priest-celebrant.

INTROIT Ps. 104:43
The Lord led forth His people with joy, alleluia! and His chosen ones with rejoicing, alleluia, alleluia!
Ps. 104:1. Praise the Lord and invoke His name; make His deeds known among the nations.
V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
We pray, Almighty God, that our reverent celebration of the Easter Feast may win for us the joys of eternal life. Through Our Lord . . .

  
Commemoration of SAINT PETER CANISIUS 
Peter Canisius (1521-97) was drawn to the Society of Jesus by the preaching of Bl. Peter Faber, the first disciple of St. Ignatius. Peter Canisius realized that in the Germany where Luther had recently been preaching heresy, many Catholics had no clear knowledge of their religion. He wrote a catechism that was of incomparable value to the heroic missioners of the Catholic Counter Reformation. He was a pioneer of the Catholic press, and founder of many Catholic colleges in Germany, Austria, and Bohemia.

O God, You made the blessed confessor Peter a bulwark of virtue and learning in the defense of the Catholic Faith. May his example and teaching lead the erring back to the path of salvation and strengthen the faithful in bearing witness to the truth. Through Our Lord . . . 


EPISTLE I Peter 2:1-10.
Beloved: Wherefore laying away all malice and all guile and dissimulations and envies and all detractions, As newborn babes, desire the rational milk without guile, that thereby you may grow unto salvation: If so be you have tasted that the Lord is sweet. Unto whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men but chosen and made honourable by God: Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore it is said in the scripture: "Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious. And he that shall believe in him shall not be confounded." To you therefore that believe, he is honour: but to them that believe not, "the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner:" And, "a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal," to them who stumble at the word, neither do believe, whereunto also they are set. But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: Who in times past were not a people: but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy: but now have obtained mercy.

Alleluia, alleluia. V. Ps. 117:24
This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Alleluia!
V. Ps. 112:1. Praise the Lord, you His servants, praise the name of the Lord.

SEQUENCE
May you praise the Paschal Victim,
immolated for Christians.
The Lamb redeemed the sheep:
Christ, the innocent one,
has reconciled sinners to the Father.

A wonderful duel to behold,
as death and life struggle:
The Prince of life dead,
now reigns alive.
Tell us, Mary Magdalen,
what did you see in the way?

"I saw the sepulchre of the living Christ,
and I saw the glory of the Resurrected one:
The Angelic witnesses,
the winding cloth, and His garments.
The risen Christ is my hope:
He will go before His own into Galilee."
We know Christ to have risen
truly from the dead:
And thou, victorious King,
have mercy on us.
Amen. Alleluia.

GOSPEL John 20:1-9.
At that time, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalen cometh early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre: and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. She ran therefore and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and saith to them: "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre: and we know not where they have laid him." Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple: and they came to the sepulchre. And they both ran together: and that other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulchre. And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying: but yet he went not in. Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre: and saw the linen cloths lying, And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 117:26-27
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and He has given us light, alleluia, alleluia!

SECRET
May we always be made joyful by this Easter ceremony, O Lord, and may the actual accomplishment of our redemption be a source of endless happiness for us. Through Our Lord . . .


Commemoration of SAINT PETER CANISIUS
May the holy prayer of Saint Peter Canisius, Thy Confessor and Doctor, fail us not, O Lord: may it render our offerings acceptable, and ever obtain for us Thy pardon. Through our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Gal. 3:27
All you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, alleluia!

POSTCOMMUNION
We have come to a new life by Your gift of redemption, O Lord. Let us always be strong in faith through this aid to our eternal salvation. Through Our Lord . . .


Commemoration of SAINT PETER CANISIUS
We beseech Thee, O Lord, that blessed Peter Canisius, Thy Confessor and illustrious Doctor may join his prayers to ours that this Thy Sacrifice may bring us salvation. Through our Lord . . .