The Cathedral Close

At length the worst is over. Loving and reverent disciples have embalmed and buried His lifeless body. The timid have been rendered brave by His crucifixion. Joseph has gone in boldly unto Pilate and begged His body. Nicodemus has brought a large quantity of costly ointment.  St. John and “the Marys” have rendered their assistance.  Though it was but a simple funeral, it was the most solemn burial that has taken place on earth. Meanwhile Jesus had passed with the penitent thief to Paradise.

Prayer

During this Lent I have tried to watch with Him, and to follow Him. May my faults be all buried with Him, and may I be raised in Him from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. As the holy women sought Him in the early morning of that bright Easter Day, so must I seek Him in His Blessed Sacrament.  I pray that He, the living Saviour, who is the Life of His people, may draw me to Himself, and then Himself draw near also to me, to cleanse, to quicken, and to strengthen me by His Presence, by His Body and Blood, that in Him I may live a new life of goodness, cheerfulness, and charity.  Amen.

For the Vigil

All was silent round the tomb of the King. Even the women had long since gone, and nothing now was heard except the step of the Roman soldiers, and the rattle of their weapons, as they paced up and down upon their watch. Suddenly the earth is shaken, the keepers are affrighted and become as dead men, Jesus arises from the dead, the Saviour from sin, the Conqueror of death, and of him that had the power of death, the bonds are burst, and an angel rolls away the stone that His loved ones may see the place where the Lord lay.

“Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” And as by man came death, by man has also now come the resurrection from the dead.

Prayer

Quicken me, O Lord Jesus, that I may walk with Thee in newness of life, and that when I die I may rest in Thee, and so through the grave and gate of death may pass with all Thy saints to a joyful resurrection, through Thy Mercy. Amen.